When they were boys, Alex Horne and Owen Powell obsessively collected Panini football stickers. Now the two friends have embarked on a more daunting task: instead of hunting down that elusive Portuguese striker, they are trying to find a person from every country in the world who lives in London.
Their quest for the 'World in One City' was launched on 24 October last year, United Nations Day. More than seven months later, they have ticked off more than half of the UN's 192 official nationalities, starting with the Philippines and leading in the last week alone to Albania, Finland, Uganda, Vietnam and Senegal, the 112th profile added to their blog, The World In One City.
The 2001 census said the capital contained people who said they were from a total of 243 countries. The pair, who perform separately as comedians, began their quest at Charing Cross - the official epicentre of the capital, from which all distances to and from London are measured - plucking up the courage to approach their first 'foreigner', Carl from the Philippines, who was guarding a motion simulator attraction in the Trocadero centre in Piccadilly.
Since then they have accosted road-sweepers, an emergency plumber, a work colleague, neighbours, waiters and, as the project has mushroomed, friends of candidates already signed up.
The website where their 'collection' is being logged lists the nationalities in the order they are found, generating a quirky and perhaps democratic view of the world.
And they're still looking for people from ...
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