17 Oct 2008, 6:13 am
17 Oct 2008, 7:38 am
i have a number of ideal dreams of how i would eventually like to live.
when i was a child, and even now, i often fantasize as i drift off to sleep at night about different living scenarios.
i always quite liked cold unfriendly stone castles.
especially if there is a dungeon.
(i have no macabre ideas by the way).
it was more for the amusement value of the idea that i liked it. imagined being in my fifties and some new friends coming to the door of my place for the first time.
my wife answers the door and says "i'll just get mark. i think he's down in the dungeon somewhere". then i am called and they hear my hard soled shoes clacking on the floor toward them in the distance for minutes before i get to where they are. etc etc. they would find it creepy and feel like leaving in a short time, and i would feel it was like a sanctaury that i can walk deep inside.
another dream is to have a structure that is shaped like the spaceship called "jupiter 2" (from lost in space).
this structure would be made of titanium and its windows would be bullet proof.
i would anchor this structure into the ground on my land that is in the worst thunderstorm and tornado and hurricane path in the world.
it would look like the spaceship above ground, but there would be giant screws underneath that are drilled far down into the bedrock so there can be no tearing the structure away in extreme weather.
i would like to eat my boiled eggs at the kitchen table looking through the greenish tinted bullet proof glass and not even bat my eyes as i see my neighbours house get broken up and hurled directly toward me.
as the wooden shards are javelined into my windows, all i hear is a faint thudding sound.
another variant on this is to have the structure on rocks out to sea a bit where the huge breakers break.
like if there is an underwater ledge where some rocks protrude in level seas, but is swamped by waves during every break.
it would be exciting to lay on a hammock inside the "house" and watch growing huge waves (like 60 footers in hawaii) rolling toward you and mounting up so high, then come crashing down right on top of your house.
all in totally smug safety.
yet another scenario which is still fanciful but somewhat achievable is to purchase an old airliner like a 727 and have it transported to your land to live in.
i have seen 727's going for less than $1 million.
there was one that was even still flight certified for $750,000.
it was a corporate plane. this means it had bedrooms and dining rooms and a theatre etc instead of rows of seats.
if it had been commercial with rows of seats, or a cargo configured plane, it would be worth much more, since it can bring in income.
but since it is for one or 2 "vip's" , then it is hard to sell. no respectable ceo wants a 30 year old 727 anymore.
it is a corporate equivalent of an old buick (for australians an old kingswood).
if a carrier company bought the plane, it would have to spend very much on refitting it.
also. 727's are avgas guzzlers and are extremely loud, and many airports do not let them in.
so they are within reach of a person who would otherwise buy a nice 2 storey home.
this nice one costs $1,800,000, and it is fully clean and fresh and flyable.
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... n%26sa%3DG
as you can see they are very comfily roomy inside.
they also still have some cargo carrying capacity, so it may be possible to carry some cargo to offset fuel and maintenance bills, and then get the thrill of flying your powerful jet home to wherever you get payed to go.
it would at least help with the running costs.
i can probably get the plane, but i would not be able to fly it due to the costs.
repairs are staggeringly expensive. it would be one of my realities if i had about $30-50 million.
but i would be broke after getting the plane and not able to live very well for a long time after, so it is a dream to own and live in a flying jet plane to travel to all parts of the world and park for weeks and experience the cities of your choice, with your plane being your mobile hotel.
just imagine having your bed's matress at a level so that your head on the pillow is level with a window, and you are quite sleepy and watch dreamily out as i taxi and takeoff.
it would be best to have your head on the upside of the climb angle which means you would be looking aftward for takeoff (if you are in bed)
but as the plane levels out, it is more interesting to be facing looking toward where the plane is going (feet toward nose and head toward tail (there may be a lewd pun in that sentence somewhere but i can not discover it)).
this is a stickling point. it takes room to swivel a bed.
maybe just get out and lie in it the other way. how manual.
anyway that is just a hypnagogic idea that i consider as i drift to the absurdity of dreams when i go to sleep.
but realistically (ish), i am thinking of very old 727's that are destined for the mohave desert and scrappage.
they remove the engines and take all the valuable still working avionics out (and the other stuff like actuators for flaps etc), then you can have the carcass for maybe as little as $50,000 ( i saw a good looking corporate plane for $45,000). it was on blocks though, and had no landing gear etc, but the interior was so plush.
this would be great to have as a house on 100 of land that i buy.
(some 727 corporate jets have NO cargo space, and therefore there is "downstairs" living space as well (galleys etc)).
if i got one, i would make the cockpit a very believable flight simulator. the windscreens would be monitors with perspective slant corrections, and all the controls would be wired to the handles and switches in the cockpit. the sound would be identical to the real sound.
and the last and anticlimactic one i think of, is buying a sydney ferry that is being retired.
there was one ferry that i saw that was going for only $18,000 dollars!! !.
they have a passenger capacity of about 100-150.
this is what it looked like somewhat. it was about this size.
by the way, sydney harbour has much bigger and better ferries than this old chugger. that is why i saw a flurry of ads for old ferries like this.
they are more wooden than metal. their hulls are metal, but the rest is not valuable except for firewood.
so, if you were going to spend $500,000 on a place, then the first $18,000 id for the place, and the rest is for making it a paradise afloat.
some norwegian company bought that $18,000 ferry and sailed it to norway!!.
i had no idea it was capable of oceanic voyages.
if i had known it was capable of sailing the high seas (very high in places) i would have probably got it.
i thought i would be confined to sydney harbour, and you can not moor a big boat like that anywhere in the harbour without much paying rent.
if i had known i could sail it around to the northwest coast and find peaceful secluded havens to moor at and live there for a long time, it would have been very tempting and i would have bought it.
but now i live where i want to be forever.
i have a nice little house in peaceful bushland, and i have many nice wild animals who come to me to visit.
i like to be in their company.
some cynical people say that they are only visiting me because i feed them.
that is very valid.
but after they are full, they still hang around to snooze and digest their meals close by to me.
they do not just eat and go.
they eat and then they all chatterbox on my railings and watch me doing laundry etc.
they feel safe here, so i do not believe they are just freeloaders like some people say.
because i can not take wild animals with me when i go, i do not want to go from where i am now.
i am very happy where i am.
