banazir: Would you prefer a hotel or a private room in a hostel in London for the night going out and the one coming back?
BANAMUM: Room? It's London! Who needs sleep?!
banazir: Wow, I'm impressed.
    - 22:30 CST

It's the Took blood! Seems it doesn't skip a generation. The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say. :-D
(Somebody remind me some time to tell you the story of my mother's father, who when to Tokyo to make his way in the world at age 15 and spent six years there by himself, earning his degree from Waseda University.)

Och, Aye, et cetera: here's a lodging update for the Edinburgh AI conferences.

The first train after our flight gets in, 10:30pm London time on Sun 24 Jul 2005, is 11:20, and it gets in around dawn. The next one is 6am to 11am. Ergo, we wouldn't have time to check into a hostel anyway, or so I reasoned. I forgot that the conference actually starts bright and early on Tue 26 Jul 2005.

So, in true banazir fashion, I ended up booking all three hostels:

• The Globetrotter Inn London on 24 Jul 2005


• EuroHostels from 25 Jul 2005 - 28 Jul 2005


• Edinburgh City Guest Hostel from 29 Jul 2005 - 04 Aug 2005

Thanks to all who advised!

In other news: On an unrelated note, I have some leftover paid LiveJournal time to give away. Would anyone like some, or does anyone know of someone who needs it?

--
Banazir