Hot Cars and Hostels

Let me first start by saying that for anyone staying in London, if you're looking for a place to stay more than a week or two, avoid the Barmy Badger Backpackers. The beds are nice, the kitchen is well equipped and the rooms, are, well, roomy. It's nice - except for one thing. It's one of those places where there tend to be a lot of long-term residents. This creates a situation where 80% of the people tend to be stand-offish and rude towards the 20% of people who are only staying there temporarily. A clique of ladies dominate the TV. They always keep at least 5 of themselves in the room, so even if only 1 of them is watching the show in question, the other 4 can quickly say "oh, we're watching it too" and hence ensure a majority for viewing rights. The backyard bbq area is apparently for "residents" only - I got a few weird looks when I went outside to read a book. But fuck 'em. We're paying our money, just as they are, so I stayed as long as I wanted. God knows I lived with enough psychos, nutters and nasty individuals at Ninth av and Pickering st to be worried about what some pissant ex-pat aussie thinks.

Some of them have apparently lived in this place for over a year! A year! Single rooms in share houses are at least £20-£30 quid cheaper than this place. But they stay, because secretly they know that no normal person would put up with them. It's a place for social outcasts. At least we're only here another two weeks. By then I'll have a job, and a place to stay. It'll be nice to have my own room again.

But (and there's always a but in my blogs) one benefit of these miserable pricks moping around the building is the fact that I spend a fair bit of time out in London. For a person like me, who has a fetish for high performance European cars, this place is heaven. Porsches are everywhere. So are M Class Beamers. S-Type Jags adorn every road. I've also seen Lambos, Ferraris, Maseratis, Astons, Lotuses, a Koeniggsegg and even a Bugatti Veyron. The clunk from my jaw hitting the ground upon seeing the last one would've registered on the Richter scale.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned roost of couch hens prevented me from watching Top Gear tonight. Maybe I'll get a chance on Tuesday, you never know. Probably not. Still, I can always download it.

So, in summary - hostel residents are the scum of the earth. Most of them have forgotten what it's like to be Australian, and have turned into miserable, pasty-faced, tight-fisted, mean-spirited pommy bastards. But the cars here take your breath away.

It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.