please empty your brain below
No need to worry about the Beck's. It's never been something to write home about in the great scheme of things, but it's been pretty poor ever since InBev started brewing it in the UK (Luton I think, to be more specific) some time within the last couple of years. It's not a patch on the German brewed product, even without the strength having dropped to 4.8% abv to boost InBev's profits: the 'real' Beck's is still 5.0% abv but it's not available on the UK high street.

David Southgate | 28.02.16 - 1:10 a.m. | #

Count 9 may be a lot lower in future years if the Holborn experiment becomes more widespread.
[link]

whiff | 28.02.16 - 6:37 a.m. | #

Do you have a will? Is it possible to reveal the subject of the mystery count in it, along with the passwords to this blog, and instructions that your executor will inherit your entire collection of Radio Times if they will kindly enlighten us, in case you die and we never get to find out what it is?

Antipodean | 28.02.16 - 7:09 a.m. | #

There are 3 sorts of people: those that can count and those that cannot!

Nick | 28.02.16 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Perhaps your mystery count could be the number of mentions of bus stop M!

Rob | 28.02.16 - 8:50 a.m. | #

The second part of the Count is as interesting as the first,DG. Well done! As for the mystery count,it will always be more intriguing to leave it as a mystery 😉

Jo W | 28.02.16 - 9:35 a.m. | #

does your smartphone app record your movement at home, ie when you might not be carrying the phone? I've started wearing my (very basic model) pedometer at home and I usually clock 2000 steps before leaving the house, and often a similar number in the evening. I do 8k steps most days, 10k+ on perhaps 3, and my record is 15k. I have a 3storey house, so obviously need to move round more than dg in a flat, but nowadays I can't do country walks, or walk up escalators because their tread are too deep.

amber | 28.02.16 - 9:58 a.m. | #

re: mystery count

i am sure there's a fellow single train-loving, bow-living, left-leaning, bus-obsessed, woman in her 40s out there somewhere

Adam | 28.02.16 - 10:34 a.m. | #

Fascinating as always.

"I never expected the total to increase, despite the relatively high score on one of the counts above."
The mystery deepens.
I always thought it might be 'days off work through sickness' - but now I might have to reconsider!

Cornish Cockney | 28.02.16 - 10:44 a.m. | #

Surely the Irish General Election count qualifies as a mystery count?

John | 28.02.16 - 1:32 p.m. | #

@ Adam

Spot-on!and made me chuckle. Think most people know what the "mystery count" is by now.

E | 28.02.16 - 1:50 p.m. | #

"one dodgy year when workplace kettle usage was banned"

I'm intrigued and appalled. What kind of workplace bans kettles?

dg writes: Relive this ghastly period here and here.

Hedgehog | 28.02.16 - 1:55 p.m. | #

@Hedgehog - One that doesn't want its employees to urn too much.

Matt | 28.02.16 - 2:04 p.m. | #

@Adam, in her 50's....seeing as our DG is moving up the numbers in that category next month.

B | 28.02.16 - 2:21 p.m. | #

@ B

...or in her 30s so that the "mystery count" shoots-up?!

E | 28.02.16 - 5:25 p.m. | #

@Adam

"i am sure there's a fellow ...., woman "

Or maybe even a fellow fellow

timbo | 28.02.16 - 7:34 p.m. | #

@Adam et al, If, and only If, the mystery count is to do with meeting someone new, then one has to be realistic. The other person,(male or female or in-between), we already know will have to play second fiddle to DG's blogging schedule and all the insane activities that he creates to fulfill this, then there is best mate...Now, no-one should come between a man and his best mate. Thus, a younger person is less likely than an older person to fulfill friendship+ duties. 50+ perfect then. No shortage in this category I understand.

B | 28.02.16 - 8:15 p.m. | #

So, the Mystery Count is somehow related to tea intake? Could it be intake of coffee?

Doris, USA | 28.02.16 - 9:06 p.m. | #

Taxi! My guess for Count 10, is the number of taxis you've taken.

welshkaren | 28.02.16 - 10:04 p.m. | #

I wondered if the mystery count is the number of commenters who correctly guess what the mystery count is related to, however I do like Doris's answer more.

Messiah | 28.02.16 - 10:10 p.m. | #

"Tea" reminds me of the Great Tea Trolley disaster in the London Standard cartoon many years ago ( Bistow strip cartoon ? )

splashy | 28.02.16 - 11:44 p.m. | #

I think taking a taxi could be it. I dont think I can recall dg ever mentioning taking one, though happy to be proved wrong.

JD | 28.02.16 - 11:44 p.m. | #

The relatively high count could refer to nights out, which means the mystery count could well be what a lot of people assume it is but I've always hoped that DG is more creative than that!

whiff | 29.02.16 - 5:53 a.m. | #

...it not taxi ...if people took the trouble to read back in time at other posts about the "count" the clues are all there as to what IT is!

Grumpy Anon | 29.02.16 - 8:23 a.m. | #

@ splashy

It was Bristow's Great Tea Trolley Disaster of '68. (Or '67 sometimes.)

I'm probably the only DG reader who's seen the real thing, the Great British Telecom Tea Trolley Disaster of '85. One afternoon there was a loud crash and everyone looked up. A few seconds later, another crash, then Crash, Crash, Crash, Crash, CRASH.

We all raced out to the stairs. The tea lady had pushed the tea trolley out of the lift on the third floor, intending to go straight ahead to our office. Unfortunately, the trolley had decided to veer to the left, with the brim-full urn emptying itself as it bounced merrily down the stairwell. The stairs, the walls and everything were drenched with hot tea, not a pretty sight.

We never saw the same tea lady again...

Gerry | 29.02.16 - 2:37 p.m. | #

I just wanted to say "Hi!", since I read your blog since 2003. Maybe not as often as I used to (obscure out-of-london location are something I skip), but I still I drop by at least few times a month. Keep up the good work!

Regards from Belgrade, Serbia

Sekula | 29.02.16 - 7:42 p.m. | #

The Great Tea Trolley Disaster of 1967 still engenders a shiver even among those whose experience of it was second-hand. As a humble foot messenger in the 1970s City of London I would naively quiz my bosses and betters for details. My innocent questions were always met with a cold steely look and "you should know better than to ask" pursed lips.

On walking past the Chester Perry Building to deliver bills of lading I would feel a distinct chill even on a July afternoon's round.

The company never recovered from the stigma and the inevitable asset strippers gained merely a few boxes of green treasury tags.

The building site is now a car park. Only the mystery stains by the kerbside give any clue to this dark chapter.

Pimlico Pete | 29.02.16 - 9:40 p.m. | #

thank you @Gerry the great Bristow's Great Tea Trolley Disaster of '68 was a moment in my life. I also had a real tea lady at that time. "anybody like a cake "
"Chester Perry" that was it thanks @Pimlico Pete

| 01.03.16 - 1:01 a.m. | #











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