Day Seventy-Six - Petty France, SW1

Ha! What did I say yesterday? Well, The coins gave me 64, Not Yet Fording for today.

As I said yesterday, my normal commute lasts about 55 minutes. Today's was blessed with lightning connections and no delays and I was at my desk 47 minutes after leaving my flat - about as fast as it's humanly possible to do. So today's picture shows my desk, taken 17 minutes after I arrived, made a cup of green tea, and while my colleague Steve (not pictured) was talking to me.

Trivia Dept: I bought the mug from Jerry's Home Store in Fulham (not there any more) to take with me on my first day at HQ in 1998. It has probably had no more than a dozen cups of coffee in it in the subsequent nine years as I'm a confirmed tea drinker, but when I bought it I'd not long come back from the USA and was strangely attracted to their diner crockery. It's proved to be very durable.

We moved in to Clive House in April 2004 and it's worrying to see from the telephone list how many people have moved on from my division in that time. Still, I'll be crossing myself off that list before too long.

Oh yes, the reading. "You are on the verge of an important change...do not do it yet. Gather your energy and make sure your plans are in order so you can make the crossing without getting stuck. This will bring you success...imagine you are the small fox and make yourself ready to adapt to whatever might happen...there are forces moving you into the right position."

This all chimes with current changes at work (not going into that here just yet, if ever) and my long term plans (I'm moving to Sydney with my beloved in late summer next year, assuming they'll have me). Hmmm.

On the discman today: AM - Miles Davis On The Corner PM - High Llamas Santa Barbara

Day Seventy-Five - Clapham Junction, SW11

Welcome to I Ching Fortnight on Commuted to Life!

I was beginning to feel that I was getting into a bit of a rut with these pictures. You may not see the patterns but I can, like the amount of pictures I've taken on the way home far outweighing those taken on the way to work. So I was wondering how I could freshen things up and, as is often my way, I started thinking of how musicians escape from the shackles of convention. It didn't take long for me to think of John Cage and his use of the I Ching as a framework for chance in his compositions, and as a method of determining how long each of the three movements of 4'33" should be. How could I use it to bring indeterminacy into my photographic process?

Well, I've done something simple. Each night I will consult the I Ching about my journey to work. The hexagram I end up with will inform that journey and the picture I take, but crucially the number of the hexagram - between 1 and 64 - will denote the minute of the journey when I take the picture. For the first week I'll take pictures on the way to work, on the second week I'll take them on the way home (and throw the coins at work, prior to departure). My journey normally lasts about 55 minutes, so you may end up with some pictures of home or work - contain your enthusiasm, please. For those of you who are interested, I use Stephen Karcher's translation.

Today's hexagram was number 32, Persevering, with a transforming line at the initial six. Quite an apposite one for a commuter I'd say. "This is a time to continue on, to endure on your path and do what is right...be constant, regular and stable. Persist in your way of life or the thing you are doing. This is not a mistake...If you contemplate where and how things persevere, you will see the deep purpose of all the myriad beings." The transforming line suggests that I am going too deep and "must let the situation grow and mature". Fair enough.

The picture, taken during the 32nd minute of my morning commute, shows the platform of Clapham Junction station and, yes, I am heroically, horrifically late. But I've got to keep on keeping on.

On the discman today: AM - Brian Eno Here Come The Warm Jets PM - Brian Eno Another Green World and yes, I have considered an Oblique Strategies week at some point...

Day Seventy-Four - Borough Market, SE1

Went home via Borough Market today, as I fancied some nice beer to drink on my night in alone. Utobeer has a fantastic stall there, probably the best selection in London, and they have a small pub just around the corner too (but that way madness lies).

I was going to take a picture of the shelves but the ginger-bearded owner was a bit on the grumpy side and I didn't want to look too much like a tourist, so you'll have to put up with a picture of this trolley, six-eighths of which I'd happily drink (never drunk Tui but if it's anything like any of the other NZ beers I've tasted I wouldn't expect much. And Toohey's Extra Dry? Surprised they bother with that).

On the discman today: AM and PM - rough edits of tracks for this Sunday's show. Picked up a couple of clangers, so glad I listened!

