Today is a great date

The 2nd May, 2025, doesn't look remarkable on the surface, but truncate it into its simplest elements, and you get this:

• 2/5/25

Which looks far, far nicer. Days of the form a/b/ab aren't all too rare, in fact they happen quite often, but in one century, you're not guaranteed all that many.

The first time this century that we had a date like this was the 1st January, 2011, or 1/1/11. From here, you can go right up to 1/9/19, so nine days in all. 2020 doesn't have such luck, there is no zeroth month, but 2021 has one - the 2nd January. That takes us to today, 2/5/25, which is halfway through this decade's progression; the next one is the 2nd June, 2026.

How many are there in total, then, across a century? Just the 81 - nine days in a decade starting from 1/1/11, and we go up to 9/9/99 - and 9² is 81. Excluding leap years, that means that 0.2% of all days follow the format a/b/ab. 

Today also marks 1/3 of a year having passed, today being the 122nd day out of 365. I too have no clue where the time has flied. Here are some unexciting stats:

• Number of blogposts in 2025: 37 (down from 54 this time last year). The most blogged topic is likely Merton, along with the odd physics/chemistry post.
• Blog views: 3971 (up from 654 this time last year). This is according to Blogger's ropey stats service; worth noting that May 2024 surpassed that tally with some help from multiple views from Hong Kong everyday, somehow.
• Number of photographs in 2025: 1,110 (far more than I expected)
• Most listened to artist: U2, at 156 (ahead of the Smiths, Gorillaz, and Magazine). Boy is a very great album, and I haven't wandered past Joshua Tree much.
• Range of results in maths tests: 53% 
• The hottest day of the year so far was yesterday - 29℃. Yet if we take the past two years as gospel, that shouldn't suggest the summer will be particularly glamorous. 

I really need to enjoy living in the moment, soon spring will be gone and then what?