Straight out of the gate, I don't believe in religion, I don't believe in God, not Heaven, not Hell, not Creationism or the like. I'm not sure how many religious friends I have, because frankly I don't care if you believe in god or not, but please understand you are wrong. Here I'm going to go write why religion is wrong, why god is wrong, and how so many stories are dumb and wrong!
First off, apparently when writing the word god, G has to be a capital (Like what I did in the first line), however the word god is going to mentioned quite a bit and I'm not wasting my time having to hold down the shift key while pressing G just to satisfy some fictional character. If it was Senoire Butterpants or McRaiseDaRoof, I would be more than happy to properly use capital letters.
So where to begin? Basically this whole topic is very 'tread lightly', because people are very passionate about their beliefs, whichever way it is. I think I read somewhere (Can't source it because I think was aimlessly browsing one day) the percentage of religious people around the world, and in Australia it is like 20% believe in god, and in America it is over 50%. So as a country, god isn't sitting too high up, however a few decades ago I think it would have been much higher.
Ever since I was about 7 or 8, I have asked this one question, "If god created everything, who created god?" To which the answer was, "God created himself" or "God was always here" I'm not a physicist (Although I have watched every Big Bang Theory episode up to date 10x over, so I should be pretty smart by now) so I'm not sure exactly how the Big Bang occurred. What I retain from high school is there was a big bang out of gases which created the Universe. Now, this is where it gets tricky, religious people argue saying 'Oh the big bang theory is flawed because how can a explosion happen from nothing....' Hmm sounds familiar religious people? How can an all-powerful being just create himself, then go on to create everything else?
So there was a big bang, that spilled out gases which then formed planets and moons, stars and suns and black holes and all that astro-space-Universe stuff. I think I need another marathon of BBT to brush up on my science, but anyways....
Religious people (Just so you know, when I say religious people, it means comments, articles, discussions and that on the topic, so a lot of the time (99.99%) I don't know these religious, I just read what they write) say sometimes that how could us as humans just magically be able to live on Earth with it's oxygen, atmospheric pressure and that, god must of made us like that'
If anything that type of statement helps support evolution, because basically they are helping us carve in stone that we are here through thousands-upon-thousands of years of trial-and-error I guess. I don't know the exact amount of years, but the Earth is somewhere around 2 billion years old? Give or take 2-3 years. Dinosaurs died out 65 million years, and we arrived a long time after them, which is helpful. I could just Google this information but I want to keep this raw information presented here.
Charles Darwin noticed evolution in the islands and it had to do with bird's and their beaks. Again, with no Google aid, I can remember he noticed the same general type of bird but had different shape beaks to obtain their source of food. Over time the birds (Most likely over thousands of years, millions perhaps) that these changes occurred, and I think the term is called 'Natural Selection'
Back onto god and the stuff he does.....
God created everything, god has a reason for every single thing that happen and when we touch ourselves at night it makes Jesus cry, okay!
Let's address the second point, and let's use some events in the last 5 years shall we? So this god fella controls everything in this world, and he has a reason for everything he does. Although this occurred more than 5 years ago, this event made me question the existence of god so much more, and pretty much cemented me into believing their was no god. I want to know what was god's reason in taking my mum away? Why on Earth would a 'god' take away the most devoted, loving, caring, amazing mother away from her 6 children, 3 of which were <18 of years, one being not even a teenager at the time? This just doesn't happen to our family, but families everywhere. You hear on the news about a mother and father dying, and their 2 kids being basically orphans, which is always sad to hear. You say something like 'Yep no god' and suddenly religious people ark up and say 'It is all apart of god's plan' What plan? What is this plan of his you always talk about and seem to use as an excuse for every bad thing he does? So it's his plan to have a 7 year old and 10 year old without their loving parents?
