please empty your brain below
If relevant, please start your comment with a number from 1 to 31.

(questions will not be answered)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.07.24 - 12:00 a.m. | #

15) I don't think anyone usually buys Tunnocks marshmallows, as it's not a product they make. Teacakes, on the other hand...

dg writes: fixed thanks.

Martin | 31.07.24 - 7:10 a.m. | #

15. Morrison's jam doughnuts are excellent. Difficult to eat without making a mess, especially if you have a beard.

mikeS | 31.07.24 - 7:51 a.m. | #

8) I think the old route X26 which is now SL7 did years ago stop in Feltham and Hanworth

John | 31.07.24 - 7:53 a.m. | #

28) I'm absolutely gutted about Stratford Picturehouse. It was one of my favourite places, and I've seen so many wonderful movies there.

Friendly staff, good prices, and yes - interesting architecture. I was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour at Open House one year - and it was clear how proud they were of their interesting and innovative building.

My favourite bit was where an enterprising projectionist had rigged things up so that film could run from projector one - up across the ceiling to projector two - so that the same big blockbuster film could be shown on two screens at once, with a 20 minute (or however long a reel is) delay.

Apparently I'm supposed to feel happy Stratford is getting an Everyman Cinema as a "replacement" - but I'm not convinced...

Steve Q | Homepage | 31.07.24 - 7:55 a.m. | #

28) In the past I have conducted tours of the Stratford Picture House as a volunteer with Open House Weekends.
As for a short life as a purpose-built cinema (1997-2024) the Regal Twickenham had a shorter cinema life opened in 1939 and closed in 1960, later demolished

John | 31.07.24 - 7:59 a.m. | #

12) Congratulations on actually managing to capture the dodgy electronic bus blinds on your camera.

Pedantic of Purley | 31.07.24 - 7:59 a.m. | #

18) Oooh, I want to try seven of those.

Chris | 31.07.24 - 8:05 a.m. | #

12. To add to the confusion, drivers on the 276 aren’t changing their cards to match the destination. On Sunday I saw several of the buses, some with working display and others half-working, but all had the wrong destination on the card.

dg writes: indeed

24. The same happens with the existing compactor bins at the top of the steps at Bethnal Green tube (adjacent to the memorial which has been fenced off for months sadly.) People don’t want to touch the handle but seem not to realise that it can be opened with a pedal. If only Tower Hamlets marketed how to use the pedal operation rather than its latest slogan on the front. That said, perhaps people are scared of opening the drawer for what they fear may be left inside.

25. That’s going to hit hard. The Greenway is so much busier these days compared to just five years ago and like a different place compared to a decade ago. Sad times.

28. Gutted too about the Stratford Picturehouse. A lovely venue and a great looking building which reflected the town’s aspiration well before the Olympics were won. I imagine one of the large evangelical church groups might be keen to purchase the site. It offers space, transport links and local car parking. (Sad too about Picturehouse closing the old Empire in Bromley, south east London, particularly as they did such a good job restoring the art deco features.)

31. Congratulations, I’m so pleased and grateful to you to be one of those visitors.

Auntie Susan | 31.07.24 - 8:10 a.m. | #

27. Reminds me that I haven't heard The Food Programme since they changed the Radio 4 schedules. Much missed on a Sunday lunchtime; listening on demand via a laptop is not necessarily as convenient to listening to it broadcast on a radio.

Man of Kent | 31.07.24 - 8:21 a.m. | #

1) I'd like to think, that just like contractors in the old days would use this trick to make themselves more prominent in the Yellow Pages, there's a park called AaaaaaaaaaaPark

16) Main meals at lunchtime, to me, are a waste of daytime, even if it's probably a healthier time to eat the main meal of the day!

Mikey C | 31.07.24 - 8:21 a.m. | #

31. Thank you: for getting this stuff done every day and for returning me to where I grew up every now and then, cheers mate.

