It didn’t even come with a seat belt.

March 7th, 2010

 Ever get that feeling that you’re being ripped off? As I drove the big bus north away from where I had brought it I began to get that feeling more and more. I brought it on eBay, where generally I have had no major dramas buying stuff. However I have found that the sellers were less than honest with me. For starters they never mentioned that it did not have power steering. It is a bastard to steer. Then they did not mention the rust spots, or the storage bin that had a “hole” in it when I later found out had the whole floor cut away.

By the time I got this giant back home I was stinking in sweat and totally stressed. With now power steering it was hard to steer. Then there was the air over hydraulic brakes where my foot went almost to the floor before they had much effect. But they at least did work. Unlike the temperature and oil gauges. I pretty much made the decision that I’ll sell it and try to recoup my money. I have already listed it on eBay again.

I am just incredibly disappointed in the sellers for being so blatantly dishonest with me. If I had been told of all the issues with it I’d have never brought it. I’d have never forked out for a plane and train ticket to go buy it. I can’t abide by dishonesty. I am also disappointed in myself for not inspecting it more and for not sticking to my guns and saying no.

Well now I have to play the waiting game till some one buys this thing and I get my money back.

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Another slow day today.

March 5th, 2010

I’ve kind of isolated myself a bit yesterday and today. The “talk” phone call really rattled me a fair bit. Having my feelings treated like a door mat just hurts. I really don’t feel like talking to people about them. Which is kind of weird because here I am typing away to an unknown audience about them. I some times wonder if anonymous people on the web care, and if they do, what they can do about things. Probably nothing. I need to get some of these feelings out though, so well this is a release.

I have been pondering my future a bit. We all do from time to time. It is money again. The need to earn an income. The need to have a place to live.

Some times I think that I’d like to just head out from society for a while. Live out in the wilderness. Get away from society. I mean think about this, if you ever read Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe  did you want to be Crusoe? Or did you want him to get off the island? Me, I wanted to be Crusoe. I could easily handle living on an island by myself. No one to hassle me. No one to judge me. No one bugging me.

Now you may wonder why in a society I’d want this. Because I want company too. I crave some one to talk to, some one to care for, some one to love. But I guess I have just resigned myself to the fact that will not happen. People just are not to in to people that don’t fit the gender stereotype. Well some people are, but they’re generally males of low intellect and some way out there ideas of sexual relationships. Sorry, but while my body may not be “normal”, I suspect my ideas of love and relationships may be.

Hence the occasional desire to just get away from people. To become an island, or to perhaps live on one. It is no surprise that many of the people who have inspired me outside of the vandwelling world are those who have done just that.

Tom Neale  springs in to mind. He spent several years over three separate periods from 1952 to 1977 on an island way out in the Pacific. I have read excerpts of his book “An Island to Oneself” which is a superb read. I was delighted in the wonderful descriptions of the island itself, of Tom’s cabin, of the building of his small sailing boat, and his adventures on the island. Tom was also a cat fan like myself, he took two cats with him to the island. I myself could quite easily live on an island alone with the company of a couple of cats. Though unlike him I’d make a point of ensuring that they did not breed. I would not want to be responsible for another environmental disaster like Macquarie Island .

Tom had a staged approach to living on the island. After returning to his Native New Zealand after the first stay on the island he planned for the second stay. Having learned from his first stay, he equipped himself with resources that he needed.

I quite like that he took chickens with him. One of my other great inspirations, Christopher McCandless died in the Alaskan Wilderness in part because he was spending a large amount of his energy looking for food. Chickens are like food gathers. They evolved in the jungles of South East Asia (where they are still wild today). They will spend their time scavenging around eating food that you and I would not only never consider eating, but probably could not eat. Then every morning, the female chickens pump out an egg full of those nutrients in a condensed form. I would imagine that with a dozen chickens, one could simply not starve as long as the chickens could scrounge something to eat. And such brilliant scavengers they are! I’ve owned chickens before.

