Day Sixty-Two - Herbrand Street, WC1

Great 1930s building now home to McCann Erickson, an ad agency. Taken at 8.25am as I hurried to the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, where I was co-facilitating an event. Must be the earliest I've been in Central London for quite a while.

On the discman today: AM - Wizzard Wizzard Brew PM - Jefferson Airplane After Bathing At Baxter's

Day Sixty-One - Mowbray Road, SE19

Oops. I'm no expert bricklayer but I'm sure a wall shouldn't break up like that, even if a car does hit it.

Rare sighting of a LB Croydon recycling bin too.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Soft Machine Peel Sessions

Day Sixty - Snowsfields, SE1

Impromptu drinking with Will tonight. The first pub we went to was so quiet we couldn't even find someone to serve us, so we headed off into streets unknown, ending up in The Britannia on Kipling Street and The Royal Oak on Tabard Street, both fine pubs.

This was on the side of a building that was originally a mission, then a school for poor children, and then came into the hands of The Shaftesbury Society. Now it hosts Dinwiddie MacLaren architects. The changing face of Bermondsey...

On the discman today: AM - Mark Wastell Come Crimson Rays PM - Daniel Menche / Kevin Drumm Gauntlet

Day Fifty-Nine - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

In a week where the EU has given up on making the UK go fully metric I noticed this sign on the wall of Platform 2 of Crystal Palace Station that tell us that the station is 8 miles and 52 chains from the Victoria terminus.

I'd be quite happy if the UK went totally metric - the reason it's not worked here is that it was done in a half-arsed fashion. One of Thatcher's greatest mistakes (and there were so many) was to abolish the Metrication Board in 1980 to save costs. This meant that food continued to be sold in pounds and ounces, liquids to be sold in fluid ounces, pints and gallons, and distance to be measured in yards and miles all through the seventies and eighties, when my generation was at school being taught nothing but kilograms, litres and kilometres. The pick and mix approach causes all sorts of confusion - to this day I have no idea what it means when I'm told my weight in kilos. Is 90kg ok for a man who is, erm, 6 feet tall? Hang on, let me convert that into metres, that conversion I pretty much understand.

I think the supposed inflation of decimalisation counted against further metrication here - my mum still goes on about how old ladies were diddled out of their pension by unscrupulous greengrocers during the early months of 1971. But (if you'll excuse the metaphor) it's apples and oranges - standardising our measurements of distance with the rest of the world (except the yanks, and they can please themselves) won't affect the pound in your purse. And we buy petrol in litres now...

They made a much better fist of it in the Commonwealth, going fully metric by 1980. How well this was done is shown by how Louise, seventies Sydney born and bred, didn't (and still doesn't really) understand pounds, stone or yards when she moved over here. She picked up what a pint was very quickly, but that's a different issue.

Oh, and if you were wondering, 52 chains is 520 links, or 208 rods, poles, or perches, or 1144 yards - the length of 52 cricket pitches laid end-to-end. I'm glad that's cleared up.

On the discman today: AM - This Heat Deceit PM - This Heat Made Available

Day Fifty-Eight - Just outside Victoria Station, SW1

Sun explodes through the window.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Various Ocean of Sound (Disc 2)

Day Fifty-Seven - Just Outside Balham Station, SW12

I wasn't quick enough to catch the train that was actually being cleaned (too wrapped up in the morning music, a classic avant-prog disc from Belgium), but here's proof that those odd things you see by the side of the track are actually used occasionally.

On the discman today: AM - Aksak Maboul Un Peu de L'Ame des Bandits PM - Jacques Lejeune Blanche Neige - suite musicale en 14 tableaux de jacques lejeune pour dire le conte et danser avec les enfants

Day Fifty-Six - Belvedere Road, SE19

Just a slight diversion on the way home so I could go to Sainsbury's.

This house on Belvedere Road was reputedly built for a retired admiral, which explains the porthole-styled windows up top but I think he was being a bit hopeful if he thought he'd see the sea from here.

Of course today it's been converted into flats. Wonder how the top floor one works.

On the discman today: AM - Slapp Happy Casablanca Moon and most of Slapp Happy/Henry Cow Desperate Straights as the train was so delayed PM - finished off the Happy Cow and then King Crimson The Beat Club Bremen 1972

Day Fifty-Five - Hamlet Road, SE19

I was very confused this morning - had Mr Brown called a snap general election and I'd missed it?

