1. Riding at the front of the DLR, obviously.
2. Being asked directions by a tourist and actually being helpful.
3. Being able to walk to a party.
4. Meeting someone who lives quite near you, someone who might invite you to a party you could walk to one day.
5. Seeing your area on TV.
6. Especially if it’s a challenge on The Apprentice.
7. When the Oyster card machine is broken on the bus and the driver just waves you on.
8. Being on the top deck of the bus on your own (this is also mildly terrifying).
9. Recognising total strangers from your commute.
10. Seeing a fox.
11. Seeing a terrapin.
12. Seeing a parakeet.
13. When there’s a tube strike and you can work from home (unless you can’t work from home then this is very bad).
14. Getting a seat in a pub. Just any pub, anytime, anywhere in zones 1-3.
15. Getting a table outside in a pub that has a nice beer garden, on an actually hot day. (Actually this is not mildly thrilling; it’s a miracle.)
16. Paying less than £3.50 for a pint.
17. Getting something free from Pret.
18. When something so weird and crazy happens that you actually make eye contact with a stranger to confirm that what you just saw wasn’t just normal London, but extra London.
19. Remembering an umbrella.
20. Getting the right exit at Old Street.
21. Choosing the right tube carriage so that when you get off you can go straight to the exit.
22. Falling asleep on the tube, but waking up just before you have to get off.
23. When someone else confronts someone on the tube about not moving down the carriage.
24. When you bump into someone you know, but instead of it being painfully awkward, it’s actually nice and you go and have a coffee together.
25. When you see someone you know, and it would be painfully awkward, except they don’t see you.
26. When you walk past one of those charity people in the street, and you manage to look mean enough that they don’t try to talk to you.
27. Leaving work on time.
28. And then having an incident free commute.
29. So that you actually get home in time to watch The Simpsons.
30. Going to a bar where you don’t have to pay entry, they’re not playing house music, and the drinks are less that £4 each.
31. Seeing people from your work on Tinder.
32. Matching with someone from your work on Tinder.
33. And then never, ever talking about it with them.
34. Leaving London and seeing an actual sheep.
35. Leaving London and seeing the actual sea.
36. Leaving London and seeing actual stars.
37. Going to a tourist attraction, like you don’t actually live in London, and then it actually being good.
38. Being handed a free sample at a tube station (even if it’s some health food that tastes like seeds).
39. When your local supermarket gets upgraded to a slightly more middle class supermarket and you reap the benefits of gentrification.
40. Likewise when the new trendy burger chain opens a branch in your area.
41. When you see a police horse just trotting down the street like it’s no big deal that it’s a horse.
42. Discovering a new park round the corner from your house that has been hiding there this whole time.
43. Promising to go to see a friend that lives on the other side of the river, and then having them cancel on you, so they have to come to you next time.
44. Having an excuse to go on the Thames Clipper.
45. Walking across Waterloo Bridge and realising that you live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
46. Getting a free spicy wing in your Chicken Cottage box.