They are not bad company. They are actually quite social and attentive. You can call out “here chuck chuck chuck!” and they will come and follow you. For a while. Once they work out you are not going to feed them, they loose interest.

Yep, Tom had the right idea. A small flock of chickens, a small vege garden and a hut out in the Pacific. I could handle that easily.

Another inspiration is Lucy Irvine . She answered an advertisement from Gerald Kingsland with whom she later spent a year with on Tuin Island in the Torres Strait. Tuin calls me some times. It is north of me, as far north as you can go almost and still be in Australia. It isn’t very big. Just a few kilometers from the nearest airport on Badu Island. I could go there if I had some money and time. It would not be too hard to organise I think. Yes, I’d need permission from the local land council. But I figure it could be done. Maybe one day. Mind you, the fact that we are in the worst drought in living memory and that the island has very limited (if any) fresh water might be an issue.

But Tuin, one day I must go there. Being Indigenous, I’d also like to make it out to see Eddie Mabo’s  grave on Mer island to pay my respects.

I once met with a bunch of Torres Straight Islanders at a cultural festival. They were great people. I talked with them about Eddie and Mer. They invited me to come visit. Sadly I never kept in touch after forgetting their names in a few hours. One of my big regrets.

Keeping with the theme of modern day castaways is Xavier Rosset (http://www.watoday.com.au/world/swiss-explorer-casts-away-in-pacific-tonga-20090715-dkym.html) . Xavier just so happened to choose the one island I would have for his self imposed isolation. Tofua out in Tonga really stands out on Google Earth. It is a classic collapsed volcano cone. Obviously some time in the past it exploded, blew away the top of the cone and now has a large lake in the centre. It also is covered in lush vegetation and from what I have read, does have some good sources of fresh water.

I note that there is a small volcano evolving in the remains of the old cone. As if to say “I’m not finished just yet”. Okay, volcanoes scare me. They are a powerful force of nature after all. I mean they devastated Pompeii, didn’t do well to the communities of Mount Saint Helens and Pinatubo’s ash cloud managed to out run fleeing vehicles. Should I even get started with Krakatau? They heard it from as far away as Darwin in Australia you know. The biggest bang since asteroids rained down on us.

But I imagine that little cinder cone might stay relatively quiet for a few years yet. It could be fun bundling up a meal into a metal crock pot and tossing it on the end of a bit of fencing wire into the volcano for a bit of mother nature cooking. I am sure that there would also be a way of creating hot water from that thing. Or not. I’d have to hike up to it though, if just to assess it and its potential threat to me.

Another big (and I do mean big!) inspiration for me is Christopher McCandless, or as he liked to be known as, Alex / Alexander Supertramp.
Chris McCandless  is most well known not for his life, but for his death. He died alone in Alaska after spending 113 days alone out in Alaska on the Stampeded Trail. Yet the life that he lived was amazing. Travelling across the United States. Sneaking into Mexico. Working when he needed to. Travelling when not working. Having a brilliant life really. Because it was a brilliant life. He simply shone. Loved life, lived it to the full.

I should mention how I first found out about Chris McCandless. It was Google Earth. Yep, Google Earth. I was just doing some virtual tourism around Alaska and was cruising through Alaska thinking that yeah, it would be a nice place to live away from people if only it was not so cold. Then there was a little place mark that read “Christopher McCandless”. It expanded from there. I read a little about him. Then read more, discovered more. Read “Into the wild” and more.

I was happy to find out that Ken of the Spartan Student blog worked in the region that Christopher McCandless spent his last days in. It was good to read his perspective on Chris. It was also great to see that Chris was an inspiration to another free spirit out there.

There is a lot of debate as to if Chris McCandless was an idiot, or a genius. Hero or hopeless. On one hand he lived an amazing life. On the other, he died along in the Alaskan wilderness. I like to see him as a guy like many other guys who took a gamble to have an adventure and sadly lost that gamble.