Turns out (my new favourite phrase) that there's a council by-election in the Crystal Palace Ward of the London Borough of Bromley. Because of the weird local government topography of London, five different boroughs - Bromley, Croydon, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham - meet at what used to be a tree at the top of Anerley Hill, right at the heart of Crystal Palace/Upper Norwood. This means that the area is (a) divided between five different authorities, so there's no joined-up policy for the place, and (b) it's at the borders of all of them, so none of them pay it much attention anyway. And that although I live in the London Borough of Croydon, the station - which is ten minutes' walk away - is in Bromley. Which is why (a) I knew nothing about the by-election, and (b) I was so confused this morning.

On the discman today: AM - Jazkamer Balls the Size of Texas, Liver the Size of Brazil PM - Philip Jeck Stoke

Day Fifty-Four - Blackfriars Road, SE1

Waiting for Will Of Pub Guide fame outside Southwark tube station this evening - we were off drinking, just for a change - I caught this chap trotting for his bus. He caught it, you'll be pleased to know.

I was more interested in the old sign behind him, which is underneath the railway line from London Bridge to Waterloo East. On the other side it says "Blackfriars Station", which is very confusing as Blackfriars Station is on the other side of the river. Turns out that the original Blackfriars Station was actually here from 1864 to 1885 - part of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Confusingly, there never seems to have been a "Charing Cross Railway" as such - the nearest to that name was Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, a forerunner of the Northern Line tube which goes nearby but which never had a Blackfriars Station (and the CC, E&H Railway never went south of the river anyway).

Well. Never before has waiting for Will led to such a revelation - and such a mystery.

On the discman today: AM -Various Artifacts of Australian Experimental Music 1930-1973 PM - Werner Dafeldecker / Michael Moser / Burkhard Stangl Markknochen Wälzt Eisscholle

Day Fifty-Three - Strand, WC2

No tubes from Strand station today, but that's not because of the strike - it's because it has been closed since 1994 (not to mention not having been called "Strand" since 1917). Given it's weird appendix-like relation to the Piccadilly Line I'm surprised it stayed open as long as it did - trains seemed to serve it about once a fortnight and by the time you'd gone down in the lift and waited an age you might as well have walked up Kingsway to Holborn.

I was walking up The Strand this morning as I was on my way to a meeting in the Gothic labyrinth that is the Royal Courts of Justice. In our meeting room I found a sign which summed up the place so well I had to take a picture (expressly forbidden by the security guard who frisked me) and you can see it here.

On the discman today: AM - Art Bears Live At The RIO Festival, Milan, 1 May 1979 PM - Werner Dafeldecker and Boris D Hegenbart Eis 9

Day Fifty-Two - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Looks like they're starting the tube link then...

On the discman today: AM - Jack Bruce Things We Like (ugh) PM - Tony Oxley 4 Compositions For Sextet

Day Fifty-One - Petty France, SW1

Petty France - the road on which my office is situated - along with several other roads in the vicinity of Wellington Barracks was cordoned off to traffic today so that two posh boys and all their posh friends (except wicked stepmother) could remember their Mum, who (apparently) died in an accident ten years ago. It seems she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, as shown by the fact that she didn't put her seatbelt on when her drunk chauffeur drove her and her lover at speed through Paris at night.

For some reason this requires concrete barriers to be put up all around somewhere which is always full of soldiers, many of them with guns. At least they didn't try to check my bag, else I might have been a bit annoyed.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Photek Modus Operandi

Day Fifty - Mowbray Road, SE19

Look at the first floor windows on these houses, not to mention the area around the doors. When does "settling" become "subsidence"? It reminds me of a line from Hancock's Half Hour:

(rough quote from memory)
Tony: Look at this place! Talk about subsidence! 23 Railway Cuttings!
Miss Pugh: So?
Tony: Ten years ago it was number 9!

On the discman today: AM - Ikue Mori with Marc Ribot and Robert Quine Painted Desert "We did it in two days, but on the second day I had clams for breakfast. ...We needed three days." Robert Quine PM - Morphine The Night

Day Forty-Nine - Tottenham Court Road, W1

Home via Goodge Street tonight as I met Louise for Italian food and The Simpsons Movie. While waiting for her (woman's prerogative to be late, etc) I noticed all these To Let signs above the station. Now, I'd like a Central London pad as much as anyone but directly above a tube station might be a bit too busy for me.

