August 2026

💡 Confused?

A flouescent tube packed up in my kitchen. Apparently they were phased out last year, its LED now, with all the inherent problems that come with the old fittings. I managed to get hold of an old unit from a lighting shop.

🏔️ Snowdon

Very proud. My daughter, who has mobility issues, climbed Snowdon with my grandson. Luckily they caught the last train down, for descending would have been harder for her.

📞 Full fibre

BT has upgraded our line to full fibre. Although I’ll miss that little revolving circle every time I try to watch a movie.

🏏 A perfect Sunday

I spent a perfect English Sunday morning watching my grandson playing cricket for our local team, whilst church bells could be heard in the distance, and a Spitfire flew overhead. The silence from the lack of cars due to the Gallows Corner debacle made it more memorable.

🦜 LEGO wildlife

We made a trip to RHS Hyde Hall, and to amuse the kids there was various wildlife made of LEGO for them to find.

📅 August’s posts and pages

Most read post – Ten things Londoners never do
Most read page – Taxi Tales

📈 Last month’s statistics

5,525 views (-17.5%)
5,315 visitors (-17.1%)
39 likes (+0.0%)
34 comments (-37.0%)
16 posts (+23.1%)

July 2026

🚘 First long drive

This month’s musings are late publishing as we’ve been away. After yet another operation I’ve driven to Dorset, the furthest I’ve been behind the wheel for months.

🎤 London Appreciation Society

I’ve been contacted by the London Appreciation Society to give a talk next year. Astonishingly I had never heard of them, but they’ve been around since 1932 and the organisation is so popular there is a 5 year waiting list to join. Talks are given on a wide-range of subjects given by ‘expert and engaging speakers’ at a convenient and comfortable lecture hall. Let’s hope I don’t let them down.

🏗️ Gallows Corner

This important junction is still not fully open, and rumours circulating suggest a late autumn completion, a year longer than scheduled, as the money has run out for its completion. .

💊 Another hospital visit

I know I’m always banging on about the virtues of the NHS, but I’ve had another brush with that amazing organisation. Three days before our holiday, I managed to injure my arm whilst gardening. Arriving in Dorset, the wound still looked nasty. A phone call to 111, where Wayne asked all the right questions and booked me an appointment at a community hospital later that afternoon. Nurse Jane checked me out and dressed the wound, and made an appointment for me to have the injury redressed three days later.

🦜 RSPB Arne

We made a trip to a BBC Springwatch filming location. Very hot, so many birds weren’t flying, including the sea eagle we’d hoped to see, but a great place to connect with nature.

📅 April’s posts and pages

Most read post – Ten things Londoners never do
Most read page – About

📈 Last month’s statistics

6,693 views (+59.2%)
6,415 visitors (+72.4%)
39 likes (±00.0%)
54 comments (-18.2%)
13 posts (-13.3%)

June 2026

🎨 John Rocque’s 1746 London map

For some time, Matt Brown, writing on Substack’s Londonist: Time Machine, has been colouring-in the most detailed survey of London of the 18th century. Across its 24 sheets, thousands of alleys, wharves, lanes and landmarks were accurately mapped in a clear, consistent style. Adding colour to the previously black-and-white map helps to see the patterns of land use, reveals the hidden watercourses, City ward boundaries, churchyards, houses and plantations that made up the city. When finished the entire map, if printed out, would be four metres wide and over two metres tall. So why am I featuring it here? I believe it deserves to be displayed in the restaurant at the soon to be opened London Museum in Smithfield. What do you think?

💊 Another month, another hospital op

For the fourth time within months I’ve used the services of the NHS. This recent procedure was to remove a cateract. The organisation gets its fair share of criticism, but I’ve been very impressed at the professionalism and care, so much so I tracked down the surgeon who performed my pacemaker operation for going the extra mile to save my life.

🏗️ Gallows Corner

This important junction is still not fully open, and rumours circulating suggest a late autumn completion, a year longer than scheduled. At least this post box topper by Stitch-in-Time Group, just yards from the building site, made me smile.

🦅 Another sighting

I still need help, with that huge identified bird still coming down in our garden. Any ideas?

