I’d hoped that my National Insurance Number would make it to the hostel while I was still there, but as time went on it started looking less and less likely, so I made some alternate plans to leave a forwarding address for the blasted thing. I’m told that the situation can be be both better and worse if you’re applying as a non Citizen; They don’t do the interview, and you just post off a form instead, but it takes forever to come back, and they can’t cope with the the idea that your address might change.

As it happens, I’d checked out of the Barmy Badger, and had left my bags there during the day while I got myself sorted for the train to Inverness. I’d even checked that they were OK with forwarding the mail to a friend, and that said friend was OK with opening the mail and letting me know the details.
Then the letter turned up in that day’s post, and they put it on my bags for me.
I like that hostel.

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There were some foggy days as December ground on, though they sadly don’t show up all that well in photographs.

What does show up is the apparent civic art approval for a sunbeam, possibly due to rarity.
And also a pigeon perched on the tip of the thumb.

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Most of the houses on the street the Badger’s on look like the ones below, an I’m guessing the floorplans are mirrored.

Then there’s this one, which looks to be part of a building on Earl’s Court Road, where the design brief was “Make it look like the rest of the buildings, but also like it’s from an alternate dystopian London, and if you can make it resemble a prison, that’d be awesome”.

The Badger slowly emptied in the lead-up to Christmas.
My understanding is that they were taking no bookings at all for the Christmas period, and the only folks remaining were going to be a few of the long-term residents, rattling around in a five-story hostel.

A number of the long term folks were from Europe, and so were heading off, or from elsewhere in the UK – The few remnants seemed to be Australians, with one South African, for whom heading home was impractical.

One of the ‘passing through for a while’ crowd headed for Poland a week or so back, to spend Christmas somewhere cheap and scenic, with snow.
Looking at the rain outside in Inverness, and the storm that’s heading towards pretty much the whole of the UK, … I’m not certain that he didn’t make the right call.

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And then the train.
Tamsin & I took the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness, and … It was pretty comfy, despite opting for seats over an actual sleeper compartment, and it being a sleeper means they give you oodles of time to get on board, which is always nice.

Surprisingly, I actually slept a lot. Woke up in a few stations, including Edinburgh at 4am or thereabouts.
Got to the Struy Guest House at … midmorning? … and while there was nobody there, our room/dorm was ready and the owner was kind enough to talk us through getting in, so we were able to deposit the entirely too heavy and numerous bags.

This post brought to you by Oh Hiroshima’s album “In Silence We Yearn”

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It’s been a while, so I figured it was time for an update, even though there’s not a huge amount to tell.

I had my NiNo interview, for the magical number which allows you to pay tax and access medical care, sometime last week.
This involved a bunch of sitting around, but a fairly pleasant interview, where the Jobcentre person filled out the form & fudged the appropriate bits which might cause trouble, like my NZ Social Security number.
He wasn’t sure what that might be, didn’t have info on what it might look like, and advised me to go with “I Don’t Know” rather than guessing, as a wrong guess sees the form sent back.

I’m bringing this up because the relevant people called me today to check the address, so with luck I’ll have the number in a week. Might need to get my mail forwarded if it’s not here before I leave.

Someone contacted me, via LinkedIn, about a possible job in Edinburgh.
Probably they did a search on ‘GIS’ & ‘Edinburgh’, because … well, I’m not the guy they’re after, and my profile shows it.

Had to move out over the weekend, partially because the hostel gets booked out, but also because I wanted my own room for a few nights; Some of that was because recording a Big Red Couch episode is tricky in a hostel, given time zones and the like, and some was because I really didn’t want to hear someone else snoring while I was trying to sleep.
There had been a bad one in our room; Nice chap, but Jesus Christ On A Big Purple Tractor was he loud.
At the start of the night there was the concern that, after a suddenly-aborted SNORRK, he’d stopped breathing & we’d need to resuscitate.
By the end the thought process was closer to “If He Dies, The Noises Will End”.

Said person was travelling in the one-bag style, so I got to see one of the backpacks which folks have reccomended for carry-on only travel; He’d selected it as being just within the restrictions for cabin baggage, and it did look nifty.

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The weekend hostel was in Wood Green, in the Norf of London, and was in theory aimed at artistic and creative types.
Not sure whether they managed it, and I’m unsure how to review it, because it had the least vibe of any place I’ve stayed in yet, and I’m including the bad places in that assessment; The place by St. Pancras may have been a relic of the 70’s, but “shambles” is still a vibe.