On the discman today: AM - Marc Ribot Saints

Day Forty-Eight - Maberley Road, SE19

I've walked past this van every day for years and often tutted about how dirty the front is. I've only just realised that it's an old BT van! I knew it was worth getting a pair of glasses...

(August Bank Holiday yesterday, hence no post)

On the discman today: AM - Michael Nesmith And The Hits Just Keep On Comin' PM - Michael Nesmith Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash

Day Forty-Seven - somewhere between Gipsy Hill and West Norwood

Ah, Sport magazine. Free every Friday morning from a smiley lady outside the station.

For a few years during the nineties there was a great general sport magazine called Total Sport (edited by Danny Kelly, apparently once married to Hazel O'Connor! I didn't know that) which covered a variety of sports in an in-depth, interesting and informative way. It failed because British magazine buyers apparently can't focus on more than one sport at a time, or at least won't part with money to do so. When Sport came along late last year I thought that we might have a successor to that late lamented mag. And free! My favourite price, as that attractive older woman in the Somerfield advert used to say.

How wrong I was. It's just an excuse to sell advertising like all the rest. Articles are short and facile and most are flogging something either implicitly or explicitly ("Preview Sport - brought to you by L'Oreal Paris Men Expert", "Mazda and The London Triathlon").

Best of all is the regular feature on the wife or girlfriend of a sports star - this week, Bec Cartwright, wife of Lleyton Hewitt and apparently ex-Home And Away (I wouldn't know, I'm a Neighbours man myself). I couldn't work out whether this was a sop to the ladies or an excuse to show a pretty lady in a bikini, and then I read the closing line of the first para:

"A nubile young thing with a tenuous link to sport who looks good in their pants? Bingo! Woof!! Etc!!!"

I think that should be the new name for the feature, actually - "A nubile young thing with a tenuous link to sport who looks good in their pants - brought to you by Flashermac Raincoats".

But perhaps the ultimate giveaway about the whole farrago is that the magazine took a one month summer break. Not enough sport in summer for them to cover? No, not enough commuters for them to inflict their advertising on during the traditional holiday season.

Back after the Bank Holiday with some carefree posts about kittens and fluffy things to counterbalance this week's heaviosity.

On the discman today: AM - Wire Chairs Missing PM - Wire 154

Day Forty-Six - Victoria Station, SW1

No escape from London Lite.

In the evening there are two free newspapers, thelondonpaper (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International and therefore beyond the pale) and London Lite (owned by Associated Newspapers and therefore...are you spotting a pattern?). My beef with these papers isn't that they steal readers from proper papers - the only evening paper London has had since the eighties is the Evening Standard, which is awful and part of the Associated Newspapers empire anyway (and therefore...) - it's that the content is so trivial.

I got copies of both of them on the way home today - one from the floor on platform 9 at Victoria, the other from a seat on the train - and I was going to regale you with how awful their content was. On reflection that sounds pretty tedious, so I'll let you look at their websites (above) and judge for yourself. However, here's some comparisons between the two to give those of you who are two lazy to click an idea of what they contribute to the enlightenment of our citizens.

Pictures of Amy Winehouse

thelondonpaper: 2
London Lite: 0, but 2 of minor royals

Pictures of Lily Allen

thelondonpaper: 1
London Lite: 0, but an article about how Ava Leigh is going to "rob Lily of her dub crown".

Pictures of Peaches Geldof

thelondonpaper: 1
London Lite: 3

Pictures of two cute girls who have just got their GCSE results

thelondonpaper: 0 (but they have a story about how a "teenage gun victim" got two As in her BTECs)
London Lite: 1

Wisdom on the letters page

thelondonpaper: I say bring in a life-for-life law (death penalty) and put the fear back into yobs! Would you kill if you knew you would die for it?
London Lite: I am surprised by the number of female commuters in [the] evening. In my day they would be at home cooking their husband's dinner.

Examples from the stalker column

thelondonpaper: On 19 August, 1pm, you were the dark brunette wearing a dark top and short skirt. You walked towards Harrow on the Hill and boarded the same Metropolitan line train to Baker Street. You have the best legs in Harrow".
London Lite: alas, doesn't have one. Yet.