When I think of some major disasters in the last few years, I think of the Black Saturday bush fires, Queensland Flooding, the disaster in New Zealand and of course the major disaster in Japan. Japan's earthquake has claimed 10,000 odd lives, well that includes missing, I haven't been keeping up to date with this. So what's god's plan there taking the lives of 10,000 people in one of the worst natural disasters in recent times? Not only has 10,000 has had their life taken away, but I presume millions have had their life adversely affected, whether it's their home being destroyed, their business' going under (Excuse the pun), cars/boats being swept away, the emotional distress caused by it and so on.
Black Saturday, a few hundred (If I remember correctly, good chance I don't) lost their lives, and many more lost their homes. What kind of god would allow a human being to be taken away in a major bushfire? Yes you don't actually die from the fire, but from the lack of oxygen in the area, but that is still a bad way to go. What kind of plan is that? I'm glad the plans I work on are of buildings, because least I can justify my plans.
We think back to 2001, and what is the first thing you usually think of? 9/11, New York, Twin Towers, Plane Crashes. I won't go too far into this because of conspiracy theories like how it was the US government, or no no it was Muslim terrorist, etc etc. I don't know why exactly Muslim's attacked America, but the Muslim people are very, VERY, religious people. I don't exactly know their religion, for obvious reasons, but I think if they perform attacks like 9/11, they will be awarded by their god (Remember every religion has their own god, but again that's a whole new blog). So it is very much possible that the 9/11 attacks was caused by religious disputes, and this can be upsetting that thousands of people died because of religious belief. I heard/read somewhere that many wars throughout history (Not just the World Wars, but many before them) were started because of different religious beliefs.
Now let's question a story in the bible....
I haven't read the bible, nor do I plan on doing so, ever, so what I'm going off is what I've heard, watched on TV or on YouTube. If anyone has seen Jim Jefferies, this is going to sound very familiar because basically this man has summed up all my religious beliefs and made it funny. In fact I will provide a link at the end of his YouTube clip of his stand up...
Noah and the Ark. So apparently this guy built an ark because the world was going to flood, and he had two of every animal. Okay, let's start from the start and work our way along this, uhh, story. He built the ark in the Middle East somewhere, yeah? Okay, now if I know my geography, not every Continent is connected to the one with the Middle East, so that would mean animals such as those native to Australia like kangaroos, kolas and so on, plus other exotic foreign animals would had to have swam to the Middle East to board this ark. Now I could be wrong but I think kangaroos would struggle to swim from Australia to the Middle East, unless what happened was every single kangaroo headed for the Middle East and as the swim progressed, some died and the remaining used them to construct some kind of weird kangaroo boat and floated to the Middle East (Despite having no sense of direction) then once they got their, Noah picked a girl and a boy to board, and gave the rest to the lions for food.
Okay, so animals swam there, flew, walked, hopped, blah blah. From what I can gather, the Middle East is a pretty hot, dry climate, which suits many animals, but what about polar bears and cold blooded animals? How would Noah, remembering this is thousands of years ago, kept these cold, but also keep the warm blooded animals warm at the same time?
What about the food? Lions eat tonnes of meat a year, and zebra, gazelles and buffalo seem to be their choice of food. So only having two of every animal, how would he satisfy the carnivore's diet with jeopardising his overall objective? Hmm so many questions to ponder.
Well in the title I put Pt 1 (Meaning Part 1) for a reason, because the religion topic can't be discussed in one blog, I wouldn't be surprised if this topic goes for 6 parts. Now because I live in Australia, I am entitled to my opinion, and I'm 100% there will be at least 2 people out there that do not agree with what I have said so far, but this is what I believe and I am allowed to express my beliefs. Yes you may call me an idiot, yes you may say I will be punished by the lord, say what you will about me, that is perfectly fair, because so far I have given the religious group a bit of flack.
I will continue at a later date on the controversial topic of religion, and will end up proving this god fella is just like Seniore Butterpants....
