Lived Experience Forum

[Jo-anneJoy]

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@NatureLover wrote:

@Jo-anneJoy I really hope you can get somewhere with the housing people soon. Are you still in your old place till 28 April - with no furniture?

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@NatureLover  I'll be checking out of my rental home of 14 years at high noon on the 27th, which is when the official homelessness starts.  Yeppers, all my furniture is gone.  I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor (a loaner from a crisis service), and am sitting on a plastic outdoor chair with my computer set up on boxes. My Esky also doubles as a seat.

My back hates me.

All the utilities are still on and I've got a heater, stuff to cook with etc., hot water.  I could get used to this minimalist lifestyle.  Not having a fridge is a pest tho', had to nick around the bottle shop to get a bag of ice and placed the Esky outside so ice lasts longer. 

I'm actually really happy that I've got these 3-4 days here to tidy up any loose ends and gently detach from the significant experiences that I have gone through that go with this postcode.  Also have to say goodbye to all the ringtail and brushtail possums that have been my fuzzy-butt companions all these years.

Haven't listened to the radio for years; got an ancient radio clock - think it was my mum's and she's been gone since 1994.  I used to joke that I lived in a house museum.  Now I want to have a spending spree at IKEA.

[NatureLover]

@Jo-anneJoy thanks for the update. Have you got the motel lined up, to move into?

I'm glad you've got electricity and hot water. Also that you are glad to have a few days there to say goodbye.

[Jo-anneJoy]

I've always had the motel lined up @NatureLover  One of the barriers here, is that when you're only at risk of homelessness, you get told that you're not in the catchment zone for particular agencies and you get the run-around and shrugged off.

Once you become homeless and there's no fixed address, then they can provide services and I get what you mean @Appleblossom  about lobbing on their doorstep.  I reckon for some the lockdown is legitimising their longstanding incompetencies....

Two more sleeps.

[Appleblossom]

 IKEA just makes me feel dizzy and want to puke.

Glad you are "Doing it Your Way" in saying goodbye.

Love that you connected with the wildlife and with all the cat plots.  I have laid down and rested on my dad's burial plot and felt peace.  We do what we do.

Take Care

[Jo-anneJoy]

awww....IKEA is one of my holy grails.  With the difficulty I have using public transport

and managing panic attacks etc etc, are you saying when I get there, I'm going to 

have to walk around piles of sawdust that are covering your spew???  That just

takes me back to primary school....

Do they have public toilets in there...?

Wish we'd buried my dad, at least I'd have a stake in some real estate.  

[NatureLover]

Glad the motel is ready and waiting for you, @Jo-anneJoy .And it's for as long as you need?

[Jo-anneJoy]

@Appleblossom 

thought you might like this lovely that is at Mt Macedon cemetery...I love grave art.

@NatureLover  going to be playing it by ear.  

[Appleblossom]

Thanks for the laughs, even when you are low. @Jo-anneJoy 

and the beautiful normalising image of the woman on a gravestone.  I think of that afternoon as one of my crazier ones.  A stake in real estate hah!

Keep your chin up. You are amazing!

[Jo-anneJoy]

Nah, s'not crazy at all  @Appleblossom  ?

In the doco In Bed with Madonna (whatever decade that was) she went

to the grave of her mum and ..... see for yourself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhQ7aIq-Fik

[Jo-anneJoy]

Stardate : 97918.71

Had a wee chat to one of lovely ladies at 1800RESPECT last evening who signposted me to

a couple of more crisis housing resources whose names have not been mentioned before, so cooking with gas.

This time tomorrow, kicking back, watching Netflix on a 32inch flat screen in a room with a bar fridge that better not have a mini bar full of Creme de Menthe or a Gideon's bible in the bottom drawer, as that is a fatal combination.........