On the discman today: AM - This Heat Live 80/81 PM - Wire Pink Flag

Day Forty-Five - Victoria Street, SW1

It's Day Three of I Hate Free Newspapers Week and my bile is suffering from a midweek dip. For now, rejoice in how the five o'clock mass of commuters give this London Lite hawker a wide berth.

On an unrelated note, why won't it stop raining?

On the discman today: AM - This Heat Made Available PM - This Heat Repeat

Day Forty-Four - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

And here's another thing about free newspapers (as part of I Hate Free Newspapers Week): because they're free, people have no sense of ownership about them. If you've forked out 40-70p for a paper you tend to take it with you, but if you've taken it in the same way you would a advertising flyer (hmmm...) you treat it in a different way. This means people just leave them wherever they fall, be it the seat of the train or somewhere on the station, where it gets blown about and eventually lies sodden, waiting for a late-running commuter to slip on as they dash for their train.

I'll admit it can be handy that the papers are left on trains, especially tubes, if you need something to focus on to stay awake during your journey home when too drunk to read something proper, but the amount of extra rubbish they generate is a real nuisance. And the publishers aren't going to try too hard to get them cleared up as they rely on the fact that each copy of the paper is read by more than one person to sell their advertising space for higher rates.

Tomorrow I think I'll have something to say about the content of the freebies. Hold on to your hats...

On the discman today: AM - This Heat This Heat PM - This Heat Deceit

Day Forty-Three - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

This week is I Hate Free Newspapers Week here at Commuted to Life.

I was buying a cup of tea from the chap in the kiosk at Crystal Palace station this morning, and I asked him why his usual table of newspapers wasn't there. After telling me that actually they'd been missing for a few weeks (I thought doing this blog would make me more observant...) he said that the installation of the bins for the free Metro paper earlier this year had caused his newspaper sales to go down from £125 a day to £35 a day, and that what with the small profit he made out of that anyway and the £30 a week he had to pay to get them delivered in the first place, it was no longer worth his while to offer newspapers for sale. "People coming through here in the morning are in a hurry, " he said, "and they just want to grab something. If it's free they'll just take it. Same thing's happened at Streatham Hill and Penge East".

This incensed me. Metro, part of the Daily Mail/Associated Newpapers stable, let's not forget, is a forgettable, trite newspaper, chewing-gum for the eyes if you will. And because of their ability to get their bins into every railway station in London (thanks, yet again, John Major for privatising the railways in the pursuit of mammon over integrated infrastructure) it leads to more than one negative consequence:

a) the livelihood of the independent kiosk owner is threatened, leading to the possibility of him closing down. Apart from the effect on him, that would mean that the users of the station would be denied his other services, such as a cup of tea for 70p and a friendly chat of a morning. No doubt if/when he goes, Southern Railway will offer his pitch to one of the coffee chains, leading to sullen service and the two-quid latte being the only options.

b) making quality papers less available, dumbing down the entire populace. From the last few years of commuting I know that it was actually the quality papers that sold out most quickly at the kiosk. Convenience leads to no choice but to read people-hating trivia tripe.

Yes, I know people can buy proper papers from newsagents near the station. Yes, I know they can bring a book. But as the kiosk guy said, most people are in a hurry in the morning. By usurping the choice of papers at the station with the monolithic moronity of Metro, the only winners are the odious Associated Newspapers and those that take their shilling.

And I shall be ranting about the evening freebies over the next few days too, don't you worry.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Kevin Drumm Sheer Hellish Miasma

Day Forty-Two - Maberley Road, SE19

Upper Norwood Tardis.

(London Loo Co, please come and pick this up as it's been here for as long as I can remember.)

On the discman today: AM and PM - Simon Dupree and the Big Sound Part of my Past: the Simon Dupree and the Big Sound Anthology

Day Forty-One - Victoria Station Concourse, SW1

On the discman today: AM and PM - Simon Dupree and the Big Sound Part of my Past: the Simon Dupree and the Big Sound Anthology

Day Forty - Maberley Road, SE19

People from outside Europe (and people from posh suburbs) are often amused and perplexed by the idea of allotments, but in big cities where gardens are small or non-existent they provide an opportunity for people to grown their own produce and serve as a focal point for communities. Of course (huge generalisations on the way) working class city dwellers now subsist entirely on frozen ready meals and lard, so the annoying urban middle-middle-class have taken over whole swathes of allotments to supplement their organic vegetable delivery boxes.