Day Seventy-Three - Maberley Road, SE19

This nub of a milestone denotes the boundary between the London Boroughs of Bromley and Croydon. Auckland Road gets shiny metal signs, but Maberley Road is left with this historic but virtually invisible marker.

On the discman today: AM - Neu! Neu! 2 PM - Lol Coxhill/Steve Miller Coxhill/Miller Miller/Coxhill

Day Seventy-Two - Victoria Street, SW1

The bus stop outside Selborne House - starting point for many a trip into the West End after work. This time I was going for dinner with some Australians.

On the discman today: AM and PM- more unreleased stuff, if I tell you what it is I'll have to kill you

Day Seventy-One - Anerley Road, SE19

Rainy morning. Nice to see that the white goods have got their raincoats on.

To see what I got up to in the evening, see here.

On the discman today: AM and PM- Boo Radleys Giant Steps

Day Seventy - Victoria Street, SW1

I don't normally crop pictures here: you usually see what the camera saw, unmediated by any postproduction jiggery-pokery. However, today's attempt to capture "corporate art" (a facile neon sculpture) through a window went horribly wrong. You could even see me taking the picture!

Hang on. You could even see me taking the picture. Hmm. And I also like the way the guy breaks through the reflection of the lights on the floor. Crop crop, and while we may not have a silk purse it's a lot less like a sow's ear than it was before.

On the discman today: AM and PM - some great live recordings which may turn up on audition in the next few weeks. Thanks Graham!

Day Sixty-Nine - Spenser Street, SW1

Bet you didn't know that the six-time World Snooker Final loser is now sponsored by A3 Car and Van Hire, did you? How the mighty have fallen, etc. He couldn't half play some shots though. And at least he didn't take part in this atrocity.

(bit of a cheat as I took this at lunchtime, but it was on one of my routes to the station so counts as far as I'm concerned. Nyah!)

On the discman today: AM - Peter Hammill A Black Box PM - Fred Frith Guitar Solos

Day Sixty-Eight - Victoria Street, SW1

You don't see people painting in oils on the streets of London every day. He's painting the armadillo-like Cardinal Place and was friendlier than he looks when I discussed it with him after I took the photo.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Charles Mingus The Young Rebel

Day Sixty-Seven - Victoria Street, SW1

If they have a smug sign printed and ready for window breakages, does that mean that Pret experience this kind of behaviour on a regular basis across the country? Could it be because, despite being founded by "College friends, Sinclair and Julian", Macdonalds now own a third of it, with an option to acquire the lot?

On the discman today: AM and PM - Michael Prime Borneo

Day Sixty-Six - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Moody and misty morning at the station. Autumn is here.

The floodlight you can see is from the athletics stadium.

On the discman today: AM and PM - The Moles Untune The Sky

Day Sixty-Five - Anerley Road, SE19

Back from a week off, mostly spent in Paris (very nice, thank you), and still slightly blurry, apparently, but not blurry enough not to notice that H A Marks, shadowy construction firm, have given themselves a new sign. It's like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory - no-one ever goes in, no-one ever goes out.

On the discman today: AM and PM - Soft Machine Out-Bloody-Rageous: An Anthology 1967-73

Day Sixty-Four - Cardinal Walk, SW1

Why anyone would choose to drink inside or outside a Ha!Ha! Bar in the middle of a shopping centre which at the best of times is a wind tunnel, paying £3.50 for a Magners or Kronenbourg Blanc, when there's tons of decent pubs in the area, is beyond me. But the Friday night suit crowd don't really care where they are, as long as Debbie from accounts is with them and they can get her drunk. And Debbie doesn't like pubs where you can't get cocktails.

(sorry for the blurriness - I promise I was sober when I took this! I appear to have accidentally deleted the sharper version when I came home from a couple of bottles of Herold Black and a pint of something else in, erm, The Postal Order)

On the discman today: AM - Shellac BBC live session 1 December 2004 PM - Art Zoyd Musique Pour L'Odyssee

Day Sixty-Three - Buckingham Gate, SW1

South Korean Embassy. Just in case you ever need to know.

On the discman today: AM - The Skull Defekts The Sound of Defekt Skulls and Intense Cranium Contact (Feedbacking Gothenburg and Chicago) PM - Lasse Marhaug Spaghetti Western Rainbow

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