Living it up in Golder's Green

And by living it up, I mean I am living upstairs.

It's been a fairly hectic weekend. I finally moved out of the Barmy Badger, and am now living at a place in Cotswold Gardens, in the suburb of Golders Green, which, for all intents and purposes is sort of inner North London. I'm sharing the house with 3 other people - a South African guy, a Korean lady and a Ukrainian lady. Everyone seems reasonably quiet and tidy, the house is nice enough, public transport is close by, it's not that far from work - all in all I think I've fallen on my feet here. Mind you, it helped to be a bit choosy. Given that the Badger was a nice enough place, it meant I could stay there as long as I needed to before moving out.

Still, there is something very very satisfying about being able to shut the door and know that this is your room, and you're not going to have someone else barging in to get at their stuff, or what have you.

So, this is my new home. It's open to dossers as well, so, if anyone from back home gets that itch beneath their feet and finds themselves standing in Heathrow airport wondering where the hell they're going to stay, worry no longer, for you can crash here for a week or so till you find your feet.

Work has been proceeding apace - we're finally catching up on all the renewals and plowing our way through the immense backlog of stuff that has piled up over the understaffed months that existed before I arrived. Very enjoyable.

Apart from the move to Golder's Green, the only other episode of note was the massive party that went down at the Badger on Friday night. Parties there had been in short supply for some time from all accounts, due to the presence of a miserable old bag next door who complained at the drop of a hat. However, she has been "dealt with" - therefore the stage was set for a big outdoor piss-up in the backyard.

It was good to catch up with people that I'd seen, but hadn't really talked too much to. I also became very good at singing the old song, for example, if we're singing to Steve:

Here's to brother Steve, brother Steve, brother Steve
Here's to brother Steve, who's with us today.
He's happy, he's jolly, he'll drink piss by golly
So here's to brother Steve who's with us today!
So drink motherfucker, drink motherfucker etc etc

It's amazing how entertaining it is after everyone is well smashed.

Anyways, for the photos. Firstly, the house!


This is my room - the bed is pretty comfortable, and surprisingly, long enough as well. It's small, but it's at a good price, and I've no doubt I'll be sufficiently comfortable and whatnot while I'm here.


The front of the house. My room is above the front door, with the open window. The house is a standard terrace job - we have the right hand side and the owner lives in the left hand side. Seems a nice enough old geezer though, so I don't anticipate any issues.


We have Clinton on the left, who despite wearing a Hawthorn beanie is a bona fide South African. In the middle we have Steve the Kiwi, and finally we have Ian, who also hails from South Africa.


On the left we have Kieran, and on the right a guy from Tasmania whose name escapes me. In true Aussie style, Kieran finished the night by getting arrested for indecent exposure. The cops found him, blind drunk, taking a slash against the tyres of a Porsche Boxster, and when they asked him to put it away he waved it at them. Not the best response in history, it must be said.


Here we have Nick and Melissa - I can't remember who the guy behind them was. Nick's a champ though, and always good value. I shared a 4 bed room with Melissa early in the piece until I was moved down the hall. She's also good value, but had a bad night of it, since she got intoxicated to the point of throwing up in the hall and passing out on the stairs. Still, such is life.


Random badger dwellers.


And finally, the Sleeman's pint glass I swiped from the King's Head hotel. I figure it will come in handy at future LAN's or drinkathons - you could fit enough Coke/Beer in it to keep you going for half an hour.

Well, I think that about does it for this, my first blog entry from the new house. Pretty much the only downside is that I have to be up half an hour earlier to get to work, but that's a minor issue compared to how much better it is to have my own room again.