We have taken the plunge and moved into a house share in Brisbane. The reason for this is a simple one. We reached the point of diving into our savings in the UK to afford food and diesel. That is not the purpose of that pot, but we do realise how lucky we are to be able to use it. On our search for money it became increasingly clear we would have to move to Brisbane.
Termination of unemployment
Eventually we got invited to interviews at a pizza pasta place in central Brisbane. Ben’s went fantastically, I thought mine was… less fantastic. Regardless, we both got offered jobs there, Ben returning to his flair and passion of bartending, and I a waitress. I won’t say I love it, but I will say I’ll try my best to enjoy it.
City rats
You probably haven’t tried residing in a city centre in a vehicle. Don’t do it. It’s not nice. It’s loud, people like to race around between the hours of 1-3am and we felt like gutter rats every time we opened the door to our van/living quarters.
We hung around the city in the van just in case we were asked to go in and work. Again, we’re really sick of leeching money from our savings account. That meant every morning, with my stoma bag inflating like a balloon as my wakeup call, sometimes I had to walk 15 minutes to get to the loo.
City rats find a home
Not glamorous, not ideal. I know. Of course it was essential to find accommodation- we couldn’t keep the city rat life up for months. We viewed a place in Hamilton, not too far from our work. We couldn’t see the bedroom as the current tenants were still there, but from what we saw of the kitchen, living area and outside, it was the perfect fit.
20 minutes after the viewing we texted the landlord and confirmed our interest in the room. The tenants were due to move out in 3 days time so we had 3 days of our city rat life, hoping we’d bank some hours at work.
Ben goes zoom zoom
During our city rat stint, we brainstormed how to get to and fro the workplace. We thought about the bus, but it stopped running at 11pm, which wouldn’t be ideal as most of Ben’s scheduled shifts end at 11:30PM. The electric scooters that lie around the city was a good choice, but the price does rack up, especially with 25-30 minute trips.
That gave Ben the brilliant idea of buying his own electric scooter. While in the UK it is illegal to drive your own electric scooter on the pavement, cycle paths and roads (yet legal when you rent one? Try to figure that one out), it’s perfectly legal here in Australia.
A day searching on facebook marketplace, a 10 minute drive and a 5 minute zoomie test drive later, we loaded the 20kg scooter into the only floor space available in our van.
Lauren vs Spanner
Sorry to disappoint you, but I opted for a bicycle. Regular, boring, a bit rusty bicycle. At $50 though I can’t complain. It needed some adjusting so overnight I turned into a bike engineer and tightened the brakes, fitted lights and a bell, and adjusted the seat. The fact that I wacked myself in the chin with a spanner and bled is irrelevant. Call me for your next bike service.
Rats become domesticated
We’re not currently living #vanlife, we’re not currently travelling, we’ll have to do thing’s like hoovering and loading the dishwasher. But, we have a warm shower on demand, and a toilet that doesn’t smell like p!$$.
This is the reality, we can’t afford to travel indefinitely without topping up the funds. It’s a shame, and we’ve already realised we prefer being in the van. We’re so used to having our own space and no house rules. Nevertheless, we’re going to make the most of this opportunity, living in a City we actually quite enjoy, meeting new people and we finally get to make ourselves a decent roast dinner (flashback of that Christmas dinner we had… *shivers*).
I will keep up with the blog as much as I can, but currently, hours and shifts and money take priority so we can save as much as possible to enjoy life once we’re free to roam again. Stay tuned for what we get up to in brissy!