B t w, here is Jim Jefferies.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZJ-_OTvsqo [WARNING: High levels of swear words]
From The One They Call Anthony, This Is The Life & Times
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
My Last Trip To The Docs
So on Thursday I have to head down to Melbourne for my annual checkup on the ol' ticker. I have been doing these trips for nearly 23 years, and the younger I was, the more frequent the trip. The earliest I can remember is doing two trips a year with mum and dad. Now it's once a year, and the journey I undertake by myself. This blog will tell the tale of last year's trip, which was quite draining.
So my appointment schedule was pretty much standard, 9:15am for an echo, followed by a 10am meeting with my doctor. I think that was it, so when you see that it doesn't seem much of a big deal, well.....
I have experienced Melbourne during peak-hour, and the last thing I wanted was to be late for appointment, face possible cancellation and a waste of petrol, so I left fairly early. How early you ask? Well I awoke at 3:30am to start the trip, and travelling from home it takes 3.5-4hrs, going into the city. So I left around 4:30, getting some nice brekky and a wake-me-up-shower into me.
For some strange reason I don't mind waking up early and travelling. There is something about being on the freeway in darkness, by yourself except when passing the odd truck, then slowly without really even noticing dark becomes light, night turns into day, moon replaced by sun. I did my typical stop halfwayish for a serving of Macca's brekky, as I was craving sausage and egg McMuffin, and stocked up on Redbull.
What's a bit ironic is I love Redbull, I mean I can drink that stuff all day! The irony is that I go to Melbourne to have my heart checked out, and apparently people have made up rumours Redbull is bad for your heart. From memory, I think I bought two 436mL or whatever cans, the big ones, but only drank one on the trip down.
So I arrived around 8-8:30, and did not mind being early. So I just grab a few Women's Weekly and just chilled in the waiting room until it was my turn. Everything was standard, I nearly fell asleep during the echo which isn't uncommon for me, and afterwards talked to my doc.
During that time period I recently moved from Melbourne to home again, and it was about 2-3 months since I saw my friends from Melbourne. So I ended up catching up with one and we went to a DFO, walked around and all that jazz. We then eventually met up with two other friends at the train station, in which one was greeted with a bear hug and the other a casual 'wassup' man hug.
Oh almost forgot, because this gets very important later on. I had the worst cough I have ever had, and it made me feel crook as. I don't know what exactly I was sick with, but it was strong. And we're back in...
Not sure what we did in the afternoon, I think we just went to an arcade and walked around, but then we went to a restaurant (I think it was this trip) where I ordered the biggest parmy in my life, in anyone's life! The meals there was so big, there was four of us, we only ordered 2 meals.
So we spent some time there trying to munch through our meals, and then at like 9:30ish there was craving for pancakes. I was thrown in the backseat to conserve energy while I was coughing my guts up, and we went to that pancake franchise, can't think of the name, in Doncaster.
We were there for a while, until it got late and my friends remembered I had a 4hr trip home. Before I was allowed to leave we had to get some supplies at my old Safeway. I bought some cough lollies, two bags I think, water, some orange juice, Redbull and butter menthol's. This was to last me on the trip back.
After saying byes to everyone, I made my journey back home, leaving Melbourne around 11:30pm. About 30minutes into the trip I noticed I already consumed my orange juice and butter menthol's, and well into the lollies. Knowing these are meant to last me a little longer than 1hr, I started to ration them.
Half-way down the freeway I noticed I was yawning, nodding my head and kind of veering on the road, so I thought it would be best to park the car for a nap. Found a little truck stop, set my alarm to allow a half-hour nap, and I fell asleep in a heartbeat.
Upon waking up I took a wee-wee outside, and consumed some Redbull and lollies and I was on my way again. On the road between Mulwala and Oaklands at about 3:30am (24 hours since I've been awake, if you don't count that nap of course) I may have spaced out and nearly crashed. Well, kangaroos hopped out on the road and I suffered some delayed response. Needless to say, I was safe, and so were the roos, so relax people.
I think I got home around quarter to 4 in the morning, and I crashed onto my bed, not even worrying about changing.
