How to survive on absolutely nothing

What an eventful few days without doing very much.

On Saturday I went to get some shopping only to find out that my card was declined.  I tried it at the bank, the computer said no.

I got home to find my bank account empty, well I had about £3.50 but what's that going to buy?  I started up an online chat with NatWest who informed me that a company had taken money out.  This withdrawal is something that I didn't sanction or want, the money was just taken.

I emailed the company and today, two days later, they've finally said they'll pay the money back in but that can take between 3-7 business days.  

This is interesting, how can I survive on the small amount of money I have?

Fortunately I had a few bags of crisps, family size so nice and big.  For drink I have a bottle of water and when that runs out I go to the public fountain and refill it.

I haven't spent a penny in three days and I'm still alive, take that, capitalism!

I'm seeing how long I can last, I really think I can do this. It'll stand me in good stead if I ever get to a stage where I have nothing.  Make what you have last for as long as possible and that will prolong the chance of survival.

Still no phone although I think I am a little further to getting there, Three are allowing me to have a friend speak to them on my behalf.  They won't communicate through email but they will discuss my account with another person, the crazy world we live in, eh....

Tonight (Monday) is interesting.  My landlord has a friend coming over from Germany so they've asked if I can stay at their friends house for the night.  Err, yeah, okay.  I'm thinking play ball and then at the end of the month when I can't pay the rent they'll be a little more understanding.

I tell you the grass is always greener. In the last hostel they have a movie on every night, twice (and a half) times I watched the incredibly shit film ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’, it was truly awful.

However as the two boys who are the sons of my landlord were screaming the house down at each other at 1am the other morning I was thinking I'd do anything to watch that weird swingers film, now I'm like bring back the 1am screaming.

The problem with the two boys is that they're in that tiny flat all day.  Their mother takes them out at about 10pm (I know that's weird but I don't have time to dissect that now) for an hour or so but generally they spend most of their time in one room.  The older one winds the younger one up and then the younger one moans, oh how he moans.  It's not crying, it's a constant wine noise, often high-pitched.

When she showed me the way to this flat she brought the two boys with her.  The woman who lives here has a young girl.  As soon as we got in the younger boy went straight up to the young girl and kissed her.  She screamed at the top of her voice as she stood right next to me.  I don't do loud noises so this was eardrum piercing.

Now I'm in this flat.  My door doesn't shut properly so I have to hold it closed as best I can and then push the bolt across.  If the door opens the girl walks up to it, stands in the door way and screams until her mother comes to get her, I found that out the hard way.

My window opens out to a yard where there seem to be some spices stored, they smell a bit but it's not too bad.

Nothing came from that job in the shop, he went with the other guy.  

On the job front I have made progress.  I have my appointment to get a NIE number next Wednesday.  Once I have that I can effectively start work right away.  Right now I can't work until I have the number.  It takes about two weeks to set up the appointment to get the number so an employer is more likely to take someone that can start straight away as opposed to someone who they have to wait for for a fortnight.

Now for the words that I think some of you have been waiting for, I think I miss home a little bit.  I miss my friends and family, especially my niece and nephew who I absolutely dote on.  Having a phone will help with this but I do miss things like watching Ebbsfleet, going down the Daws, parts of London, parts of Gravesend.

Now you can sit back down and stop celebrating that I'm "coming home". I am home, missing things is all part of the journey.

Talking of journeys I'm thinking about going on one.  At the moment it's a pipe dream but there's a friend on Facebook who travels all over the place as cheaply as possible. Why not, eh?  The only thing that's stopping me at the moment is the insane thought that I "cannot do it" which is silly.

Clearly it can be done.  Imagine getting to Asia on no money, what an adventure.

I listen to British radio a lot.  I've always listened to Five Live and for music it's Absolute Radio.  On Five Live on Friday evening I heard a woman who, with her husband and three year old daughter, gave up everything, went travelling to Asia and set up home there.  

She said that she was coming back off holiday from Mexico and was thinking that she would miss it.  After talking about it with her husband and deciding that she didn't want to wait until retirement to go and do the things they wanted so instead they were like why not?

Five years later she has written 14 books, including one about her travels called ‘Can We Live Here’ and she is currently working on turning her first book I to a film.

I'm writing, well you're reading it, maybe it'll come true for me one day?