I wasn’t alone back then, I did have support workers (contingency hotels in Vic are run under more or less the same conditions as resi, so 24/7 workers and such).

I wouldn’t really give the system that much credit, because I know a lot of people it hasn’t worked for, the other kid who moved in is probably one of them. On my end, all I can do to get my needs met is being proactive about sending emails and text messages, and pretty much harassing people on the daily until they get things sorted. But that only works because the people within my care team are all receptive, have a good relationship with me, and do their jobs. If my case manager decided she didn’t want to follow something up for me, then it wouldn’t matter what I said or how often I said it, it would never happen.

It used to be the case (as recently as a couple years ago) that the day before your 18th birthday you would be kicked out. Nowadays it has changed a bit, and there are more support options. I’m eligible for a service that some other people aren’t (which I don’t really want to get into, it comes down to personal reasons), which offers subsidised housing (although operates differently to the housing commission). There’s about a 9 month waiting list for that, which I only got onto recently. In the meantime though, I can stay in my current space until I’m 19. They’re not huge fans of that, and as soon as somewhere comes up, the expectation is definitely that I take it and move out ASAP, but the option is there to stay around until I turn 19. I will lose most of my support network once I move, but in their place, something else will take it for a few years.

I don’t know what the “standard” pathway is for moving out, so I also don’t know what the backup is if my current plan falls through for whatever reason. But prior to this extension and moving into lead tenant, my plan after moving out was to live in a car

Thanks eagle and catfish. I’ll probably reminisce and share some stories over the next few days as I collect myself and settle in.

2018 was an absolutely wild year. I got kicked out of 2 places, moved 11 times, and had to travel about 300km between each new place. I’ve only moved about 25 (I think) times since I was born, so almost half of them happened in 2018 alone

11, to be exact. I entered the system 9 days after my birthday

Try not to think about 2016 being 8 years ago and 2014 being a full decade ago then. Because that sent me into a spiral at the start of the year

I got some news about the other kid. Apparently they are actually fully decided on moving him elsewhere. Their original plan was to move him out tomorrow, and have me move back in later tomorrow, but that didn’t end up happening because their plans fell through. So instead I’m staying in another hotel until Tuesday morning, and he’ll be leaving on Monday night.

Also, kind of ironic, but the hotel I’m now staying at is the same one I lived in for a few months in 2018 after getting kicked out of another place in the country. Ironically in those days I was being moved close to every week and basically toured the entire west and south west of the state. Then I moved into this hotel and things started to settle down.

I’m in a different room on a different floor, but it’s really interesting seeing it from a different perspective. 6 years ago I was still me, but so different it doesn’t even feel like I was. I was never expecting to come back here. I’m also loving the irony that despite how many places I’ve been at, and how much has changed in the world, system, and me, I’m still moving around every week. That doesn’t really make me sad though, because at least this time it’s a mutual thing and I have some say in where I’m going and when. Last time I was here I was only here because somebody declared that I would be, and that was the end of the story. Also I could’ve chosen somewhere else, or another Airbnb.

After not hearing anything for a few hours, I actually did go out to try and push it closed. It’s not a latch, it has some sort of key, but I can’t actually turn the key to lock it because it’s too high up and not really usable by anything except finger

Thank you. Something about the situation felt and still feels off, and I’ve never really been in this situation before so don’t know how to react

The noise I heard sounded similar to my footsteps, but I just assumed my backpack must have slipped over or something fabric-y fell off something else. The pipes also made a jarring noise when I turned on the tap which they so far haven’t done either.

I think I can hear either possums or foxes outside, something sounds like a child screaming in the distance. That is not helping the vibe. In any case, something doesn’t feel right and I’m going to stay in my room until morning

So I’m officially creeped out. Tonight’s my last night here and 10 mins or so ago I heard something. Chalked it up to old house + cold weather (and warm heater). But when I went for my final dunny run, I opened the bathroom and the manhole thingy is halfway down and it has a staircase built into it. The noise I heard definitely didn’t sound like a clunk, which is the noise I’d expect it to make

This is the sort of thing that’s too concerning for me to be able to just go to sleep and act like everything’s okay, but at the same time not enough to actually call the police (who are pretty much the only people I could call at this hour). It’s also a lot colder in here than it has been any other night, kind of like a door was open. All of my doors are locked and have been all night. I checked all the spare rooms, nobody’s here. But I can’t even close the damn thing because it’s too high to reach.

It looks like it has some sort of latching mechanism which should’ve prevented it from coming open by itself. And of course every little creak is freaking me out now

Edit: I did about the most balanced thing I could think of. I grabbed a knife and barricaded my bedroom door (there’s no lock). I’m getting a lift out of here at 9:30, in the meantime I’m staying here. It’s probably an over reaction and just an old house being an old house, but I don’t fuck with this kind of shit. I don’t feel safe, but I don’t have any confirmation of anything, so I’m staying right here

Thanks maggies!

Omfg I should never be allowed to talk again. I can’t believe I called you dhmo

Thanks G!

No

I go for the pre training review thingy today. They sent me the link yesterday and reiterated I had to fill out the LLN assessment prior to the PTR, so i wrote back to ask if they’d received my assessment, and they never replied which is always a good sign.

I feel like this is a bit of a pivotal moment for me, and this is about the point I’d start making saves if this were a game…

In other news, I was finally able to go watch that bad men movie on Sunday (3rd time’s the charm, I guess). I enjoyed it, even though I never saw the other one(s? I think it’s a trilogy). I pieced enough of it together to still enjoy myself.

Edit: it didn’t really go anywhere. Apparently being in high school I need a letter before I can start the course, even though I’m apparently old enough to just decide I want to leave. And of course it’s now school holidays so I can’t get it until the 12th, 4 days before my course starts…

I’d like to move to Sweden one day, that’s probably the soonest I’ll be seeing snow

I’ve still never seen real snow in person. I have seen fake snow once, but it’s not quite the same

Probably. But Ninite pro seems to manage automatically updating programs, so perhaps they do actually use it on some internal system

Did you go to bed at 8pm?

I almost went for a 6pm nap earlier

Watching petrol prices fascinates me so much, since I don’t have a car. It’s $1.80 one day and then a week later it’s $2.03? But then you can get it for $1.90 if you drive to the other side of the city

I wanted to get into that but just couldn’t for some reason. Only watched the first few episodes, but I feel almost certain that if I can make it past the first season it will probably become one of my favourite shows. I’m just weird like that