What is this blog all about, well, far from being rhetorical, I had rather hoped that you could tell me that. You see it started off by being given the strapline: ‘London, through the eyes of a working cabbie’. Obviously, it’s about me going on about things in London that interest me, that’s a given. But what is it that is so interesting that I feel the need to put pen to paper, or nowadays, fingers to laptop?

Precise scheduling

I have often suspected that I have more than my share of an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. From the inception of CabbieBlog, I broke down every post into only six categories: A window on my world; An urban view; London trivia; Puppydog tails; Thinking allowed; and The Grill, these categories I have kept for over 10 years, moreover, all posts, over 1,400 now, have been published not only on specific days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday), each day is designated to a particular subject, but to reinforce my OCPD, also posted at the same time of the day at 13.50 London time precisely.

Checking out the archives

For the purposes of this post, I’ve trawled back to the beginning of this year to find that every post still has a tenuous link to London. This is hardly surprising because it is where I live, where I worked, and London is vast, providing plenty of ideas to write about. More specifically along with 13 Sunday London trivia posts, this year has featured five further trivia posts that have taken my interest, three posts about little gems of buildings or street to find in the capital, and curiously 10 blog posts about blog posts, and a smattering of posts about astronomy, quizzes, cabbies and London transport.

The site now has two further regular features, naturally posted each time at 13.50 precisely, Monday’s ‘London in Quotations’ (13 so far), and ‘The Weekly Whinge’ (again 13@13.50).

Now, this is why I ask about the blog’s purpose, for 23 posts out of 65 are about my interests and navel-gazing or 35.3846 per cent and not specifically about London.

Given that Wednesday is given over to ‘The Weekly Whinge’, you might expect that tone of voice throughout the site, its something I refer to for prospective guest posts. You might think that a retired cabbie would be downbeat or nitpicking about – fill in an appropriate organisation here – but generally, I try to be neutral, or positive, simply reflecting what I see without laying the value judgments on thick.

In conclusion

After all that, I don’t think I can now define just what CabbieBlog is now about. Once it was easy, I would see or experience something driving around London and then relate it for your delectation. But now having an audience that is more engaged submitting comments and ‘likes’, many more than this site has ever seen, I can say that it’s all about Londoners, both present, past and those interested in the capital.

Generally, the blog is about the world around me, but I’m sorry to say, it’s still mostly about me.