This was like staying in an art gallery between shows.

I think I saw other people a couple of times, but most of the time it felt like it was just me, rattling around in a shuttered art gallery.

The room, however, was nice.

There was a cafe & restaurant down at the ground floor, doubling as reception, and performance spaces upstairs.

WiFi was a bit rubbish, sadly, but we got the recording done.

This is another one of them there consolidated update posts.
Just so’s you know.

First up, a few photos which didn’t make it into the last post, but which I quite liked.

Greenwich looking all sparkly,
Greenwich is crawling with markets – There’s the big mostly covered one which takes up the inside of a ‘block’, but there’s also this one, which worms it’s way back into a forgotten/unused space between buildings.
Then there’s another one which pops up on weekends.

The Cutty Sark about to set sail for Christmas deliveries on strange foreign shores,

And a strange visitor to Earl’s Court.

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The Barmy Badger has a number of long-term residents, probably because it’s a nice place.
No on-site bar, so it’s pretty quiet, and a damn good kitchen for a hostel.

Naturally the gas ignition doesn’t work – That seems to be the norm for many gas stoves.

View from the room.
I’m in a different room to last time, on the other side of the building and with one fewer flight of stairs, which is no bad thing.

This one has an ensuite bathroom, though there are hot water pressure issues at time; Best guess is that a couple of other bathrooms have pump-assisted showers, so if there’s someone using both of them there’s nothing left.

Also, triple-decker bunks, which I’ve not seen in many years.
Middle one is mine – The floor-level option was already taken.

The existing crew were a guy from France, one from London, and a Canadian – A couple of Australian backpackers showed up later.

Getting in … Took some figuring out.
It’s far enough up that I can’t climb in directly, and a running leap seems ill-advised.
My best technique involves stepping up and getting a knee in, followed by some tricky shifting of balance, but seems to work.

One of the Australian backpackers may have fallen off the top bunk; There was a sizable crash at 1am and some muttering from floor level.

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Did some wandering around as part of the ‘getting things done’ process, and found myself wandering through Trafalgar Square, where they’ve replaced the giant blue rooster of a few years ago with what I’m assuming is a tribute to Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.

Saw the Changing of the Guard at Horse Guards Parade more or less by accident; I was looking to cut through to the next road, but they were ushering people out of the way, and into viewing areas, so I hung around to see why.

Does anyone else think the London Eye looks like it’s lurking behind the building in this shot?
It looks like it’s up to something.

Various photographers in action; Folk get yelled at if they cross the line of the chain.

Tried to get a picture of the guy in the blue jacket taking a selfie, but the phone is not fast.
I did get him looking dynamic in his post-selfie stance though.

And Giant Disapproving Techno-Owls; In times of trouble, they transform into giant fighting robot owls.
True story.

Somewhere on this wander, probably in Leicester Square (wasn’t paying attention at the time, and was heading ‘Generally East’), I went through a little Christmas Market, so it seem that’s not just a Greenwich thing.
Got to try raclette from a little kiosk, and it was everything I thought the gooey melted cheese on bread could be.

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Winter Wonderland is a thing they set up in Hyde Park, and I had some time to kill, so I eventually wandered around it.
I say eventually because their mobile site lacks a map showing where the bloody site is within Hyde Park, and Hyde Park is on the large side; Just a map of the layout of rides and stalls and suchlike, and some advice on which roads/tube lines to travel by, neither of which are that much use if you walked from Earl’s Court.

It’s a Christmas Themed fair, with booze.
Lost count of the number of Mulled Wine / Glühwein vendors, for the authentic Northern Christmas experience.
Also places where you could get the traditional Christmas Churros, and of course a festive Shwarma.

Might have to go back and photograph the festive Schwarma place.

The enormous animatronic fellow pictured here stood guard over the Bavarian Village; There was nothing there specifically called “Von Strudel’s Cliche Hut”, but, as they say, it’s the vibe.

For all that it’s easy to take the piss out of, Winter Wonderland was fun just to wander around in;
The site is huge, and the little paths wind around, so you’re constantly finding a new row of stalls selling Christmas Crap, or another Mulled Churro Bratwurst vendor (I’m pretty sure I spotted one of those), or yet another fun-house (those things seem to be really popular here).