I slept for half-an-hour in a 24 hour period, and it was one of my longest days. To that date, it was the longest I have ever been awake, but that record was shattered later (But that's a whole new blog). What makes that feat impressive was I had peaks of Redbull energy followed by crashes, I most likely overdosed on cough lollies and I received death-threats of my friends if they were to get sick. Quickly with the Redbull consumption, I would have easily consumed over 1.2L of Redbull, so that wasn't exactly healthy of me.
What made the experience worst was I had an assessment due on the day of the trip, but got it extended to the next day, and me being me I may have left it 'til that day. I awoke around 9am to travel into TAFE to work on the assessment and hand it in, and when I returned home that evening, I had more than enough.
At the moment the trip on Thursday may follow similar characteristics of the trip of last year. I will need to awake quite early to avoid peak hour and make my early appointment, however I may not get the chance to really spend time with my friends due to their work commitments, so I don't think I will be leaving around 11 at night. Another positive about the upcoming trip is that I'm not crook as a dog, and not coughing my guts up every 3 minutes. Hang on, going to knock on some wood.......
From The One They Anthony, This Is The Life & Times
So my appointment schedule was pretty much standard, 9:15am for an echo, followed by a 10am meeting with my doctor. I think that was it, so when you see that it doesn't seem much of a big deal, well.....
I have experienced Melbourne during peak-hour, and the last thing I wanted was to be late for appointment, face possible cancellation and a waste of petrol, so I left fairly early. How early you ask? Well I awoke at 3:30am to start the trip, and travelling from home it takes 3.5-4hrs, going into the city. So I left around 4:30, getting some nice brekky and a wake-me-up-shower into me.
For some strange reason I don't mind waking up early and travelling. There is something about being on the freeway in darkness, by yourself except when passing the odd truck, then slowly without really even noticing dark becomes light, night turns into day, moon replaced by sun. I did my typical stop halfwayish for a serving of Macca's brekky, as I was craving sausage and egg McMuffin, and stocked up on Redbull.
What's a bit ironic is I love Redbull, I mean I can drink that stuff all day! The irony is that I go to Melbourne to have my heart checked out, and apparently people have made up rumours Redbull is bad for your heart. From memory, I think I bought two 436mL or whatever cans, the big ones, but only drank one on the trip down.
So I arrived around 8-8:30, and did not mind being early. So I just grab a few Women's Weekly and just chilled in the waiting room until it was my turn. Everything was standard, I nearly fell asleep during the echo which isn't uncommon for me, and afterwards talked to my doc.
During that time period I recently moved from Melbourne to home again, and it was about 2-3 months since I saw my friends from Melbourne. So I ended up catching up with one and we went to a DFO, walked around and all that jazz. We then eventually met up with two other friends at the train station, in which one was greeted with a bear hug and the other a casual 'wassup' man hug.
Oh almost forgot, because this gets very important later on. I had the worst cough I have ever had, and it made me feel crook as. I don't know what exactly I was sick with, but it was strong. And we're back in...
Not sure what we did in the afternoon, I think we just went to an arcade and walked around, but then we went to a restaurant (I think it was this trip) where I ordered the biggest parmy in my life, in anyone's life! The meals there was so big, there was four of us, we only ordered 2 meals.
So we spent some time there trying to munch through our meals, and then at like 9:30ish there was craving for pancakes. I was thrown in the backseat to conserve energy while I was coughing my guts up, and we went to that pancake franchise, can't think of the name, in Doncaster.
We were there for a while, until it got late and my friends remembered I had a 4hr trip home. Before I was allowed to leave we had to get some supplies at my old Safeway. I bought some cough lollies, two bags I think, water, some orange juice, Redbull and butter menthol's. This was to last me on the trip back.
After saying byes to everyone, I made my journey back home, leaving Melbourne around 11:30pm. About 30minutes into the trip I noticed I already consumed my orange juice and butter menthol's, and well into the lollies. Knowing these are meant to last me a little longer than 1hr, I started to ration them.
