20 – A road sign in Caversham that I cycle past every morning on my commute to work

19 – The electronic dial on my cooker that tells the time (erroneously as I didn’t turn it back when the clocks changed in October)

18 – The greetings card section of my weekly supermarket of choice – Marks & Spencer in Broad Street, Reading

17 – A sign in a bus stop along the Kings Road in Reading (bus route 17 is the spine of Reading joining in the eastern suburbs to those of the west – if I take a bus, it’s invariably the number 17)

16 – The sign outside Gillotts School in Henley-on-Thames (an ’11 – 16 secondary’) where I worked until this countdown reached zero…

15 – The speed limit sign at Gillotts School painted onto the road just after the rickety wooden gate

14 – The chart on the back of my classroom door of the numbers in French from 1 to 99

13 – The day after George Osbourne’s autumn statement on government finances the papers – in this case The Guardian in Picnic Cafe, Reading – were full of reports, especially page 13

12 – My daily supermarket of choice, Sainsbury’s (also in Broad Street, Reading) supplied me with number 12 courtesy of the music chart

11 – I finally found an 11 on a lamp post during my cycle commute very close to the Berkshire-Oxfordshire border

10 – A house next to Forbury Gardens in Reading which has echoes of 10 Downing Street (I once saw some Japanese tourists taking their picture in front of the door)

9 – The symbol for Eurovelo 9 on the back of my Eurovelo overview map in my flat

8 – Outside my modern flat is an old gas bridge dating from 1880

7 – Picnic Cafe again in Reading (I visit for a coffee most mornings en route to work) where the clock had conveniently struck 7:18am

6 – Walking back to my flat alongside the Kennet & Avon Canal I found another lamp post with a 6

5 – The third appearance of Picnic Cafe whose address gave me an opportunity of including the number 5 in word format

4 – National Cycle Routes 4 & 5 cross in Reading. This sign is on the western side of the Oracle Shopping complex in central Reading

3 – I live on floor 3 at The Meridian in Reading (although I rarely use the lift when not using my bike which fits perfectly inside the lift)

2 – The street parking on Kenavon Drive which has recently been restricted by Reading Borough Council, the 2 referring to the minimum number of hours before you can return

1 – My classroom in Reading which for eight years has been my professional home, the French numbers strung from the ceiling have been there for perhaps five of those years