I think the miserable weather is affecting my mood.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Daphne Oram Oramics

Day Thirty-Nine - somewhere near Battersea Park, SW8

Why is it I've taken so many photos around Battersea Park? Well, it's because the train tends to stop either in or near the station for ages, waiting to get into Victoria, and I tend to get bored and take my camera out.

The train stopped here for five minutes this morning. Then, just over the bridge and within sight of platform 9 at Victoria, we sat for twenty minutes for no readily apparent reason. An angry mob circled the driver as he eventually got out of his cab once we were in the station, demanding answers. He said that there were "problems in the station" and that his public address system was broken, honest, he had been making announcements but we couldn't hear them. The way he said it made it clear that it was, in fact, our fault that we couldn't hear him. Got to work in a pretty bad mood, not helped by the ridiculously low seats in the dilapidated old carriages they saw fit to put on today that made my back hurt like billy-o. Mumble grumble.

On the discman today: AM - Various Artifacts of Australian Experimental Music 1930-1973 PM - Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister

Day Thirty-Eight - Anerley Road, SE19

This, of course, assumes that postmen can read...

Went to the GBBF again tonight, this time with Louise. Pictorial evidence of both nights - and a podcast from Tuesday , get me, I'm so 2004 - can be found here.

On the discman today: AM - Mahavishnu Orchestra The Inner Mounting Flame

Day Thirty-Seven - Victoria Street, SW1

The glass, steel and concrete canyon that is Victoria Street. You wouldn't think that Westminster Cathedral is just off to the right of that single-decker bus.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire

Day Thirty-Six - Anerley Road, SE19

Rather late home tonight, as I've been at the Great British Beer Festival. As I tottered home off the train I nearly fell into this, which wasn't there when I left home this morning.

On the discman today: AM - Tetuzi Akiyama Route 13 to the Gates of Hell PM - my recordings of the Beer Festival

Day Thirty-Five - Victoria Street, SW1

In the last couple of weeks these small-man-size flower things have appeared in the area around Selborne House, the main offices of the Ministry of Justice. An attempt by Westminster City Council to beautify the area, or an invasion by a new, greener version of the creatures from the Claws of Axos? It's too early to tell.

On the discman today: AM - Dean Roberts Moth Park/Soundtracks to Utopia PM - Repeat Pool

Day Thirty-Four - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Crystal Palace station is closed all weekend. I assume this must have something to do with it.

On the discman today: AM - Peter Brotzmann/Bill Laswell Low Life PM - rockin' into the weekend with The Upper Crust Entitled (examples of the best and worst of allmusic reviews, btw)

Day Thirty-Three - Anerley Road, SE19

Hang out the balloons - today's the day Make Me A Princess opened!

Because that's what we really need around here. A bridal accessories shop. Meanwhile the Post Office next door has been long closed down, the off-licence still hasn't been replaced and the travel agents just down the road has just done what appears to be a moonlight flit. Why can't anyone open a useful, profitable shop in this row?

On the discman today: AM - The Bonzo Dog Band The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse PM - Ride Smile

Day Thirty-Two - Anerley Hill, SE19

On 10 and 11 July 1944 German V1 bombs fell on the area around Crystal Palace station, killing over 20 people and destroying many buildings. These were just some of many V1s and V2s that fell on the area, legend has it because Churchill let double agents report back to their German bosses that their flying bombs were overshooting Central London. They weren't, but the adjustment ten miles south would mean fewer deaths and less property damage. Or so I've heard, anyway.

As is often the way, the local pub, hit but not destroyed, was one of the main buildings to be saved. It took until 1955, but eventually The Paxton Arms reopened for business. Given its history I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it's a typical locals' pub, with average beer and a frosty welcome for anyone who has not spent at least ten years parked on a stool at the bar.

And now they're finally giving it a new coat of paint.

On the discman today: AM - Oval ovalcommers PM - NEU! NEU!

Day Thirty-One - Petty France, SW1

About two years a ago there was a spin-off programme from Channel 4's Location Location, Location where Phil and the divine Kirstie looked at what you could buy for what was then the UK average house price - £180,000 - in the most and least expensive boroughs in the UK.

