Somedays living on a bus is challenging. Somedays the suffocating claustrophobia drives you to madness. Constantly messy, constantly crawling over each other. Rainy days are the hardest. Dragging mud in, no where to dry anything, cramming into the double bed to watch movies. More than likely the HDMI cable has been bent again and won’t work. Then the ‘Blame Game’ starts. Who was the last one to use it?, move it?, touch it? Three of us can squish together in the double bed as long as no ones moves. Izzy usually has to get up several times for a something to eat, a glass of water because the biscuits make her mouth dry and then the inevitable pee from the water she drank. Each time climbing over the other two, knees in balls, elbows in guts, fingers in eyes.
But somedays its just the relentlessness of the tiny space and never having time to oneself. Never the silence of a closed door. Always being woken by someone moving around. Someone always there to hear you sigh or listen to you cry. There is very little that can be hidden from your children. Most discussions are open, honest and frank.
Somedays I wish we lived in a house.
But most days something new and cool and amazing happens. Phoenix can now vacuum and tidy the bus. Wash and dry the dishes. Make his bed. He mowed the lawns at the campground here. He takes himself off surfing and cooks himself pancakes. This morning we saw a huge pod of dolphins swimming in the bay. Today Izzy is getting a Horse. This lovely girl who I work with is lending Izzy her horse and because we are part of a huge sheep station she can keep him close by. These are the little things that we couldn’t or rather didn’t do in our old life.
Sometimes I JUST NEED REMINDING.
I’m loving reading these. Keep them coming. As you describe the claustrophobia I can feel my chest constricting. I can imagine and it freaks me out. It’s like being on the boat. But worse. x