What I can tell is not true. My memory works so whimsical. Often I find it impossible to remember a name, a face, a phone number ... However, there are days of my life I remember precisely sick. I remember specific phrases of small talk, the blue sky and sea green on a gray day or the odd gesture of a passerby I crossed the street years ago that chalked superstitiously
There are also times that I remember but do not know with certainty whether they occurred or dreamed. This is one of them
for three long years I lived in London. The first twelve months in a place called Bowden Court. It is a different and difficult to classify. Bowden Court belongs to the London Hostel Association. An institution funded with public money that is home to residents of diverse nature. We have, for example, Asian students who stay in Bowden while doing college. There is a significant but not very large group that lives on Social Security benefits - heterogeneous group mentally ill more or less acute, battered women, the elderly on the edge of destitution and some more
The most numerous group are adventurers seeking wealth, knowledge or experience landing in London and stay as Bowden flies stuck to a spider web. Some go through travel agents who bribe Bowden direction to guarantee the availability of rooms and charge an exorbitant amount to their unsuspecting customers. Others end up in Bowden rebound after several unsuccessful attempts to obtain better accommodation. This was my case
Bowden's building on a quiet street close to Notting Hill Gate, do not call the attention of the passer when he passes by, unless the traveler is a mediocre artist seeking to portray a bland topic. The plant forms an L in the longer arm of which opens the main entrance. It has four floors in addition to the mezzanine or "basement." It also has several levels of basements are inaccessible to the public. Of them speak later
Entering the building are the reception, whose appearance is not marred more than a foretaste of what we will see later. After a glass, dark individuals from the worst places in the world catering to the newcomers. They are members of the "Staff". Many do the work in exchange for food and shelter, or in rare cases receiving a meager stipend. However behave with a certain arrogance, as they are considered a privileged caste in the building. On the right, opens a corridor giving access to rooms with more senior members of the "Staff" (the lowest category live in the soil)
To the left of the reception are and some of the rooms for residents. These are known as "zero rooms", in part because they have numbered plates beginning with the digit (001, 002 003, etc.), But mainly with reference to the comfort offered to guests - A human hosts, it is understood, cockroaches and bedbugs, however, has his Shangri-la
The corridor ends at the corner of the L which is the plant Bowden Court. That's where the main stairs of the building, which powered most of the residents in their transition from one plant to another, and not only pass, but sometimes they sit there and talk, talk on the phone, live or intimate moments with their partners
Descending the stairs you reach the "basement." Here are the main units in common use: the dining room, library , laundry and recreation room, better known as "TV room". The library is rather a study hall frequented by a few heroes, where the only books available are copies of lost or neglected by former residents who gather dust on a shelf of conglomerate
two washers in the laundry room tile take turns to systematically destroy the clothes bowdenianos (inevitably one of them is faulty.) Both they and the dryer have the personality and thought effeminate beings that feed on mismatched socks. Despite the rarefied air and gray of idyll has been forged encouraged by the electric heat stay
The dining room is one of the places that leave a deep impression on those who pass by Bowden Court. In their cheap tables covered with oilcloth tablecloths many times we eat something they should not properly be called food. Breakfast and dinner are included in the price of the room, and address ostensibly strives to make the most money. This is done shamelessly recycling so that the fillets on Monday and Tuesday become the burgers on Wednesday and Thursday and are in the croquettes on Friday until all the raw material is exploited
Time the dinner was entire daily ceremony. The first to appear were always those belonging to the group of social security recipients. There was an old man with a bizarre skin condition that made him look like a mummy. Legend has remained in a kind of coffin all day and just took off the bandages to go down to the dining room. Also notable was a mature Australian drinking problem and a histrionic personality that led him to continually deal with those who disturbed the peace by organizing parties in their hallway
's mascot was Richard Bowden, a big English-looking children and a moderate bipolar disorder. His day job was to tour the pubs in the area taking a pint in each and pestering the parish with their unsettling stories. The most famous was that of imaginary sheep graze only saw him in Hyde Park. Always appeared on time for dinner and then continued the evening in the TV room with cans of beer a pint and the company of the few who still laugh at his eccentricities. I remember sitting in an armchair drinking, chatting and watching football, lying so that her belly rose above his head, giving the appearance of a sleazy oracle
If the dinner was a ceremony the priest who officiating was the cook, a Frenchman who was ranked the because of their nationality than their culinary skills. Even on its Gallic origin had doubts, stating that he had been active for years in the Foreign Legion , which joined with God knows what crimes weigh on his soul, and in which obtained the rank of sergeant
with military dignity remained firm behind the counter where food was served, as if defending a trench in Algeria or the Somme. Wielding the spoon with virile and mocking gesture of arrogance, as if to say: "The food is crap, right? So to see who has guts to tell me to my face!
Time for Food was also a social occasion. Much care who they sit one, and the attitude for the collation. The jokes, the frustration or even anger rife on whether the quality of the food of the day was bad or worse. Sharks vultures and hyenas lurked the tables where sat a lonely freshman. Consolidated groups gathered several banquet tables to be authentic
groups formed by nationality, age, and length of residence. Novices tended to group together to protect, as herbivores of the savanna. Usually loners were anxious to queue for food. Then he ran a table looking doubtful like children lost in a department store. A few deliberately sought solitude. This was the case siyani, my roommate which I will discuss later
After dinner the bowdenianos were going to the "TV room", a smoking, chat, socialize, and primarily, to plan the play
night
(continued)
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