Thought I’d dedicate my latest lunchtime blog entry to ‘ The Innovative Homeless Man Who Lives In A Shelter Opposite My Office’.

The gentleman in question has been residing in the abandoned car park opposite my office for the last few months; he’s probably about my age, average height, slim build, and now sports a rather bushy black beard.   He popped up in the Summer and has since built a little shanty town style shelter in the far corner of the abandoned tarmac, fully enclosed by a perimeter fence.

The shack he has built is situated underneath a large tree that has now shed all of it’s leaves; however it must have provided him with cool shelter on the warmer days that we enjoyed. OK, so that’s an exaggeration, Summer skipped us again this year, but it would have been a very good place to build a house had the heat wave kicked in!

The shack’s roof is made from a collection of signs and advertising boards, has no sides to speak of; but it seems to be doing the business.  The other intriguing thing about him is that he has been hanging his washing out over a metallic guard rail that he salvaged, and regularly beats his clothes to air them.  Almost Victorian in his daily living habits!

I have often mused where the man is originally from. He has a dark but grey complexion and high cheek bones with distinguished features; much like you’d see in parts of Iran, Afghanistan or possibly the more mountainous regions of Pakistan.  Maybe he’s from Bromley?  Who knows?  What I do know, is that this guy is living outside and the temperature is beginning to drop. He’s hardcore???

Then there’s also the consideration of his back story; is he a political dissident who has fled his native country perhaps?  Maybe he’s a former member of the armed forces in a country where regime change has kicked in?  For all I know, the guy is a brain surgeon?  I think my imagination has been a little kinder to him than the opinions of those around me, that’s for sure.  Tax dodger, asylum seeker, benefit tourist; you know the usual Daily Mail gumpf that I have to put up with.  So predictable and….zzzzzz.

So, I have decided to keep a regular eye on my new office hamster, I obviously won’t be taking him home during the Summer holidays, but I will try to post regular updates on Croydon’s new residential survivalist.

Here is a picture of him doing the off over the fence!  Off to lunch with local aristocrats perhaps, or just down to McColls to buy his lottery ticket?  Who knows????