So the last few days have just been really difficult, as I come to the terms of the financial commitments I have made, and the difficulties with my work situation. As a contractor, you can only charge for hours worked, and if you have little work, or if the employer doesn’t give proper specifications or details on what they need you to actually do, you just sit there, waiting. And this is what I have spent most of the past few days doing. You may think this might be nice holiday, but in the situation I’m in, it is just a matter of waiting it out, until said employer gets a chance to contact you, carefully watching the clock and your savings click backwards at every stroke. I’ve even been pacing and having the odd midday beer to calm myself down…

I was doing so well on kicking my nail biting habit, with the past few days undoing a week of wrist thwacking and Pavlovian Conditioning lectures to my friends who ask why I have a red mark around my wrist.

Finances aside though, throughout this entire thing I’m really seeing that the actual act of leaving the marina and beginning the journey, is just a small part of a whole chaotic web of interconnections which make up this crazy scheme. It’s the silence of preparation others never witness that should be awarded. This is of course no great revelation, we see it with countless sports people who spend 10 years training to run 100metres and have accolades poored upon them for their ’stunning success’. Even though the real success and mental acrobatics has been consistant and in plain sight for years, we just failed to notice it.

In a perfect world, we would cheer, scream, yell and throw praise every single day for ten years, and humbly shake their hand at the end of their 100metres, not in awe of their speed, but in awe of their consistancy in the adversity of fighting the demons of commitment.

n.

This post is just a brief exercise on sketching some costs involved, based on some of the items I have in the Stuff I Need section, which is not even near complete. Prices are in ?Ǭ£ pounds, because the boat is currently docked in the UK, and because it makes things look ‘cheap’ (until you do the currency conversion, and realise back in to AUD you multiply it by 2.5!).

These prices are also all for *new* equipment. I should probably do another price column for secondhand. Much to be added and correctly sorted.

…Not including the boat.

Oh dear. I’m too scared to add it up.

n.

I promised to do a proper costs breakdown for my next post, but I just had lunch, and, well food was on my mind.

As I mentioned previously, saving is paramount for this entire thing. I’ve managed to spend even less than 13Euros a day (that includes everything, ie. rent, bills etc) with this week hovering at 11.50Euros. That means, I’ve spent 1.50Euros on food. Yes, I have been eating tuna fish and pasta since the 3rd of July, however I ran out last night, and sat down to a plate of Gummy bears and left over chocolate biscuits, from my American housemates who left last week.

I’ve managed to find the Turkish (Turkische) bread at Lidl, which runs at 65cents for a big loaf, and lasts me two lunches. Onion dip seems to last about four days, and muesli lasts a week. Coping with the heatwave, I’ve found my morning coffee dregs mix in well with chocolate powder and milk, making a … Refreshing afternoon drink. I think for my next food improv, I will take the remaining Gummy’s and melt them like the Czechs do into Absinthe. So inventive, I know! I hardly call this abstinance, but, I am trying.

In other news, I really like Mark Twain:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowline. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

More sombre and technical post on costs next time, promise.

n.