Westminster was, I believe, the most expensive borough at the time (it usually fights it out with Kensington & Chelsea) and so Kirstie and Phil showed you exactly what you could buy with your £180K - a studio apartment in this block, Vandon Court, which only happens to be right next door to where I work. Look at that link - my offices are the contiguous building.

I must admit that I considered the move. OK, so it's a studio apartment in a block full of (it seems) dotty old women and transient foreigners, but it's right next door to work. Commuting time: 30 seconds. Commuting cost: £0. And within walking distance of St James' Park, Westminster Abbey, The West End...50 yards from two very nice pubs, too.

But then I'd never be able to use the trains as an excuse for being late for work again. People would expect me to work late as "it's not as if you've got a long way to go home, is it?". I'd suddenly have lots more "friends" who wanted to crash the night at my central London pad. And where on earth would I put all my CDs and books? Reluctantly I decided that Vandon Court wasn't for me, not that I could have afforded it at the time anyway.

You might be saying to yourself that I was wrong and the positives far outnumbered the negatives, but consider this: if I had mortgaged myself to the hilt, got rid of 90% of my possessions and installed myself in my SW1 shoebox eyrie I'd never have started this blog. Yes. I did it all for you, dear reader. Thank you, you're welcome.

On the discman today: AM -John Coltrane Ascension PM - nothing, as I couldn't bear another forty minutes of what I'd been listening to in the morning. My tastes appear to have changed.

Day Thirty - Victoria Station, SW1

Waiting for the train to leave Victoria this evening, another train pulled in alongside and I experimented with taking pictures through two panes of glass. This was as Francis Bacon-esque as I could get before we pulled out.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Various Boffins archival series - musique concrète soundtracks to experimental short films 1956-1978 volumes 1-3

Day Twenty-Nine - Meard St, W1

Bit of a cheat this, as I took this photo at lunchtime on my way to Sister Ray (didn't buy anything) but it's my blog, I make the rules, and I rather liked this picture. I don't think the trio of ladies talking in front of the picture were even aware it was there.

The National Gallery are bringing art to the masses this summer by hanging reproductions of some of their paintings on walls all around Soho and Covent Garden - they're calling it The Grand TourTM. This is An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright. I know next-to-nothing about art, but I know that I like this a lot.

Opposite this picture is Van Gogh's A Wheatfield, with Cypresses which seems far less impressive in this context. Go up to Soho this weekend and check them out yourself. No-one will believe you when you tell them that that was why you went to Soho, but we'll know.

On the discman today: AM and PM - The Dukes of Stratosphear Chips From The Chocolate Fireball

Day Twenty-Eight - Lord North Street, SW1

This morning was taken up by a meeting at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, so I had a different last leg of the commute than usual, going from Victoria Station to Westminster tube and then walking back to the Court via the Houses of Parliament. I took a nice picture of the statue of Oliver Cromwell which I was planning to share with you until I spotted this, cutting down Lord North Street. On the wall of one of the beautiful early eighteenth-century terraced houses - mostly owned by MPs and other excessively rich people - was this faded sign for an air-raid shelter, somehow preserved for the last sixty years. So now I know where to go when the bomb finally drops.

On the discman today: AM - Ground Zero Consume Red PM - Herbie Hancock Fat Albert Rotunda

Day Twenty-Seven - Battersea Park Station, SW8

Battersea Park station. Weird station, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the Battersea Dogs Home and some lovely gas holders. Number one in my occasional series, intermediate stations on my commute and no, this is not the series I mentioned yesterday - that's still to come. Hold your excitement in check, true believers.

On the discman today: AM - Area Arbeit Macht Frei PM - The Beatles Anthology-ology (my edited version of the six Anthology discs - two and a half hours instead of six and a half)

Day Twenty-Six - Victora Station, SW1

After the last couple of entries, I felt the need for a picture with a few people in it. This is the scene at half past five as I catch the train home from Victoria. It's often busier, but they've already announced my train so there's not so many people hanging about as there can be. I've had an idea for another picture in this series, but that'll have to wait for another day - one at a time.

I think it was Noel Coward who said that it was "extraordinary how potent cheap music is" On the journey to work this morning I found out how true that statement was. Not that George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" is particularly "cheap" - the recreational drugs bill of the musicians involved must have hit six figures for a start, and it was originally a triple album so not inexpensive for the punter to purchase either - but it's not the place I'd expect to get such an intensely emotional experience as I did.