I don’t see Chris as being a great deal different than some of the world’s finest explorers. As a race, humans don’t always succeed the first time around. Take the south pole in Antarctica. Scott  and his party were not considered idiots or fools for attempting their expedition to it. In hind sight yes they were not adequately prepared, but they must have thought that they were or they would not have attempted the journey. Similarly before Mount Everest was climbed by Tensing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, George Mallory  attempted a climb. It may never be known if he made it to the top. However, he certainly attempted it, and died in the attempt.

Humans will always strive for a new goal, do things never done before, take risks, and some times fail. No one would consider Scott or Mallory to be fools. They knew the risks, but they still took them. Similarly, Alex had researched the risks and equipped himself with what he thought he needed to survive. Like Scott and Mallory, he was inadequately equipped. He took some risks, informed risks, but risks that did not pan out. It happens daily in life. People take risks, some pay out, some don’t.

Which brings me to some I am considering.

I work in the IT industry. That’s the Information Technology industry. I work In Canberra, Australia’s capital city. F you ever get the chance to visit here don’t. It’s a hole. Not at all like some of those wonderful capital cities I have visited like London, Paris, Bern, Rome, Amsterdam, Washington, Berlin, Copenhagen, Kula Lumpar, Pnom Phen or Hanoi. No, Canberra is a hole. Avoid it and visit Melbourne and Sydney instead.

There is a lot of IT people here. A lot of government jobs. But competing for them is a nightmare. The process of answering the selection criteria is just hit and miss, You might address each selection criteria to the best of your ability but it usually comes down to the inexact likes and dislikes of the selection staff. Quite often, the best qualified person does not get the job. Even if they do, what becomes of the second or third best qualified people? They never get the chance to become the best qualified because the best qualified are getting all of the best jobs and the best qualifications.

I am one of thousands of IT staff applying for only a limited number of IT jobs. I don’t have what it takes to compete. Lack of self esteem and anxiety don’t help. Besides which, I just no longer enjoy IT work.

So I am thinking of going back to university and doing a psychology degree. I enjoy helping people. I’d much rather help people than fix their computers. Even when I fix computers the best part of it is talking to and reassuring the people. So, to do a psychology degree.

Mind you, I’ve just about finished paying off my student loans from my first degree. So another four years of poverty and owing more for HECS (an Australian student tax) does not appeal to me. I may have to take Ken’s path and become another Spartan Student.

But the future is unwritten. I will have to make some decisions soon. But for now, I just work, earn money and try to handle what comes my way.

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Friends or users?

March 4th, 2010

Bit of a slow day at work today.

I like a busy day at work. It makes for a fast day. It gives purpose to life. To be doing something. To be achieving something. But today has been a bit of a slow one. There is a lot of frustration to be had when you have a task to achieve, a limited time to achieve that task and your direct supervisor has more or less instructed you to hold on with the task till they get back to you. Probably not their fault. They have work to do. But frustrating for me as I can see this task easily sliding behind she dual. That’s not good because I am only employed here till April 3rd. There is no chance of extension.

Being employed for a fixed period is very annoying. I mean I am now out there hunting for new jobs where others are sitting and complaining about the jobs they are doing. And do I ever mean complain. Nit picking over all sorts of things. I meanwhile would be thankful to have employment beyond the 3rd of April. I have busted my gut trying to do my job, trying to impress and well, it is all for naught. So, off to the job hunt again. Frustrating because I like so many of the people I work with here. Just a few are negative.

Had a bit of bad news last night too. I made a friend in a group which I am a member of. A nice woman who was just kind to me. I would have liked to have developed that friendship further, but she made it clear that she did not want to, and I accepted that. So I had been calling her now and then as a friend. Only she had been making excuses again and again that she was busy, or that it was a bad time for me to call.