📅 April’s posts and pages

Most read post – Ten things Londoners never do
Most read page – The Knowledge

📈 Last month’s statistics

4,185 views (-1.2%)
3,701 visitors (-3.6%)
39 likes (+39.3%)
66 comments (+32.0%)
15 posts (±0.0%)

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May 2026

🎬 Cabbie The Movie

Instead of a short sizzle teaser, the producers are accelerating the timeline to make the full £2.5m feature film. This has been possible with the ‘industry noise’ needed to attract a substantial level of interest among London’s cabbies. In September, the producers are planning for the shoot and next year are going to Cannes with the finished movie, backed by the very people who keep London moving.

🐧 Rook or Raven?

For some weeks now, this monster of a bird has been dominating our feeder. Is it a fledgling rook from the large rookery nearby, or a rare raven, usually only seen in London at The Tower?

🏗️ Gallows Corner

This important junction, with no realistically feasible detour, which closed in June last year for work to replace the flyover that was scheduled to last 12 weeks, has still not opened after 12 months of chaos in the surrounding area. Forty-tonne lorries still trundle down the country lanes of Havering-atte-Bower. So chaotic is this upgrade that the Mayor, Sir Sidiq Khan, has been dragged into the row at City Hall.

🦆 Avian Spotting

After much deliberation, I’ve purchased a second-hand spotter scope on Ebay. A Hawke Sport Optics 20-60x85mm Angled Waterproof Spotting Scope, Bag, Stand & Box, since you ask. Five times more powerful than my binoculars, it should improve my trips to nearby Rainham Marshes.

⌛ Anno Domini

In one week’s time I will have reached my eighth decade. It seems only yesterday that I worked for a City printer producing financial documents whilst going out after work to learn The Knowledge. Starting CabbieBlog wasn’t that long ago either.

📅 April’s posts and pages

Most read post – Ten things Londoners never do
Most read page – Taxi Tales

📈 Last month’s statistics

4,192 views (-19.0%)
3,804 visitors (-22.8%)
28 likes (+7.7%)
48 comments (+6.7)
15 posts (+15.4%)

April 2026

📖 A brilliant notebook

In May 2011, the Filofax Flex was launched, a modular, ringless organiser designed to bridge the gap between traditional ring-bound planners and modern notebook folios. Much slimmer and lighter than traditional Filofax organisers, allowing it to lie completely flat when open, featuring a structure of internal and external pockets that offered multiple permutations of pencils, notebooks, diaries, year planners and jot pads. Also, the top and bottom slots even made the folder reversible for both left- and right-handed users. Unfortunately, it wasn’t popular and was discontinued by the end of 2014. With my old one written to destruction, I’ve had to purchase another secondhand from eBay.

👃 Tube station smells

Long before COVID-19, I developed an olfactory dysfunction, where even strong smells weren’t definable. So I was fascinated when top London geek, Matt Brown, discussed on Lev Parikian’s Six Things Substack podcast the Tube Station map he had produced of smells. Yes, apparently Waterloo-Lambeth smells of ‘rodent’, a mousy smell; Warren Street has hints of ‘sooty milk’; Marylebone conjures up ‘Scalextric sparks’; while my favourite is the aroma of a ‘sweaty cardigan’ at Embankment.

🔥 1666

Listening to the excellent TimeTable London podcast, which a recent episode featured Jonnie Fielding, founder of Bowl of Chalk Walking Tours (No, me neither), he also mentioned writing a book, which is a rather good thriller with The Great Fire of London as its backdrop.

🏗️ Gallows Corner

This important junction, with no realistically feasible detour, which closed in June last year for work to replace the flyover that was scheduled to last 12 weeks, has opened after 11 months of chaos in the surrounding area. At least 40-tonne lorries will stay on the A roads and not the country lanes of Havering-atte-Bower. STOP PRESS: Opening delayed – again  

🦆 Sam & Ade Go Birding

According to actor Sam West, birdwatching exists on a sliding scale of geekery ‘bird watching’ is what normally adjusted people do when they stare at the sparrows through the kitchen window; birding is more organised, involving making drawings and lists, noting what you see and where. This is a rabbit hole I’ve dived down since seeing my first kingfisher. ‘Twitching’ is the hobby at full stretch, with enthusiasts dashing around the country to spot rare visitors, ticking off the entire catalogue of 636 British species plus any foreign intruders. A bemused Adrian Edmondson accompanies Sam in this C5 series.

📅 April’s posts and pages

Most read post – Ten things Londoners never do
Most read page – Taxi Tales

📈 Last month’s statistics

5,150 views (+93.2%)
4,899 visitors (+109.5%)
26 likes (±00.0%)
45 comments (-16.7%)
13 posts (-13.3%)