The challenge of not being able to drive.

31 days of getting out of the house without my driver's licence.

the ones that proved too much of a challenge...

A Doctor's Appointment (18mins by car)

a) walk 20mins, bus 23mins, walk 1min (44mins)
b) 4mins walk, 19mins bus, 4mins wait, 17mins bus, 2mins walk (47mins)
c) 2mins walk, 10mins train, 4mins walk during 22mins wait, 10mins walk (55mins)

A Pre-Employment Course Session (30mins by car)

3mins walk, 14mins bus, 1min walk during 5mins wait, 9mins bus, 5mins wait, 20mins bus, 5mins walk (1hr)

Why is it that I focus so much on this one I didn't get to and refuse to acknowledge the one I did get to?

My Friend's Art Exhibition Opening (27mins by car)

To get there, I had a choice of:

a) 3mins walk, 14mins bus, 1min walk during 6mins wait, 16mins bus, 7mins walk (46mins)
b) 4mins walk, 5mins bus, 1min walk during 8mins wait, 25mins bus, 3mins walk (45mins)

To get home, I had a choice of:

a) 5mins walk, 18mins bus, 1min walk during 17mins wait, 13mins bus, 3mins walk (56mins)
b) 5mins walk, 25mins bus, 1min walk during 7mins wait, 20mins bus, 3mins walk (1hr)

It was also dark and cold.  I stayed home.

2 x Employment Service Provider Appointments (30mins by car)

I had a choice of:

a) 4mins walk, 7mins bus, 1min walk during 7mins wait, 15mins bus, 5mins wait, 5mins bus, 2mins walk during 12mins wait, 20mins train, 8mins walk (1hr23mins)
b) 3mins walk, 14mins bus, 2mins walk during 9mins wait, 14mins bus, 8mins wait, 34mins bus, 4mins walk (1hr26mins)
c) 4mins walk, 7mins bus, 1min walk during 7mins wait, 9mins bus, 1min walk during 6mins wait, 25mins bus, 1min walk during 7mins wait, 19mins bus, 5mins walk (1hr29mins)
d) none of the above

I chose (d).

My Cousin's Engagement Party (32mins by car)

To get there, I had a choice of:

a) 4mins walk, 5mins bus, 1min walk during 5mins wait, 22mins bus, 8mins wait, 19mins bus, 4mins walk (1hr7mins)
b) 3mins walk, 14mins bus, 1min walk during 12mins wait, 14mins bus, 2mins walk during 15mins wait, 20mins bus, 4mins walk (1hr22mins)
c) 3mins walk, 14mins bus, 1min walk during 5mins wait, 9min bus, 5mins wait, 5mins bus, 2mins walk during 10mins wait, 11mins train, 10mins walk (1hr12mins) 

but that didn't count for much considering my choices for getting home included:

10,13 or 21 mins walk in the dark, cold, possibly raining, plus 3 buses or 2 buses and a tram (1hr30mins - 1hr44mins)

I had also forgotten to buy any "cocktail attire" and my absolute nicest going out clothes are black jeans, a fairly casual top and either a black cardigan or a black polarfleece jacket.  I'm unsure whether I have no dressy clothes because I don't go out or if I don't go out because I have no dressy clothes.  I opted to stay home in my pjyamas.

Lunch with a Friend

lifts from friend

 All I had to do was roll out of bed and stumble into the shower and all of that stuff people do without thinking and then open my front door so my friend could take me to lunch.  Obviously this one had nothing to do with being overwhelmed by bus transfers.  I was overwhelmed by transferring myself from horizontal to vertical.

Wednesday Night & Thursday Night Theatre Performances (30mins by car)

4mins walk, 5mins bus, 1min walk during 29mins wait, 1hr1min bus, 2mins walk (1hr41mins)

That Wednesday was the first day I was no longer allowed to drive.  I took it pretty well, if you consider "pretty well" to mean sitting on the floor in a towel for a couple of hours before mustering up the strength to put on pyjamas.

 I didn't make it to these things but there's a whole heap of things I did get to.

Getting out of the house. It can be done.

31 days of getting out of the house without my driver's licence.

from least to most difficult...

Birthday Celebration & Strategic Planning Meeting - 30mins by taxi 

This was the easiest because I didn't feel like I was inconveniencing anyone and I didn't have to do any prior planning.

2 x evenings of Cabaret Festival with my Dad - lifts from dad Thank You!

A Fete & My Sister's House with my Sister - lifts from sister Thank You!

Saturday Matinee Theatre Performance with my Friend - lift from friend Thank You!

Saturday Night Theatre Performance with my Dad - lift from dad Thank You!

Dinner with Relatives - lifts from auntie Thank You!

My Friend's House with my Friend - lift from friend's partner, trains and walk with friend 

Although this involved more than an hour travelling each way, I coped fine because I was with my friend.  Thank You! & Thank You!

The Supermarket with my Friend - lifts from friend's friend Thank You!

My Friend's House (1hr4mins by car)

getting there - 4mins walk, 21mins bus, 1min walk during 11min wait, 10mins walk during 16mins wait, 47mins train, 6mins lift from friend's partner (1hr45mins)

This was not too difficult because I spent half a day getting there at my own pace and told myself it was an adventure.

Dinner with Friends (22mins by car)

getting there - 4mins walk, 21mins bus, 1min walk during 5mins wait, 20mins bus, 5mins walk, 2mins wait, 7mins train, 2mins walk (56mins)

This seemed reasonably easy because I had spent several hours on Google Maps planning how to get there and I was excited about seeing my friends.

