Hello! For how many years have you been able to look through these bars and see, more or less, this view? Also, traditional, what time of day was the picture taken?

RESULT: it was Dorchester, successfully guessed by @mythalive.bsky.social. Surprisingly, several people got the right area of the country by sheer fortune. I'm afraid I was being a bit mischievous when I said 'easy one'. This was essentially impossible. Barred!!

Easy one to get you back in: in which town was this taken? It was a destination on my last tour, with a population of under 50,000.

(NORMAL 'BARRED' SERVICE RESUMES SOON.)

Last night was a blast. You went to Reverse Karaoke. You go in a booth, choose a song, they play the vocal track, and as a group you have to supply the guitars, bass, drums, other percussion and production. It's a lot of work and you spent a fortune on instruments. But you went to bed happy.

Heavens, what a night of dreams. For the third night running. Why did you dream that your cat was a pig? Why did you dream that you choked on a fig? Why did you dream the sky wasn't that big? Especially that last one. The sky is, very obviously, huge. Not ONE thing you dreamed was true. Again.

ATTENTION ALL THOSE WHO PLAYED THE COMPANY: BREAKING NEWS It's a long time since you escaped from The Company, but this morning when you woke up, something felt... familiar. There was a song in your dream that you almost recognised. You grope around in vain to recapture the melody.

AMAND-ED RESULT: it should be on the record that Amanda got it bang on. Very well done to her as well as Maayan. There were small clues in the Christmas lighting and Toronto itself was gettable but you needed some luck with the temperature. You. Are. Playing. Barred. (Sort of.)

Some excellent detective work, here. The temperature - as recorded on a phone note - was a chilly but not unbearable 5 degrees celsius when this was taken, in Toronto, on the 11th of December 2021 (it had been much colder a few days before, when I saw my favourite band there, two nights running).

What was the temperature when this photo was taken? Use celsius or fahrenheit depending on what you think is the appropriate choice for the country.

WAIT. Someone - @lizgwyn.bsky.social - had it BANG ON (although not necessarily by the right route). Very well done everyone. You are playing the prequel to a game called Barred.

RESULT: this picture was taken on London's South Bank at 6.14pm, in March 2022. @dryadula.bsky.social was incredibly close with 6.17pm, followed by @simonbissen.bsky.social 6.18pm. A lot were close-ish. Guessing the time of year was probably key. Some of you are very good at weird stuff.

A couple of people have got very, very close.

Again: the hour and minute this was taken, please.

The answer was 10.06am. It was taken in April 2022 on Swan Street Bridge, Melbourne, looking over the Yarra River: one of my favourite spots in the world. @mythalive.bsky.social was within ten minutes. Honourable silver medal to @louiejw.bsky.social.

THERE IS A NEW LEADER.

We've got a leader; someone was within 30 minutes.

This isn't a difficult spot to identify, but who can guess closest WHAT TIME OF DAY it was taken (local time)? Hour and minute.

Four people got this right, by DM; several more guessed inaccurately. A reminder, the game/story proper starts in a little while. This is all customer research. Thank you!

Where is this, then?

Again, thank you for your participation. I'm honing this idea. Meanwhile, for those of you who were The House/Company hardcore, we are slowly preparing the - ambitious, it must be said - third version.

So what about this: can anyone either identify it or guess where it is? Again, just for research purposes.

A couple of sharp-eyed, and brained, followers correctly identified the picture yesterday. The story/game/uncategorised project we're planning is much more complicated than just 'where's this picture from?' But it's a small component so I need to test how hard it is to do these things. More coming.

Thanks for following, everyone! A game will start here in a little while. Just to help me out: can anyone work out where the profile picture was taken, using some sort of reverse Google wizardry? It would be nice to know what the level is.