Half-way down the freeway I noticed I was yawning, nodding my head and kind of veering on the road, so I thought it would be best to park the car for a nap. Found a little truck stop, set my alarm to allow a half-hour nap, and I fell asleep in a heartbeat.
Upon waking up I took a wee-wee outside, and consumed some Redbull and lollies and I was on my way again. On the road between Mulwala and Oaklands at about 3:30am (24 hours since I've been awake, if you don't count that nap of course) I may have spaced out and nearly crashed. Well, kangaroos hopped out on the road and I suffered some delayed response. Needless to say, I was safe, and so were the roos, so relax people.
I think I got home around quarter to 4 in the morning, and I crashed onto my bed, not even worrying about changing.
I slept for half-an-hour in a 24 hour period, and it was one of my longest days. To that date, it was the longest I have ever been awake, but that record was shattered later (But that's a whole new blog). What makes that feat impressive was I had peaks of Redbull energy followed by crashes, I most likely overdosed on cough lollies and I received death-threats of my friends if they were to get sick. Quickly with the Redbull consumption, I would have easily consumed over 1.2L of Redbull, so that wasn't exactly healthy of me.
What made the experience worst was I had an assessment due on the day of the trip, but got it extended to the next day, and me being me I may have left it 'til that day. I awoke around 9am to travel into TAFE to work on the assessment and hand it in, and when I returned home that evening, I had more than enough.
At the moment the trip on Thursday may follow similar characteristics of the trip of last year. I will need to awake quite early to avoid peak hour and make my early appointment, however I may not get the chance to really spend time with my friends due to their work commitments, so I don't think I will be leaving around 11 at night. Another positive about the upcoming trip is that I'm not crook as a dog, and not coughing my guts up every 3 minutes. Hang on, going to knock on some wood.......
From The One They Anthony, This Is The Life & Times
Friday, March 4, 2011
Home On Wheels
I am currently in a pretty annoying sleep pattern, which has resulted in a 3:20am blog. Last year was a very big year for me, it saw me leave Melbourne, moved back home, re-enter the education system, land the one job I told myself I would never do, forged new friendships, work two jobs at the same time, sleep in my car for the better part of two months, fail at house-searching, pretty much lose two jobs and found the cheapest rent paying place ever (Aside from home).
I could write a big blog about my house searching experience, which was very different to Melbourne's, but this blog is to pretty much blog about my experience living out of my car. Just to clear up, I'm sure when you read this you think "Cool, you have a van?" or "Every night for two months?" Firstly, no it was a van, it was a sedan, and secondly, it wasn't every night, but on average 3-4 nights a week.
Without going back through facebook status' to find record of the first night spent, it was in July when I spent the first night in my car. Now we all know what July is famous for.... Being the middle of winter, and it was a spur of the moment, after work/tafe next day thing.
For the last couple weeks beforehand, I was couch hopping while looking for a house, however there came a time when everything bottled up inside me just broke and I gave the world a big "SCREW YOU" I had the pressure of working late, TAFE, house hunting (which is a whole new blog) and what was the worst was trying to repair a friendship I wrecked earlier.
So after work I originally planned on driving home, which takes a bit over an hour, then drive back in the morning for TAFE. Now I finished work usually around 1-2am, so it would have been a waste of time, energy and petrol driving home that late and back again. Towards the end of my shift I realised it, and just went 'F it', knocked off, and drove to the TAFE.
I don't know the policy or whatever about sleeping in your car, but the car park was deserted, and seemed the safest place to pull up shop. I park as far away from the street as possible, I think this was to avoid any police. I always carry my laptop with me, as I just don't know when I might need it, so for a half-hour or so I was using the TAFE wireless, in my car, just passing the time and trying to forget what exactly I was doing.
Now I didn't really plan ahead, so I kind of only had a shirt, jumper and trackies, and when you are in a car in the middle of winter, it kind of isn't enough. I spent the better-half of the night unable to sleep due to intense shivering, and I eventually fell asleep.