"ATMP" was Harrison's first solo record after the Beatles' demise and while Paul sang about sheep on his farm with Linda and John indulged in primal scream therapy with Janov and Yoko, George was seen as the keeper of the flame, the one true hope that out of the mess of Apple and ABKCO there could still come great music. Most people will know "My Sweet Lord", the Krishna-celebrating number 1 single that trailed the album (and Harrison was later found to have unconsciously plagiarised from The Chiffons' "He's So Fine"), but that's just a slight morsel compared to the rest of the album.

Everything about this record is big. Really big. Three drummers, massed ranks of guitars, keyboards, horns and strings. Chord progressions of a blinding but beautiful simplicity. And who better to deal with the massed ranks of musicians (not forgetting the George O'Hara Smith Singers, or Mal Evans on tea, sympathy and tambourine) than the erstwhile Tycoon of Teen, the architect of the Wall of Sound, Mr Phil Spector?

Not every song on the record is a classic - I could do without "I Dig Love", for a start, and there's no real need for two versions of "Isn't It A Pity" - but George's reservoir of songs, dammed by Lennon/McCartney's historical dominance, flooded out over what were originally four sides of vinyl (let us not speak further of the "Apple Jam" LP that also appeared in the box) and rarely disappoint. For example, "Wah Wah", Harrison's dig at the whole Beatles experience, floods the listener with an almost joyous rejection of the past. "Let It Down"'s monster drum sound and cavernous, apocalyptic mixture of orchestra and Hammond organ (played by all, some or none of Bobby Whitlock, Billy Preston and Gary (Procol Harum) Brooker - you decide) is exhilarating.

But the epiphanal moment was "What Is Life". Listening loud on the way in this morning, looking out of the window unable to read or concentrate on anything but the deluge of music that was coming over me, suddenly I was experiencing a vision of being inside the music. Badfinger strumming till they bleed in the opposite bank of seats, Billy Preston on the luggage rack, cigarette drooping from his lips as he played the organ, Clapton strung out on the floor, attempting to find a solo that can cut through the wall of sound that Phil Spector, sat next to me, is orchestrating with unrestrained glee. Ringo and Jim Gordon behind me thumping out the rhythm, Klaus Voorman nodding his way through the bassline. Massed horns outside the windows, playing an almost flamenco refrain.

And Harrison, within me and without me, singing

"What I feel I can't say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

And tell me
What is life without your love?
And tell me
Who am I without you by my side?"

It looks a bit trite written down, and he was probably singing about Vishnu anyway, but in that moment of revelation he was also talking for me, and the realisation of the strength of my feelings toward my own beloved almost overwhelmed me. It was all I could do to keep from crying.

AM and PM - George Harrison All Things Must Pass

Day Twenty-Five - Maberley Road, SE19

When it rains heavily (and boy, has it been raining heavily recently - although not as bad here as in Gloucestershire, it did mean England were denied a victory over India in the cricket which had me rather miffed) all the soil from gardens around the junction of Maberley Road and Maberley Crescent runs down into the hollow where the roads meet, clogging the drains. It takes a while to go away, and meanwhile it smells of an odd mix of earthiness and, um, sewage. Lovely.

(worked from home on Friday as I had to be in for the loss adjuster to do his thing. This week I should be in work all five days, which must be a recent record)

On the discman today: AM - Jacques Lejeune Blanche Neige - suite musicale en 14 tableaux de jacques lejeune pour dire le conte et danser avec les enfants PM - Gil Melle The Andromeda Strain OST (twice - it's short)

Day Twenty-Four - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Back from the family seat, I was sitting on a station seat and looking to the heavens as another delay was announced. Above me was the pigeon-proofed roof of the station and I thought that this was a nice composition.

On the discman today: AM - Henry Cow Unrest PM - nothing, as I was rather drunk from the ASRA social

Day Twenty-Three - Somewhere between Watford Junction and Rugby

I did go home after work today, but instead of going to my normal SE19 home I was accompanied by my betrothed (pictured) to the family seat at Wilson Magna to attend to family business. Virgin Pendolinos are fast but they don't half shake you about.