7 x days of Voluntary Work & A Pre-Employment Course Session (30mins by car)

3mins walk, 14mins bus, 1min walk during 5mins wait, 9mins bus, 5mins wait, 20mins bus, 5mins walk (1hr)

Falling in and out of sleep is mentally and physically painful.  I'm finding it fairly difficult to make two of these trips each day which is why I've only made it 7 times out of a possible 18.  But I did it 7 times so that's something to be proud of.

A Doctor's Appointment (7mins by car)

getting there - 4mins walk, 5mins bus, 18mins walk (27mins)
getting home - 18mins walk, 21mins bus, 3mins walk (42mins)

Dinner with Friends & Theatre Performance Viewing at Cinema

lifts from friend Thank You!

I had been looking forward to this but hadn't figured out how to get there so I thought I'd just stay in bed.  I put a message (sob story) on facebook and half a dozen people offered me a lift.  I was so happy I cried.  

Friday Night Theatre Performance (32mins by car)

getting there - 2mins walk, 9mins train, 1min walk during 10mins wait, 35mins train, 9mins walk (1hr5mins)
getting to friend's house - lift from friend Thank You!

That was an epic Friday because not only did I make it to the theatre but I also performed in the show after two nights absence.  That day I helped celebrate the 16th birthday of the community centre where I volunteer and I participated in a strategic planning meeting including typing up the second half of the strategic plan.

Lunch with a Friend

lifts from friend Thank You!

All I had to do was get to the front door.  I made it easier for myself by cutting out the difficult part - stumbling into the shower.  I was able to change from pyjamas into clothes and stumble out the front door.

 I made it to all these things but unfortunately I didn't make it to all these things.

"Just catch the bus", he said.

I was lamenting my inability to stay awake while driving and wondering aloud how I would get somewhere.  "Why don't you just catch the bus?" suggested my friend.  THE bus?  THE bus?  There's no bus that picks you up and takes you where you want to go.  Catching the bus is not like catching a cold.  If you haven't used any mode of transport other than your car, try getting somewhere using public transport before you suggest I "just catch the bus".

I should clarify that when I refer to "my friend", it is not the same person each time.  I'm venting my frustration about things said by many different people.  This is a great forum to share the opinions I don't share with my "my friend"s.  That is, until they read it and discover that I have opinions and they chase me with swords and pitchforks.

In the last 31 days I have still managed to get out of the house a bit which is much better than last time.  It makes a huge difference being able to picture in my mind how close the bus stops are.  I just have to get across the front lawn, up the hill and around the corner.

Maybe this is significant for other things that I find overwhelming.  If I can visualise how to complete the first step, I will probably take it but if it is too far away or too complicated, I will probably not try.  I think it was the main reason I didn't make it to some important things recently.  Looking at it this way, I can give myself a bit of a break for feeling overwhelmed about getting to things.
 

I'm proud of the times I got out of the house and I can understand why sometimes it proved too much of a challenge.

Improve-arama #1 - The Baseline

    Scars on my Fingers.

Clothes in my Laundry.

Scars on my Fingers:

I need to get this number to be much higher.

Clothes in my Laundry:

I need to get this number to be much lower.

I've figured out what's going on here.  I'm writing about everything that I'd like to improve in the hopes that it will remind me to improve it.  A cunning plan...but I'm onto you...you.

Trees in my Backyard.

No, I don't need to improve the trees in my backyard.  The trees are wonderful.  It is my appreciation of them that is lacking.  I really need to get out of the house.

I would like this number to always be a zero.

I would like this number to launch itself from the pitiful zero on which it has been resting.

Surprisingly, I would like this number to be higher.

What a confusing system.  If only I spent more time actually doing things instead of thinking and writing about doing them.

Flawed Floors & Licence Loss

Eeyore and the Giraffe: Adventures on the High Seas.

The above picture probably has nothing to do with what I'm about to write, but I don't know because I'm yet to write it, or not write it, as the case may be.  It is now that I will decide what I'm going to write about in this blog.  Not just this post, the entire blog.  It seemed unnecessary to trouble myself with such trivialities before I created it. So, recently I had to surrender my driver's licence because I was still falling asleep at the wheel and I imagine that my daily struggle to stay awake will form part of my writings. I'm still attempting to fix some things around the house so this could be a good place to post my before and after photos of such thrilling aspects as the driveway and floorboards. My little project before I commenced ripping up carpet and sanding floorboards was to repaint the wooden giraffe above and make little hooks where I now store cables.  The leap from sanding small pieces of dowel to sanding metres of wooden floorboards was slightly greater than anticipated and I am left with some very 'rustic' surfaces which I am yet to sand and/or varnish. As for the driveway, which I originally thought I could remedy by filling in with some old laundry tiles, I am now left with a landslide of old crumbling slabs which used to constitute the walls of the swimming pool.  Not that it matters, seeing as I'm not allowed to drive anyway. Advantages of not driving: The discovery and subsequent delight in the noise a 600ml coke bottle makes when you hit things with the curvy bit.   Finding that the ticket validating machines on buses no longer make an anxiety provoking 'you are a terrible person because your ticket doesn't work' beep but instead they sound like a jolly bouncing frog.  Disadvantages of not driving: Getting a cold from visiting a doctor 5mins drive away because it took a few hours of travelling and waiting in the freezing cold night air.   I can't blame that entirely on not driving; it would have been more sensible to visit the doctor during daylight hours.  Unfortunately, I felt too sick to go to the doctor. The sickness I had before and the sickness I have inherited since have nothing to do with the reason I went there in the first place.  Much like this blog.  Much like my life in general. Well, that explains it. The main themes shall be:  Largely irrelevant photos Staying awake Not driving House renovations Things that make funny noises Complaining about my own stupidity Trying to figure out what I'm writing about