*DISCLAIMER*
I want to start by saying that this, right here is for me and me alone. Should anyone wish to read it, go ahead- laugh at my expense, judge on my opinions or how I deal with things, relate (maybe)? be cringed out if you must… but I will not change what I write or how I write it for anyone.
Those who know me know I’ve a lot to say- some good, some bad and some most certainly ugly.
I need somewhere to put it all. My head is full and there’s only so much shit Aaron wants to listen to.
*THE BASICS OF WHERE WE ARE NOW*
I’m Daisy, my guy is Aaron and we’ve a threenager called Effie. We’ve 2 dogs, Dash and Stitch, a ferret and some bantam chickens- bog brush, Toby, the white one, the ginger one and Sara.
So… Back in Nov 2023 we sold our beautiful 3 bed home and moved into a 3 bed touring caravan in my in-laws field.
*THE WHY*
Well covid duh.
Ok, so not exactly covid itself but everything that came with, and after covid. I know I can’t speak for all but we, as a couple, had the BEST.FUCKING.TIME. The sun was shining, the garden was blooming, Aaron was baked and we did what we wanted when we wanted.
No no. Calm down, we abided by all the shitty rules just like the rest of you. We were only a twosome during covid, we didn’t have Eff back then so we got up when we wanted, we gardened when we wanted , I learned to do embroidery (I say that but I half completed it and haven’t picked it up since), we binge watched Brooklyn 99 for days on end, spent HOURSSSS on Stardew valley while sat in our pants. … Yano, real fun stuff.
To say we remember covid all rose tinted is an understatement. We didn’t watch the news so we got all lock down info via Facebook, which, as we all know, is the most reliable source for information out there… we were in a literal bubble and it was epic.
That being said, the bubble was well and truly popped when I had to do the food shop. The snacks were low, cupboards bare and we were a day away from using socks to wipe our arses…
Fast forward to Lidl… I donned a mask, left Aaron in the car, grabbed a large trolly and joined the mammoth queue. Side note, do you remember the queues!?!? Coiling round the car park, I’ve been to concerts that have had smaller queues. God, it was so bleak, no one spoke, everyone’s stink-eyeing the person in front or checking over their shoulder at the person behind in case they got to close and Jesus fucking Christ, don’t you dare sneeze or cough or it’d be pitchforks at dawn. I get fear, I do, but it was literally every man for himself. There were no kind smiles, no words of comfort, no ‘we’re all in this together’ camaraderie, zilch.
Sorry, went off on a tangent there… anyway… large shopping trolly…
Right, our cupboards were bare. I had honestly run everything right down. We’d refused to panic shop and my time as a chef has me naturally keeping my cupboards well stocked, so it had taken a few weeks before we even needed to leave the house for supplies. As it was, we’d needed abit of everything. I’d called mum before leaving and had a list of bits to get her for our own version of doordash.
I did my shop, as best I could. The shelves were empty, I was substituting all our usuals for other items, having to double up on rice because they had no pasta (girl likes carbs) utter chaos. Regardless, I’d got a full trolly. It was brimming. To the point I was getting all sweaty thinking about what people would be thinking. (absolutely nuts right?) I wasn’t planning on coming out again for another month so I’d made sure we had everything we’d need to stay isolated for as long as possible.
I checked out, now I pack my trolly like any normal sane person would… heavy on the bottom, light and soft on the top. I walked out the shop as confidently as I could until the wind hit me. It sent the contents of the top of my trolly flying, in my utter panic trying to catch the crips, I knocked the butter out, then the bog roll jumped ship, the bread was already long gone. The wind hit again and by this point I literally couldn’t control the trolly. Bit embarrassing, tho slightly funny on a normal day right, but this day, this.fucking.day. Maybe they were or maybe they weren’t but I just felt everyone’s eyes land on me. I felt them boring into me, judging me for my full trolly. Again, maybe they were, maybe they weren’t but the head believes what the head believes. After weeks of seeing rant after rant on Facebook about people panic buying, I got myself in such a tizz-wozz. I started to cry, obviously no one helped. No one. People were even going as far as tut at me and fold their arms across their chests.
I was mortified. Like a snivvling mess I called Aaron to come rescue me. He pulled up outside the shop like my knight in shining armour, sat upon his noble steed ( in reality he was in our silver Megane with a covid cut). We bundled everything into the car and I cried all the way home.
Long story short, I never, ever want to feel like I did that day. The embarrassment and shame for having a full trolly of food to feed myself and my family.
So to come back to the WHY. Why did we sell our house and move into a caravan?
Because we want a better, slower, simple life. We’re done with the rat race. Covid proved to us that there is more to life than working all hours, proved to us that our food system is fragile and proved to us that we need to be able to look after ourselves wholly and properly should we ever be unfortunate enough to experience another global pandemic or better yet just because we bloody can!
* THE DREAM*
Ahhhh, the important bit. The bit that gets us through the cold nights, keeps us feeling alive and driven during this never ending rain! Jesus fucking Christ this rain!
Our dream, now hold on tight it’s a biggie…
Self sufficiency. That’s it. In a nutshell.
In reality it’s not as simple, nothing ever is. But I’ve gone on to long. I’ll divulge every damn detail in my next blog entry. It’s 11.24pm and I haven’t read any book yet. (current read ‘The one that got away’ by JD Kirk. Love his books as fillers between heavy series’s. I just binged all 5 ACOTAR books in less than a month (those who don’t know, a court of thorns and roses by Sarah J Mass, READ THEM IMMEDIATELY)
There’s going to be a few back stories for the first few entry’s then it might turn into kind-of-ah ‘dear diary today I blah blah blah’ we’ll see how it goes. Might never write another one hahaha.
Catch up soon then ( maybe 😉)
Daisy xx
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