I woke up a bit before 9, and realised where I was. My car was surrounded by other cars, and first thing I thought of is what people thought if they looked in to see my curled up in a ball sleeping. I went to class and acted like I had a normal nights rest, and went home that night. Not going to lie, the bed was a much better sleeping arrangement.
Now hating my life at this time, I continued this trend of sleeping in my car, and as time went on, I learnt from mistakes.
Mistake #01 - Lack of clothing
Solution - Pack clothes
My first experience taught me I had a lack of clothes, which made the sleep cold, uncomfortable and un-bearing. Me being ever-so-clever, I thought "What if I just pack some heavy duty winter clothes and stack the layers on". So for some time I would go to work, come back, change from my work clothes to the following....
2 x Pairs of socks
1 x Leggings (This took a couple nights to realise I should pack them)
1 x Trackies
2-3 x T-shirts
2 x Jumpers (One hooded to keep my head warm. At one stage was wearing three jumpers)
So I had some clothes on, some nights I was warm, and some other nights it wasn't enough. I remember waking up one morning, and unable to see out the window because of the frost, and I was curled up shivering and thinking "Wow, I'm so cranking this heater"
So if I had a heater in my car, why didn't I use it? Uhh simple, the car would have ran out of battery and petrol, and that was the reason why I was sleeping in the car. However, after work, while driving to my sleep destination, I would crank the heater up to full speed in hopes of warming the car enough to sustain me at least 15 minutes.
Mistake #02 - Sleeping in the car park when an event on campus was going on
Solution - Find a new spot
One night there was an event on campus, and it could have been my eyes playing a trick on me but I kept seeing figures out in the distance. Of course it was dark, and I was sleep deprived, but this was enough to scare me into finding somewhere else.
I needed to find a place which was quiet, away from prying eyes and somewhere close to TAFE. When I would drive into TAFE I noticed a little parking area, most likely for trucks, just off the freeway on McKoy St, so I thought to make this my spot.
My night would usually go something like, work, drive to TAFE and use the wireless internet until my battery was low, or I'd watch shows on my laptop. I then would drive to my spot, pull the seat back and the rest I don't need to go on.
Mistake #03 - Still got freaking cold
Solution - Pack my doona
I can't believe it took me a while to figure this out! I do feel rather stupid, as I spent a few good weeks shivering myself to sleep. I thought of the brilliant idea of packing a pillow and my doona, and turned out to be the smartest thing I thought of all year. Combing the doona with my layers of clothing, the harsh cold winter temperature became quite bearable and actually tolerable.
No longer was I shivering, I was quite warm under the doona, and the pillow made it feel like sleeping in a bed. I was no longer dreading the cold nights ahead, and the nights became somewhat manageable.
Mistake #04 - Chilling in my car on a public road at 1am
Solution - Don't do it anymore
For a brief period, instead of entering the TAFE car park for internet, I'd just sit out on McKoy St, which still gave me access. One night I was watching Family Guy and a light shined into my car, I got out and realised it was a policeman. He questioned what I was doing, and not knowing if it was illegal or not, I bended the truth slightly. I showed him I.D, and saw my old address of Heidelberg Heights and was surprised when I answered that I never been involved with crime. I explained I grew up in a small town and not in the 'burbs, and once he left, I hit a bump on where I was sleeping. I told the officer I was waiting for a friend to finish work so I could sleep at his, so I couldn't sleep in my normal spot in case he patrolled that area, saw my car and busted my lying ass.
That night I went over to Albury and found a spot at Nourial Park (Or however you spell it), and then after that night, I just went back into the car park to use the internet.
Mistake #05 - Sleeping in a car
Solution - Find a house
I eventually found a house to live in, and gone were the days of sleeping in my car. A couple weeks leading up to moving in, I started to swallow my pride and allowed mates to "look after" me. He offered a bed whenever I needed it, so I took him up on that offer and had comfortable, cozy bed than the backseat of a car. I think I stayed there a couple nights for two weeks, than it was moving day into my new place, and this is a personal reminder to buy him some beer for his hospitiality.