Well I can take a hint, so I just stopped calling her. So last night I get a call from a sort of senior member of the group who said that she wondered if I could pop by to have a “talk”. And I just knew it would be one of those “talks” where pretty much she was going to put me down, harass me for something or generally give me a hard time. I’d had one of those “talks” before over my lack of religion. You know, the sort of talk you just don’t want to have.

So I ask what the “talk” would be about. So she said it was about this friend of mine. I asked if she was okay, because like me, she suffers from depression and anxiety. The woman on the phone danced around the issue a bit before saying that my friend didn’t want to talk to me any more.

Fine, I can handle that. Friendships don’t always work out. But gee, what a way to be told. Instead of direct, through some “chain of command” in this group I am a member of. Great.

I mean no consideration about my feelings. Just “she does not want to talk to you any more.” While I can understand and accept that, I am getting tired of being people’s door mat. I make a genuine effort to be friendly and nice to everyone I meet. But when they find out that I am a hermaphrodite I just get dumped like a hot potato. Other people are fine with me helping them out, driving them around, but have no real interest in being a real friend to me. I’m tired of being used. Tired of being the “reliable” old me who will be there for others, but others are not there for me.

Time to change that I think an weigh up if helping out these people really is worth it.

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Anxiety and the unknown future

March 3rd, 2010

Anxiety.

I suffer from anxiety a lot. You see the future is an unpredictable thing. You just can not tell what life may bring you. I have been employed gainfully one day, then unemployed the next. Without employment you just don’t get money. Without money, you can’t buy food. Without food, well you just die eventually.

My current job ends in a month. 30 days of income left. I am looking for other jobs but it is not easy. Lots of competition. Lots of applications. The applications are not easy either.

Added to all this, I am about to spend my savings this week end on a new bus. Well new to me. It is old, older than I am. But it has been renovated and has a new engine. So I will spend all of my money, and some of next fortnight’s pay buying this bigger bus. If plans go well I will then sell my smaller bus and use the proceeds to fit out the bigger bus. This will allow me to have enough space to live in rather comfortably. I can have a full size bed, a full size desk, book shelves, a kitchen, shower stall, laundry alcove, larger water tanks, some serious solar panels, gas tanks (for the stove) and most of all a small lounge with a second bed for visitors.

This is all outweighed by the weight of the new bus. It will weigh seven point something tonnes as compared to the four and a half tonnes of my current bus. That’s not bad though. The fact that the new bus is almost double the size would typically mean it would weigh twice as much. It has been restored though with aluminium and fibreglass. This reduces its weight.

The new bus also has a V8 LPG motor. It can use LPG which in Australia is a LOT cheaper than diesel which my other bus runs on.

Still, this is a big thing for me. I will go from some savings to no savings and some debt. And soon to have no job. I just hope this gamble pays off. I should be able to pay off the debt in two weeks. By the time my job finishes I should have about $1000 in the bank. Not much, but enough to fix some minor things on my small bus and sell it.

So if the gamble pays off I will have a bigger, more comfortable bus that will never rust, and with room for guests.

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To down size, or up size.

February 27th, 2010

 For quite a while I have been wondering if I should down size my belonging, or upsize my bus. Down sizing has definite advantages. Less stuff and less weight means less fuel. Upsizing also has advantages. More space, more room and more ability to keep hold of things that mean a lot to me.

It is that old argument, do you own your possessions, or do they own you?

Or in my case, how long do I want to live in a mobile home? In a small one, there will always bee compromises, lack of space and lack of room to move. But that’s the beauty of small camper vans / motor homes. You can move around, and frequently. Still with a big motor home there’s plenty of space to move around inside. You can achieve a level of comfort that you can’t get in a small van or motor home.

