When I was in my teens and early 20's I wanted to be like Sid Vicious and be dead before my 40's of something really shocking to my parents - like a heroin overdose.
I'm now 47 and don't want to die until at least 70. I'm not sure why - but dying in my 60s sounds dull.
I'm not scared of dying - I've done most things I want to in life - in fact, I'd be content if someone told me this was my last day on earth.
I'm so over working a meaningless day job, teenagers and a whining wife. So I've decided, I'm going to buy me a VW Transporter and do it all up with LED lights with black synthetic material on the roof and walls complete with at least two IPads - one on the ceiling and the other one somewhere else. I want a really comfy bed, and lots of other modern sh1t - I'm talking pimp my ride, sandman 2010 style. I'm going to drive this beast all over the place like the grey nomad that I'm reluctantly turning into and piss off to Johannna or wherever for whatever.
I started looking up what I should buy. New or used. You can buy a cleanskin or you can buy one already done up. Being a bit of a cheap-scate I thought I'd look up buying a second hand one - one already done up. Sure, I'd just replace the creamed on mattress. But there were all these depressing ads along the lines of "for sale - unfinished project - selling due to stroke"
I don't know where this post is going.
Has anyone else got some random half baked ideas they want to share?
i want to be a rock star so iv'e been drinking heaps of piss and taken lots of drugs got that part done pat.....just got to get them guitar lessons 
Yeah here's a half baked idea -
leave the teenagers and possibly the wife at home and go windsurfing in Maui
If that doesn't sound good, go to Mauritius
If neither of them sound like a good idea, give me the money and I will go and tell you how good it was.
(If you want something quicker, go to Lord Howe for a couple of weeks. Take the wife for that one though, as someone needs to go get you a hamburger and a coke when you come in for lunch)
Maui sounds real good - I went there last year, I'm going to spend a bit of my pacific peso there later this year on a road trip around L.A/San Fran.
I was going to write all this other stuff about death and dying but ran out of breath and couldn't be fagged.
T4 and T5 vans - the best place to get some good ideas is the ebay.co.uk - there's a loads of modified ones on there.
Ten seconds on there came up with the following. There's some much better ones on there though for inspiration.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2000-VOLKSWAGEN-TRANSPORTER-T4-TDI-SWB-BLACK-/150600199347?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item231078acb3
cgi.ebay.co.uk/VOLKSWAGEN-TRANSPORTER-CARAVELLE-WHITE-T4-Surf-Day-van-/150600377105?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item23107b6311
Another way to look at it is that you might be helping someone out by buying their pimped van because they have had unexpected medical issues. They may need the cash!
I remember the missus and I where on tour in the NT when the GFC went down and fuel prices were high. There were so many Nomads camping on ovals (one place in particular the "dump point" where you empty your turds from the campervan) because they couldn't afford to move because their super got slashed and they could'nt afford to drive.
Your a long time dead so good on you for making the most of it I reckon.
You make a good point there. The price of oil is really high again.
Maybe I should be thinking about lurking around caravan parks or ovals in the outback to save some bucks. I could make friends with some oldies who have a fully decked out Transporter and are stuck there cause they either can't afford the diesel to get out, or are suffering from health complications and in need of some quick cash. When it comes to doing the deal I'd go in hard - but not enough to be featured on Today Tonight. It really sounds like a win win.
I'd have to check out their van thoroughly - racv checks and stuff - but if it all checks out I'd just chuck their creamed mattress, their boring slim dusty CD's, spray the inside with disinfectant or mortein and bobs your uncle.
30 years ago bought an old Toyo hiace bongo van 12R engine.Next weekend got a local chippie to fit out a camper using chipboard. Painted itnext weekend and was off the weekend after.
Sound like you are looking for excuses,
Buy a fitted van and go.
Go surfing...it will make you feel less like a fat old ****...at least until you next look in the mirror
Buy a copy of Annie Hill's Voyaging on a Low Income.
She and her partner live off $60/week and have travelled to places you and I can only dream about. Whilst a lot of their destinations are a trifle too chilly for my liking, (Iceland and the Falklands) I would direct my boat toward warm and windy destinations.
You can pick up a very nice steel hulled 30 foot yacht for $60k, invest the rest in government bonds and set yourself free!
I know of a lecherous old kiwi bastard that travels the Antipodean coast with female crew selected from the backpacking community. This may not be to your liking but it does have a certain allure!
Buy a bike like
or
Then get yourself a tent, GPS, and start heading north until it gets really cold.
You could take a camera and laptop to make regular post... call it "the long way up"
If you want company, just hang around advrider.com for a couple months, you're sure to find someone.
A bit more googling shows the book at $24.95.
Most public libraries will get the book in for you if you put in a request. It costs $13.20 at my local. They'll track it down from another library or buy a copy.
Just my two cents on happiness...
Happiness is a transitory state. People who are continually happy are insane, deluded or on drugs (or all of the above.)
What is necessary is to enjoy the happy times, feel good about the generally contented times, and tolerate the bad times with as much good humour as you can muster.
Buying a motorbike/van/boat/tattoo/thai contortionist expecting it to make you happy is doomed to failure. No matter what thing you have the continuing cycle of happy/contented/grumpy/angry will continue.
If you can develop the thought patterns and attitudes that let you be at peace with yourself then you can choose to do whatever you want and enjoy happiness doing it.
If you can't develop those thought patterns then you will be a miserable sh.t no matter what is happening in your life.
Peace out love children.
^^^ +1
It's easy to say that people should be happy, but try being happy when you are depressed 
If you feel like you need a kickstart to get things heading in the right direction, assuming your actions are not going to be too far out there, I would say go for it!
The transporter sounds neat - something interesting and useful - so why not?
PS: Not saying Oliver is depressed, but you get my drift I hope
PPS: 
On a different tack altogether. For all of us there is this life, and then there is "for ever after". Yes, we do like to argue about what "for ever after" holds for us, but even if annihilation is your thingy, it's for ever. If re-incarnation is your thingy, it's for ever, and so on. Now, taking a little mathematical "licence" here, any number (age in years) over "for ever" (infinity) is 0 (zero). That is to say that your measly 3 score and 10, or there-abouts here on Earth counts for absolutely naught when compared to "for ever after".
Why not take this challenge: Find out what's really gonna be for the "for ever after" part of your life, coz it's going to be for an awful long time. All the more awful if you get it wrong. You never can tell, all you your present woes might just pale into complete insignificance.
I don't think I'm depressed, not yet anyway.
I think the word melancholy describes my state of mind much better. I'm neither here nor there anymore.
What about Morbid and Melancholy as a new title for this thread?
