Today on the 13th of July 2020 I am out camping again! This time at Cedar Grove camping area, which I haven’t been to before! I went for a 1km walk through the forest and took these most amazing photos and an audio sound recording! I am over camping, but for families who want to go and see how great the national parks in Australia are, I highly recommend it. If you want to take your family, or yourself, away on a budget trip and have a tent, van or caravan then I really encourage you to explore Australia’s national parks and also free camping areas. Check out the free camp Australia site to see all the camping places. I have been exploring these camping sites for over 15 months now, so for me I have visited the Australian camping areas enough!
ALSO, BECAUSE – by now I was supposed to be at the top of my maritime career, have rowed across the pacific, be married, have self-published many books, be living overseas for years and more. But well after everything I went through, i.e. the sufferings, I am still living here and there in Australia while working on my creative activities! It is always my dream to move abroad. It has been my dream for many years, and I had to watch those opportunities and dreams be taken! At first, I wanted to move to Scandinavia and now the middle east.
Last year my interest in Egypt and the wider middle east became my focus. I was researching Egypt one day and then I thought OH wow look at my resemblance to the dead pharaohs and wow I have always wanted to go and give people a tour of Egypt. I had always wanted to go and visit the middle east ever since I was young, it was one of my dreams alongside my wishes to go explore Scandinavia and other parts of the world. Hence, I always point out how my ambitions and dreams aren’t related to my heritage! When I was in high school, I wanted to become an archaeologist or Egyptologist or librarian / archivist. I collected Egyptian ornaments. When I was in my mid 20s I wanted to move to Jordan or the UAE for a time and brought myself all these books on Dubai women, history of Jordan, Arabic language and started re reading my books on history of that region again! So, I thought now I will go and expand my research into ancient history again and enroll in an ancient history degree as my side hobby while I still work on my own maritime business. I have a MBA in maritime also. BUT Unbeknownst to me people would assume I was now a historian INSTEAD of a maritime professional. As far as I am concerned, I am both. I am also an information professional, researcher, writer, and heaps more! The idea to do a higher degree in ancient history was, for me, a fun hobby and great way to reinvigorate me 20 years’ worth of research and knowledge.
However, going through all my endeavors over the last three to four years has made me value money a lot more. Back when I was working a “normal job” (now I am an entrepreneur and researcher) and my career was on the rise, I had spare money and would go and buy myself a new laptop or gaming system and save for my time overseas too. I would spend my days playing games. I was also a programmer and a complete nerdy type! I spent my weekends watching documentaries on biblical archaeology, the Vikings, shipping tragedies, this history of middle east, while also writing, researching, doing a bit of coding. I used to watch TV marathons on the history of Jesus when I had Foxtel. While other people were out shopping, I was at home watching documentaries, playing games, coding, doing yet more uni degrees, and writing. One of my interests was to go work at the Vatican when I was younger, so I could have access to their important documents for my research, but that isn’t an interest these days. When I was studying to become a librarian I wanted to work, at first, in a maritime library or a history academic library. Then when I got older I morphed into Maritime. So for me its about combining my diverse interests together! Its not about being just a librarian, just a recordkeeper, just a writer, just a trade manager etc. etc. I am all my career.
So anyway, it was my plan by June this year in 2020 to take that ancient history degree and transfer it over to Egypt i.e. take my uni and go and study in Egypt or the wider middle east like Dubai, Jordan etc. I would learn Arabic when and IF I finally got offered a place in their universities. Because I learnt my lesson before with learning languages. I taught myself some Dutch, I didn’t end up going anywhere near the Netherlands. I taught myself basic Danish and well my opportunity there disappeared because I was picked on for 3 years just so I would miss out on my amazing Danish / Norwegian year overseas! So, I am not learning a language UNTIL I go there to live! But I am still poor and still trying to be self-employed earning money and taking temp jobs while I am stuck here living in camping grounds. At the start of 2019 I had a choice, if I wanted to move, I had no other financially viable option other than to camp and live out of my car and so I did! At first, I enjoyed it, but after 15 months I just want an apartment to live in overseas not here! So, I decided, for now, to just continue with my ancient history studies here while I am camping until I have the finances to move overseas. I will keep plugging along with all my creative activities including my maritime business. I am 36, not young. I have 15 years of working or more behind me and I am already extremely university qualified.
So today on the 13th of July 2020 at the ripe old age of 36 while I am here at this camping site, I went for a bush walk and got some great ideas for my next novels. I can see how authors take their surroundings and turn them into books. It’s easy. My camping inspired me to write oceans of the Taryoi. My interest in the Scandinavian region inspired me to write books set there – yet to be published. A lot of my books are set in deserts that could be anywhere in the middle east. A lot of my books are set in Egypt. I am also still working on my maritime digital solutions.
I hope to be living overseas soon. That would be great. But until I have the finances, I will continue living here and traveling around. If I am stuck here because others ruined my overseas opportunities, then I am going to try and enjoy myself. Like today I had the best breakfast. A cappuccino, and my fried mushrooms, tomato, an egg, and some spinach. The other day I discovered I can have cheap pancakes too! SO, I am not that limited by not having a kitchen – my camp master enables me to have food I love. I can even toast bread and have fruit toast. I had the best pasta. I can even have pizza. This time last year I was so poor I was living off e-gift cards I earned from doing surveys. SO, my financial situation has improved. I now own my car outright. I can usually afford to pay my bills. I have Netflix, Stan and amazon prime for my movies. I have a cheap laptop to use. I signed up to a coworking space, so I have a desk to sit and work. I sometimes treat myself to staying in a hotel a few nights and have a shower, wash my hair and if not, there I can wash at the co-working space. I have signed up and started seeking out student accommodation, so I have a place to live and work on both my studies, my maritime business and more. I will see if I am successful with that possibly. Then while I am stuck here I will save where I can and how much want to and when I have money I will fund my move over to the middle east. I also converted to Islam last year. I want to one day get married too.
So, I hope everyone who reads this understands how lucky they are to have a house to live and money to eat. It’s important! I hope everyone who has big dreams works so hard to achieve them and does achieve them! Never ever give up on your dreams even when you feel everyone is working against you and pulling your work to pieces – KEEP GOING! Also, go and enjoy the camping!