Kev Hennessy | 31.07.24 - 8:39 a.m. | #

17. 'Wedding plans' - keeping it a secret or is that your brother?
25. Big diversion on the Capital Ring as well I guess.

davews | 31.07.24 - 8:51 a.m. | #

28. My kids have grown up going to Stratford Picturehouse. Across twenty odd years they've progressed from Pixar movies to the most esoteric of art house offers. We could walk from our house and be sitting in our seats seven minutes later. Really gutted to see it go. According to someone on our street's WhatsApp it is going to be used by UEL as extra lecture space. Certainly the sign on the door suggests that it will still be being used for private events, which I guess includes the evangelical churches which already use it on Sundays.

Joan | 31.07.24 - 8:58 a.m. | #

16) Since working from home became the norm for me, I've become a 'main meal at lunchtime' person. My one day a week in the office now throws my eating habits out of synch!

Alan S | 31.07.24 - 9:02 a.m. | #

9, 14, 30. Spot the theme.

dg writes: ✉

Malcolm of Kent | 31.07.24 - 9:29 a.m. | #

25. Rental payments might help here. Whenever a private company wants to close a road or path, in whole or part, it should be charged a per-day rental. At a suitable level to encourage it to get a move on. Would also incentivise novel technical solutions, such as moleploughs.

dg writes: it’s a permissive path.

Malcolm of Kent | 31.07.24 - 9:41 a.m. | #

3. Go to Huntingdon Road, St Neots to see John Bellingham's blue plaque.

Nigel | 31.07.24 - 10:08 a.m. | #

26: I began watching it but then got annoyed by the non-alphabetical order of the parade. Still, it's always nice to hear Serge Gainsbourg and Les Rita Mitsouko.

Jonathan Wadman | 31.07.24 - 10:16 a.m. | #

26. Greece always first. Then it was alphabetical......using French spelling of the countries. Hosts last!

MikeK | 31.07.24 - 10:29 a.m. | #

25. "They have to keep the sewage flowing ...there'll be a drop-in session..." Ugh!

Tim W. | 31.07.24 - 11:36 a.m. | #

1) Lambeth Council did at one point propose renaming Brockwell Park as Zephaniah Mothopeng Park, in anti-apartheid solidarity.

HTFB | 31.07.24 - 11:37 a.m. | #

5 - for the first time since '79 I gave the coverage a miss, the result was inevitable and given world events I don't think it matters.

13 - if you'd written this in 1924 what do you think would have been a shoo-in back then to have been remembered at the end of that centaury.

24 - good point by Auntie Susan - we won't tell you that there's a foot pedal, you'll somehow know.

28 - lockdown victim?

30 - you were wearing short sleeves and you assumed instead of looking at your arm.

Still Anon | 31.07.24 - 11:42 a.m. | #

5 - Glad to see I'm not the only one clinging on to a landline phone as well as a mobile one. Given to people/organisations I don't want bothering me when I'm out, or used by friends just ringing for a chat rather than anything needing a quick answer, as I'm not one for chatting when out and about.

12 - I see Stagecoach are managing to confuse things by also displaying the bus's running number (for internal reference only) prominently in the front window, rather than the traditional discreet plate on the side of the bus. Metroline do the same, and unhelpfully use some numbers that are the same as local bus routes.

Andrew S | 31.07.24 - 12:09 p.m. | #

10 - Can we have another snippet from your diary for the 10th? (Given that you blogged about this the next day!)

James Matcham | 31.07.24 - 12:44 p.m. | #

24. I should probably have mentioned that the foot pedals on these bins tend to include an embossed illustration of a boot or boot print (can’t remember which) but I don’t know how many people looking for the hole in which to put their rubbish are looking down at the pedal. Perhaps they could also change the design so the top is more rounded.