So, size has won out. Having wanted to upsize to a larger bus I’ve researched the prices, what you get for money and so on. When I spotted a bargain, I contacted the sellers and have ut a deposit on a bus. It is a 30 foot / 10 meter bus with the seats already removed. This should give me plenty of room for a bed room with my existing bed and desk, toilet, bathroom, small laundry, kitchen and lounge with spared beds. There should be ample storage, room for guests and plenty of food storage. There will plenty of room for solar panels, an external bay for deep cycle batteries, a large water tank, room for two 9 litre gas bottles and more. I will be able to fit it out from scratch with the money I get from selling my existing camper van.

I have the feeling this will be the start of another long fit out.

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People that inspire me.

February 22nd, 2010

There are a lot off people out there in the world that inspire me. Did you know for example that Albert Einstein was a pacifist and coined one of the best quotes about peace of all time? He said “Peace cannot be kept with force. It can only be achieved with understanding.”

In the world of people who live or dwell in cars and vans, here are a few of the people who really inspire me. One of the first of these was April at Hooptylife.com http://www.hooptylife.com Her’s was probably the first web site I ever saw about living in a car. Even before I saw Graig Robert’s web site about his book on living n cars. She had been blogging steadily from November 2005 to July 2008. Quality, interesting, thought provoking and just plain excellent blogging too. Plain down to Earth stuff. She wrote about her financial situation, seeking work, changing her alternator. She wrote so well too. Then in 2008, she stopped just over half way through the year and has not posted since. I miss her a lot. I liked her posts.

As I like the posts of four of my favourite women Van Dwellers; Wendy of http://wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com/, Two Knives Katie of http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/, Brenda Curtiss of http://www.brendacurtiss.com/?cat=12 and also Sonja at Falia Photography. http://www.faliaphotography.com/ Wendy and Katie have both been long time posters on the Yahoo Group, and to a lesser degree, so has Brenda and now Sonja. I have found Wendy and Katie to be very down to Earth, practical and inspiring. I love seeing pictures of their vans and John Nomad’s video of Katie’s Rondy Van http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdfVJzWLM-Q  

Brenda holds a special place in my heart. Some time ago she posted on my Facebook page that I should have respect for her religion as she is obviously religious. I’m not sure what religion, other than it is Christian of some sort. I think more than most people, she taught me that while I dislike religion, and usually don’t have much respect for religion itself, it is at least a good thing to have respect for people who are religious, and their right to follow their religion as they see fit. Plus Brenda is really nice lady and is of great value. I also love her video of her home base and van. http://www.youtube.com/user/brendacurtiss#p/a/u/2/Ss5P8U0LS4Q

 Sonja’s web site has long inspired me too. I recall when she first emailed me about it a couple of years back. I love her advice on down sizing. Plus she is down right cute! I mean all of these ladies are a pleasure on the eye, but Sonja is just very very cute. What little we see of her. Her signature thumb nail image has always intrigued me. I must confess that I am intrigued that she does not show her face, but puts up a pic of her neck and clothed breast region. Intrigued because I wonder if perhaps my breasts might be larger than hers. Hey, I did say I’m a hermaphrodite. That’s right folks, a primary habit of all hermaphrodites is comparing breast size. Well okay, it is an occasional habit of mine.

But enough about breasts. Sonja has some great bits of information that I love. Like what she has where in her van. Details of her Westie and of course her photos.

Then there are the guys. A couple who have inspired me straight off are John Nomads who used to have the most amazing looking van. It was a beat up looking thing that was just beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/user/Johnnomads#p/u/83/_2jPxFtwMSY It had the most amazing weird paint job. I like his philosophy of living within your means. He has such a charming voice as well. He sounds like he could be a news anchor or radio announcer. Which is kind of funny, because Possum, another long time VanDweller is one.

Then there is one of the best guys you will ever meet, and that’s David Hair. David first came to my attention when one of the members of the Yahoo VanDweller’s group had a mechanical problem with her van. David offered to help her and soon had the issue fixed. I have a lot of time for David. He posts a lot on the forum here on this web site and has helped me immensely. He’s a great guy.