You are all probably wondering, "Why didn't you just stay at his place for all the time you were sleeping in the car?" Well, I often felt like a burden to the friends I was staying at. I think I would have crashed on at least 5 different people's couches/spare beds I slept on, and every time I stayed I felt like I was a hassle. I didn't want to make people feel obligated to say yes to me staying at theirs, so I stopped asking and took life into my own hands.
It was a true eye-opening experience, and I still slept in a bed a few nights a week. Just remember, while my story may seem silly to some, there are people of all ages out there living on the streets. Some don't have the luxury I had of having an enclosure to protect me from the elements and other people. There are people sleeping on benches, under bridges/overpasses, alleyways and basically anywhere they can and they do this every night. Some might have blankets and warm clothes, others might not. I look back and I find it hard to feel sorry for myself when there was people in way worse conditions than me.
So that is my story, yes okay, sleeping in my car a few nights a week for a few months sucked, and something I don't want to do again, but I could have been worst off.....
From The One They Anthony, This Is The Life & Times
I could write a big blog about my house searching experience, which was very different to Melbourne's, but this blog is to pretty much blog about my experience living out of my car. Just to clear up, I'm sure when you read this you think "Cool, you have a van?" or "Every night for two months?" Firstly, no it was a van, it was a sedan, and secondly, it wasn't every night, but on average 3-4 nights a week.
Without going back through facebook status' to find record of the first night spent, it was in July when I spent the first night in my car. Now we all know what July is famous for.... Being the middle of winter, and it was a spur of the moment, after work/tafe next day thing.
For the last couple weeks beforehand, I was couch hopping while looking for a house, however there came a time when everything bottled up inside me just broke and I gave the world a big "SCREW YOU" I had the pressure of working late, TAFE, house hunting (which is a whole new blog) and what was the worst was trying to repair a friendship I wrecked earlier.
So after work I originally planned on driving home, which takes a bit over an hour, then drive back in the morning for TAFE. Now I finished work usually around 1-2am, so it would have been a waste of time, energy and petrol driving home that late and back again. Towards the end of my shift I realised it, and just went 'F it', knocked off, and drove to the TAFE.
I don't know the policy or whatever about sleeping in your car, but the car park was deserted, and seemed the safest place to pull up shop. I park as far away from the street as possible, I think this was to avoid any police. I always carry my laptop with me, as I just don't know when I might need it, so for a half-hour or so I was using the TAFE wireless, in my car, just passing the time and trying to forget what exactly I was doing.
Now I didn't really plan ahead, so I kind of only had a shirt, jumper and trackies, and when you are in a car in the middle of winter, it kind of isn't enough. I spent the better-half of the night unable to sleep due to intense shivering, and I eventually fell asleep.
I woke up a bit before 9, and realised where I was. My car was surrounded by other cars, and first thing I thought of is what people thought if they looked in to see my curled up in a ball sleeping. I went to class and acted like I had a normal nights rest, and went home that night. Not going to lie, the bed was a much better sleeping arrangement.
Now hating my life at this time, I continued this trend of sleeping in my car, and as time went on, I learnt from mistakes.
Mistake #01 - Lack of clothing
Solution - Pack clothes
My first experience taught me I had a lack of clothes, which made the sleep cold, uncomfortable and un-bearing. Me being ever-so-clever, I thought "What if I just pack some heavy duty winter clothes and stack the layers on". So for some time I would go to work, come back, change from my work clothes to the following....
2 x Pairs of socks
1 x Leggings (This took a couple nights to realise I should pack them)
1 x Trackies
2-3 x T-shirts
2 x Jumpers (One hooded to keep my head warm. At one stage was wearing three jumpers)
So I had some clothes on, some nights I was warm, and some other nights it wasn't enough. I remember waking up one morning, and unable to see out the window because of the frost, and I was curled up shivering and thinking "Wow, I'm so cranking this heater"
So if I had a heater in my car, why didn't I use it? Uhh simple, the car would have ran out of battery and petrol, and that was the reason why I was sleeping in the car. However, after work, while driving to my sleep destination, I would crank the heater up to full speed in hopes of warming the car enough to sustain me at least 15 minutes.