Auntie Susan | 31.07.24 - 12:47 p.m. | #

27. I originally read your description of Alexei Sayle’s Strangers on a Train as “controversial”, and thought it was a strange adjective to use about such a blameless but slightly dull programme. Then I read it again…

Baldassaro | 31.07.24 - 12:54 p.m. | #

6 & 27: The next set of RAJAR radio listening figures are out at midnight. This quarter will include almost 2 months of the new Radio 4 schedule though any fall in numbers because of the schedue changes may be unclear because of increased listening over the early part of the General Election campaign.

ap | 31.07.24 - 1:29 p.m. | #

12. Quite ironic that the blinds 'work' just like the traditional blinds when they were badly adjusted when caught still on your photos! I believe that TfL once trialled destination blinds split in two (apparently it had some advantages to have two halves?) which some of the errors do which is quite funny.

matthieu1221 | 31.07.24 - 3:50 p.m. | #

7 - I wonder how many constituencies were close to being Green, though - Labour's all too dominant and I reckon the Tories will be back come 2029.

22 - I don't understand that art, and I'm supposed to like the experimental types.

26 - I found parts of the ceremony a bit dull, though full marks on how unique it was. I wonder what 2012 would have looked like if they opened with boats on the Thames.

31 - well done on 13 million! Your blog deserves far more.

All Over 2a | Homepage | 31.07.24 - 4:19 p.m. | #

14/30 - I once saw a huge heron score a spectacular, head-to-toe hit on a hard, chavvy looking character on the footpath near the Woolwich Ferry.
His reaction startled me as it was to burst into floods of tears and call his mother.
He must have been 30 or so.

Chris | 31.07.24 - 4:32 p.m. | #

23. "I still don't think they've twigged that a Flickr photo with a Non-Commercial licence shouldn't be used on their platform" -- nope, they're using one of my equally non-commercial licensed photos now instead. Ha! I probably should bother to whinge at them, shouldn't I...

dg writes: Your photo of Severndroog was also included when the article was first published.

stevekeiretsu | 31.07.24 - 4:53 p.m. | #

23 - Why does advertising fluff always have a meaningless superlative that is so obviously unrealistic? It's just so mind-blowingly annoying.

27 - Thanks for the comment about The Train at Platform 4, I hadn't realised the second series had started.

30 - I thought it was meant to be good luck, or is that only if it lands on your head?

31 - Congratulations!

Trevor S | 31.07.24 - 5:10 p.m. | #

31 stunning statistics

Caroline | 31.07.24 - 5:20 p.m. | #

5) I didn't really have much of a plan for when I was going to get some sleep. My thinking was simply "I'll watch the first few hours then go to bed once I either get bored or hit my limit". Turns out, it was anything but boring and my limit was a fair bit more than I anticipated. I finally got some shut-eye after watching Truss' defenestration around 7am which was easily the highlight of the night.

X-Plaistow | 31.07.24 - 6:31 p.m. | #

31. The 13 millionth visitor arrived at 18:39 and 58 seconds, hurrah. They were a Londoner using a Mac rather than a mobile, and a regular visitor to the blog. Cheers if that was you!

Onwards to 14!

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.07.24 - 6:48 p.m. | #

2: I am not sure what the right answer is, but Stephenson Crescent is definitely the wrong answer. South Lambeth Road, which has several stretches of unlimited parking (along with other stretches with restrictions) and is much closer to Trafalgar Square.

dg writes: never risk a definitely :)

Marek | 31.07.24 - 7:12 p.m. | #

31. Congratulations.
Didn't realise I was so close!
Here's to the next million which I expect will be even quicker than the last.

Chris | 31.07.24 - 8:37 p.m. | #

7. The rise of the Green party at this General Election presents some interesting challenges for the larger parties. It will be interesting to see the demographic age profile of their voters, especially as the Baby Boom generation who have ruled the roost electorally for the last 40 years or so are declining in numbers as time inevitably thins out our numbers.

30. Being pooped on by a bird, reminded me that the Museum of London as part of its rebrand to the London Museum, has chosen a pooping pigeon as its new logo. In my view a logo that speaks eloquent volumes about the quality of thinking behind this unusual idea.

IanD | 31.07.24 - 9:52 p.m. | #

Days which have not inspired comment:
4 11 20 21 29

(but the vast majority have, cheers!)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.07.24 - 11:40 p.m. | #











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