Still unwell with the old eczema, I’m starting to worry about a trip to London I have to make on the 29th.
It’s an overnight trip for the film and I found a hostel ten minutes from where we’ll be working. As well as providing a bed for the night, I could use the hostel during the daytime (after 3pm anyway) to dip out of the shoot for some sudocrem and a lie down if things become overwhelming.
I went to book it today and – whaaaaa? – there’s an age limit. You can’t stay there if you’re over 36. I’m 42.
I stay in hostels quite a lot these days, but I’ve never seen that before. In fact, one of the things I like about hostels is the diversity of the people staying in them, different age groups being one of the things I’d noticed. When evangelising about hostels as a way to see the world, I’d even told people that “youth hostel” is a misnomer these days.
After abandoning a plan to buy a Central London building to start my own hostel exclusively for the elderly, I managed to find an alternative one. Cheap place to stay in Notting Hill are few and far between though, so the hostel I’ve booked into is a 25-minute walk from the shoot.
Pray for me, everyone. I am itchy and sore and seeping and at my wit’s end.
But I WILL be in London to talk to a man famous for melting ice in the 1980s.