Next there is Mike, and Mike and Heidi. Michael from California lives by a lake which I once flew over while flying north to Portland. We’ve shared mail and souvenirs over the years. He sent me some very cool US licence plates in trade for some Aussie stuff including vegemite. The other Mike is a very cool fellow. He looks like a hippie or bikie, but comes across as so gentle. The wedding photos of the two have been extremely inspiring, beautiful and gentle. :)

Oh, and then there’s Bob Wells. Bob’s web site http://cheaprvliving.com  rocks. It is brilliant. Bob is such a great writer as well. He covers all of the details. Unlike my site, he’s also got great contributions for some excellent writers. A lot of people have compared my site to Bob’s. Some have even asked what I’ve been doing to get more hits than Bobs. But the reality is that it is not a competition. I think both Bob and I are aiming for the same thing, to get information on how to live in a van to the people who need it. It does not matter if they get the information from my site, or Bob’s site or another site. It simply matters that they get the information.

The list is not exhausted with these people though. I am. Yep, sleepy. I’ll post more next time.

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The neighbour from hell

February 22nd, 2010

Well a hell of a lot of things have happened since my first post in this blog last year. Most noticeably for me has been the incredibly annoying noisy neighbour from hell.

Okay, here’s my situation. I am almost 40 now, living in Australia, not far from the capital. I work. I live in a small unit. I don’t live in my bus at the moment. Mostly because it is actually cheaper to rent a small unit at $140 a week than it costs to drive around from place to place in the bus. I also like the small courtyard in the unit. Plus with a regular job, it is in my interests to stay in one place.

So anyway, to cut a long story short I have been here for just on 2 years now. Then last year in December, miss neighbour from hell moves in. An older lady, in her late 50s or early 60s I guess. I’m lousy with ages. She moves into the unit backing on to mine. My courtyard fence is shared with hers. So when she started to play her television late at night, I am kept awake by it. So I do what any reasonable person does, I go around, politely introduce myself and ask her to turn it down. She stares at me like an idiot, but politely says she’ll turn it down. So I go back to my place and try go to sleep, because, well, she just didn’t turn down the television.

So a couple of nights later she’s doing the same thing. Playing her television up again. So I go around again and again ask her politely to turn it down. Only she insists her television is not making noise (despite it clearly making a lot of noise) and starts getting agro at me. So I say it is, and offer to let her listen from my unit. Only she just starts getting angrier and yells at me.

Fast forward a month and this is still going on. Only by now I have called the police, who make it plain that they don’t want to get involved and suggest she was not making enough noise for it to be an issue; the council, who claim that since it is happening during the night that it is not their issue; the real estate agents, who try to get her out but won’t do so without 3 letters of complaint, the dispute resolution service, she does not answer their letters; the local court, which will cost me much money and needs to be done in work hours; I use ear plus, they hurt my ears, give me head aches and I can still hear the TV through them; I use the gel type ear plus, they at least block the sound, but still hurt and keep me awake. I am taking days off work because I am too tired. I am constantly sleepy. I struggle to stay awake all day. I have constant head aches. I end up going to the doctor.

And that’s when I find out that I have cancer. Not just for the first time either. For the second time. In the exact same spot as the last.

So like last time it is straight to the hospital and chuck me on the meds. If things were not bad enough, miss neighbour from hell is still keeping me awake all night. And I do mean all night. From the moment she got home till the moment she went to work the next day. I don’t know how she slept, neither do my neighbours. I thought she might be deaf, but the police claim she is not. This is after some one switches off her power one morning and they come knocking at my door because of course she blames me.

So mr police man sits there telling me that when we live together in close proximity that we need to make considerations for each other. I’m standing there thinking that well no kidding. I have lived here for two years, got on well with my other neighbours and never had a complaint. Miss neighbour from hell on the other hand has been there not even two months and she’s keeping people awake all night and had two complaints against her. I do know how to be a considerate neighbour. She on the other hand, she was just a bitch. I mean I don’t swear much at all, and I think hate is a bad thing, but I was not complementary of her, and yeah, I was beginning to hate the woman.

