Watching telly to pass the time

Well, I've now done 5 days as a "trainee" at the hostel, probably more than I needed seeing as things are only done slightly different here than at Kyleakin, but it got me hours and let the others keep their hours as well. Now I'm working the desk all alone like a big girl.

There's 186 beds in this hostel, making it about 2.5 times the size of Kyleakin. Right now, since it's December, we're certainly not filling those beds; typically we've had between a few people to 30-some per night. Last night we had seven people staying in the place, which made my afternoon-evening shift pretty uneventful. There's also a conference room that's rented out as well, so that's added to the business on a few days.

The hostel's conveniently just beyond the town centre, with a Morrisons supermarket just 5 minutes walk toward the centre and another 5 minutes takes you to the high street and the shopping centre. I can get to the library in under 15 minutes of walking.

The town is quite busy with shoppers, Christmas approaching and all. Also, Inverness is the only place with any extensive amount of shops in the north of Scotland, so for anyone from the northern Highlands or the islands, this is the closest place to do their shopping.

We get digital television at the hostel, and one of the stations (ITV2) airs "Due South". No wonder people often ask me about whether the Mounties really wear those red uniforms. That's the only Canadian-produced show I've seen on the air over here, but that doesn't surprise me. As for the American shows that air, they're pretty much all hour-long dramas about doctors, lawyers and police (that sums up most American dramas, actually) and none of the sitcoms unless you count The Simpsons.

I don't know what digital television costs, but it doesn't give you as many channels as a basic cable package would in Canada. It's certainly more than the usual five "terrestrial" channels (i.e. that you can pick up for "free" - you have to pay an annual license to have a television over here, so it's not really free).