On the discman today: AM - Michael Nesmith - Nevada Fighter and Tantamount To Treason (train so delayed I managed to listen to both on the way to work) PM - Kraftwerk Autobahn Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage: Animation Music and wedding talk.

Day Twenty-Two - Maberley Road, SE19

Maberley Road is full of cats. The look this one gave me when I tried to take its photo was as nothing compared to the look the schoolchildren gave me as they watched me take the picture.

On the discman today: AM - REM Lifes Rich Pageant PM - Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada

Day Twenty-One - Bressenden Place, SW1

A bit of colour to break up the drab steel-and-glass buildings. This is taken from what I suppose is the back of the sculpture, as you come out of the back entrance of Marks and Spencer in Cardinal Place.

Mattress update: it disappeared some time yesterday while I was at work. A public-spirited citizen, the bin men, or aliens?

On the discman today: AM - REM Reconstruction Of The Fables PM - Bill Frisell Rambler

Day Twenty - Victoria Station, SW1

That's London Brighton and South Coast Railway, one of the regional precursors of the Southern Railway, which was amalgamated into British Rail, which begat Southern (amongst others). This map - and another, which shows the links all the way down to the coast - are hidden in alcoves in one of the main entrances to Victoria Station and date back to before 1923, when the LB&SCR was swallowed up. You don't often see old maps like this preserved at stations (can't think of another offhand), so I'm always pleased to see it. 99.9% of people who go past it, of course, never even notice it.

On the discman today: AM and PM - eRikm and Dieb13 Chaos Club

Day Nineteen - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Clearing the gutters - and not before time, if the vegetation behind the chaps is anything to go by. However, when I came home this evening they'd not bothered to clear all the detritus on the right, so the next time it rains heavily it'll all clog up the gutters again. Sigh. If you're going to do a job, do it properly.

On the discman today: AM - Ground Zero Live 1992+ PM - Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Day Eighteen - Maberley Road, SE19

Ah, an Abel & Cole van. Told you I lived in an area full of young, affluent middle-class Guardian readers. The joy of London is that we're freely interspersed with the kind of people who leave mattresses in the road. It's still there, by the way.

On the discman today: nothing, as I had a headache.

Day Seventeen - Pulling into West Norwood Station, SE27

The antisocial youth that hacked these lines out of the seat in front of me was so pleased with his work that he signed it with his initials.

Mind you, I think his composition is quite good. And if he was an antisocial youth he probably would have left a tag rather than his initials. Hmm. I have a CD coming out that needs a cover picture. I wonder if "DG" is available for commissions?

On the discman today: AM - Stereolab Live Peel sessions at the QEH, 3 June 1999 PM - nothing, as I went to the cricket

Day Sixteen - Maberley Road, SE19

What is it with Maberley Road and mattresses? This is just a few yards up the road from where this one was.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Quickspace (Supersport) singles compilation CD-r

Day Fifteen - Victoria Station, SW1

Ever since the attempted car bombings last week you can't move for coppers in London, especially at travel termini. A community support officer was stabbed in Victoria Street yesterday, so it's all a bit tense around where I work. I'm sure these young ladies were just confused about where they could drop people off, though.

On the discman today: AM - The Cortet HHHH PM - Gene Clark No Other

Day Fourteen - Anerley Vale, SE19

Big thunderstorm on the way home tonight. I was sensible and waited in the station for it to subside, which meant I got to see these kids having fun in the huge puddle by Tesco once it had calmed down a bit.

It reminded me of when I was a kid in Port Moresby (officially the world's worst city to live in: it wasn't that bad in the early eighties) and the first rains of the wet season came. We'd be dancing around in the warm downpour, before floating toy boats down the channels the deluge made in the garden. After a week of heavy rain at 4pm every day it got less exciting though...

On the discman today: AM - Aix Em Klemm Aix Em Klemm PM - Bill Frisell Band Lookout for Hope

Day Thirteen - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

(been away for a week on holiday in Scotland - had a lovely time)

Today was the first working day of the smoking ban. As a non-smoker, I'm quite happy about this. When I first worked in the LCD in the early nineties you could smoke in the office before ten and after four and they'd not long got rid of smoking carriages on the Tube. Times change.

On the discman today: AM - The Skull Defekts Polonium (twice - it's only 20 minutes long) PM - Ry-om Ry-om