I start getting my bus ready to live in. It needs a little work. For starters it is unregistered and living in a friend’s back yard. The plumbing leaks. The water tank has a slow leak and the shower stall is not yet finished. I work on week ends between catching some much needed sleep and work. I fix the plumbing, fix the shower stall and discover the deep cycle batteries are no longer holding charge. That means I will have to replace them (expensive) or move into a caravan park where I’ll have access to mains (even more expensive).

So I get the bus going, replace the starter battery, get a road worthy check, pay for the registration, compulsory insurance and regular insurance. Over $1200 that could have gone towards medical bills. Because while medical car in Australia can be free, that is if you are on a low income, and I am above that threshold. Plus in reality there is almost always a gap between the recommended cost and what you pay.

I still need to get the hot water service plumbed. Then I discover some leaks in the roof and have to patch them and seal the roof with rust proof paint. I hate rust. I really do. With a passion. Almost as much as I severely dislike miss neighbour from hell.

Fast forward another month to a few weeks ago.

The Big C is not going well. The doctors have told me that I’m basically screwed. My body is just too tired to cope. I am not reacting well to drugs. Miss neighbour from hell is still playing her television up all night.

I have spent a small fortune on the bus and get ready to move in. I pack up all my gear. Start downsizing some stuff. Sell some things. Give some away. Trash some other stuff. I actually move some stuff into the bus.

Then salvation!

My other neighbour next to me who had moved out for a month while her dad did some renovations on her unit moved back in. And could not sleep either. And thankfully wrote a third complaint.

Miss neighbour from hell must have gotten told to shut up or ship out because the television at night stops. I overhear a conversation she is having with a friend (because she now holds them in her courtyard and speaks at the top of her voice) that she “now has to wear those” which I take to mean head phones.

Thank goodness! I finally start to get some sleep again.

Fast forward to a week ago.

The medic takes some blood samples after my latest round of “ouch that really hurts and is making me feel sick now” medication. I am at last responding he thinks. He thinks. He won’t know for certain till this week.

Fast forward to today.

After getting put on the “this medication will make you really really sick” list I can get my treatments done on a Friday! Yes, a Friday. Which means that after being sick most of the week end I am normally okay to go to work on a Monday, instead of being sick on Monday and Tuesday and part of Wednesday like I have been. But today, a Monday, I am sick anyway, a combination of Friday’s Chemo and depression plus some general tiredness thrown in. But despite that, I am relatively okay. Almost happy even.

Today miss noisy bitch neighbour from hell didn’t play her television all night and I got some sleep. Today my doc tells me that I have shown some more progress. I might actually be surviving, rather than dying now. Today, I’ve got that thing called hope.

I’m still tired though.

It has been a hell of a couple of months. No sleep. Stress, pain, Cancer, Expenses. Bills, registration, insurance, wasted money. Then back to the old status quo. At last. Miss nasty old neighbour from hell is till here. But at least for most part she is quiet.

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A quick start.

December 22nd, 2009

A little bit about me.

My name is Romana Starfield, okay, it isn’t yet, but I’m planning on changing it to that one day. And yes, I have lived in a van, although I now live in a small one bedroom flat.

I have lived in cars, vans and my converted bus on and off over the years. Mostly this has been due to a low income, and I think due to mental health issues. I suffer from aniety and depression a lot. I will try to keep this blog up beat, but I expect that I will hit depression a few times so please bear with me.

Well my current vehicle is a Mazda T3000 bus built in 1983. It is 6.1 metres long, 1.8 wide on the inside and 1.8 high. I worked out that it is roughly 100 cubic feet in size.

I started this web site, with the hope of helping other homeless car and VanDwellers out with useful information. I aim to keep it all free and add free.

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