Mistake #02 - Sleeping in the car park when an event on campus was going on
Solution - Find a new spot
One night there was an event on campus, and it could have been my eyes playing a trick on me but I kept seeing figures out in the distance. Of course it was dark, and I was sleep deprived, but this was enough to scare me into finding somewhere else.
I needed to find a place which was quiet, away from prying eyes and somewhere close to TAFE. When I would drive into TAFE I noticed a little parking area, most likely for trucks, just off the freeway on McKoy St, so I thought to make this my spot.
My night would usually go something like, work, drive to TAFE and use the wireless internet until my battery was low, or I'd watch shows on my laptop. I then would drive to my spot, pull the seat back and the rest I don't need to go on.
Mistake #03 - Still got freaking cold
Solution - Pack my doona
I can't believe it took me a while to figure this out! I do feel rather stupid, as I spent a few good weeks shivering myself to sleep. I thought of the brilliant idea of packing a pillow and my doona, and turned out to be the smartest thing I thought of all year. Combing the doona with my layers of clothing, the harsh cold winter temperature became quite bearable and actually tolerable.
No longer was I shivering, I was quite warm under the doona, and the pillow made it feel like sleeping in a bed. I was no longer dreading the cold nights ahead, and the nights became somewhat manageable.
Mistake #04 - Chilling in my car on a public road at 1am
Solution - Don't do it anymore
For a brief period, instead of entering the TAFE car park for internet, I'd just sit out on McKoy St, which still gave me access. One night I was watching Family Guy and a light shined into my car, I got out and realised it was a policeman. He questioned what I was doing, and not knowing if it was illegal or not, I bended the truth slightly. I showed him I.D, and saw my old address of Heidelberg Heights and was surprised when I answered that I never been involved with crime. I explained I grew up in a small town and not in the 'burbs, and once he left, I hit a bump on where I was sleeping. I told the officer I was waiting for a friend to finish work so I could sleep at his, so I couldn't sleep in my normal spot in case he patrolled that area, saw my car and busted my lying ass.
That night I went over to Albury and found a spot at Nourial Park (Or however you spell it), and then after that night, I just went back into the car park to use the internet.
Mistake #05 - Sleeping in a car
Solution - Find a house
I eventually found a house to live in, and gone were the days of sleeping in my car. A couple weeks leading up to moving in, I started to swallow my pride and allowed mates to "look after" me. He offered a bed whenever I needed it, so I took him up on that offer and had comfortable, cozy bed than the backseat of a car. I think I stayed there a couple nights for two weeks, than it was moving day into my new place, and this is a personal reminder to buy him some beer for his hospitiality.
You are all probably wondering, "Why didn't you just stay at his place for all the time you were sleeping in the car?" Well, I often felt like a burden to the friends I was staying at. I think I would have crashed on at least 5 different people's couches/spare beds I slept on, and every time I stayed I felt like I was a hassle. I didn't want to make people feel obligated to say yes to me staying at theirs, so I stopped asking and took life into my own hands.
It was a true eye-opening experience, and I still slept in a bed a few nights a week. Just remember, while my story may seem silly to some, there are people of all ages out there living on the streets. Some don't have the luxury I had of having an enclosure to protect me from the elements and other people. There are people sleeping on benches, under bridges/overpasses, alleyways and basically anywhere they can and they do this every night. Some might have blankets and warm clothes, others might not. I look back and I find it hard to feel sorry for myself when there was people in way worse conditions than me.
So that is my story, yes okay, sleeping in my car a few nights a week for a few months sucked, and something I don't want to do again, but I could have been worst off.....
From The One They Anthony, This Is The Life & Times
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