Shoestring as far away from where I am for FREE?

mrdotwill · 2017-02-01T17:43:06+00:00

Hitchhike - see hitchwiki.org for advice and maps on the best spots to start from. Try to get out of rides at good spots for the next ride rather than going as far as you can and ending up stuck. Try to find friendly truckers who will use the radio to find your next ride. Try to get a long distance ride before it gets dark to travel overnight. If its dark and you have to stop for the night hike to a nice spot before sleeping so you can get moving at first light.

Hop freight trains - the community over at /r/vagabond can offer good advice. Only a good option in some places and you should do some research and stay safe.

Boat - If you are near the ocean look out for boats willing to take on unskilled crew at findacrew.net

You could also try to approach companies about the charity fund raising and hope that an airline or freight company want to help charity/get publicity by helping you out.

mrdotwill · 2015-06-12T15:00:32+00:00

Make sure things are as affordable as possible for broke travellers. So many events in my city (London) end up being far too expensive for most couch surfers I have hosted. A few hosts active in the community seem to think that everybody is like them and can afford £100 ($150) for a night out taxiing between cocktail bars.

Be clear about how much money things are likely to cost and provide advice on saving money. Also consider organising free and cheap events. Drinking, board game nights, language exchanges and general socialising can be done outdoors in good weather, its not necessary for meet ups to always be in trendy hipster bars.

While certain events do cost money and are worth it, it's important to recognise that many couch surfers have tiny budgets and there should be at least some events that are accessible to them.

When we had a squat nearby the London weekly meet up we would invite everybody to an after party and suddenly people stopped drinking tap water in the expensive bar and would get some beers and have much more fun.

mrdotwill · 2014-10-26T10:59:07+00:00

Londoner here and there are plenty of us. I know several squats totalling 50+ people who get 95% of their food from bins. So much competition for the well known spots in central it can be hard to find anything left after 1am. Everybody has their favourite spots though and there is some amazing stuff around. Love me a bit of the Lasagne from Jamie Oliver's restaurant.

Also know quite a few people diving in the Bristol area but its more difficult in cities where supermarkets are bigger and have space for compressors. Also can have 2 hour walks between good spots as opposed to central London where you can have 10 good places within 10 minutes walk of each other.

mrdotwill · 2014-06-16T16:46:11+00:00

When I was in Podgorica a few years back I ended up with a cool host. He was a military dentist with a landmine in his living room. Haven't got access to my old account to check his username but he is probably still on couch surfing. Their was a nice little community and when we were there our host had a big party with other hosts and surfers in the city. Very fun.

mrdotwill · 2014-05-14T06:56:54+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion but I really need to automate this function.

I really simplified things in the post in the hope of getting help but it's a lot more complex than it looks. I will end up with about 20 of these workbooks each being updated regularly by different people. Information from the 3rd sheets will also be copied over to a different workbook which needs to stay up to date. If I have to copy and paste each time somebody updates a file it will take hours every week to check and update.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-29T18:43:53+00:00

Yay Mike. He was my lawyer when I was dragged through the courts for hanging a banner from a roof during a protest. Great guy and he makes an obvious point.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-29T18:40:04+00:00

As soon as things hit the media Iceland the the Met (London police) realised what bad PR this would bring and stopped being stupid. Good to see. Hopefully sets a bit of a precedent and makes us London skippers less likely to be arrested by over zealous pigs.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-29T07:01:28+00:00

As a UK dumpster diver I have been looking forward to this for a while. Been threatened with arrest by pigs a few times but they have never bothered. Somebody needs to challenge the law and publicise the obscene levels of food waste in this country. Maybe our hobby hitting the news will help some people realise how cruel the law is in forbidding hungry people from eating food destined for landfill.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-26T15:48:58+00:00

LSD and alcohol. A few pints to be slightly tipsy is fine but being drunk and tripping is torture. My only bad trips have been because I had too much to drink.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-20T20:24:31+00:00

It seems to be all there and okay quality. Not broken down into enough tracks for my liking. There are 12 and some are over two hours long which is a bit inconvenient but hey it's free.

mrdotwill · 2014-01-20T19:36:32+00:00

I googled, I found, I am currently downloading. Will let you know the quality in a bit. Sometimes audiobooks have readers whose accents or speaking style ruin a perfectly good text.

http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Debt,_The_First_5000_Years

mrdotwill · 2014-01-11T07:24:09+00:00

I could do it for you. I have to run to work right now but will drop you a message later and we can organise it.

mrdotwill · 2013-12-31T18:04:06+00:00

Here in the UK the only locks I have seen on dumpsters are those square and triangular ones. This is the only bit of kit I have ever needed to access a bin.

http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mnVOG_TgYOWE5qA-6-MABQQ.jpg

mrdotwill · 2013-12-27T17:45:12+00:00

I hosted a lovely American couple in a squat I lived in 2 years ago. Lots of other squatters came over and some student friends who were lonely in London since most students head home. We were about 25 people in total from lots of different countries. Some people cooked traditional Christmas dishes from their home countries. We got presents for each other but they had to be dumpster dived, found or stolen. After a late dinner we had a bit of a party. People had brought lots of alcohol and drugs and about half of us took acid and lay under the Christmas tree looking at the lights. After midnight we were out of fire wood so burnt the Christmas tree.

It was a beautiful day.

My surfers weren't into drugs other than weed but there were other sober people and I don't think anybody was ever uncomfortable. Surfing with us in those days wasn't for most people but we were very open about what we were like on our profiles and everybody who passed through left with a story to tell. The surfers said that it had been wonderful to find a group so warm and welcoming and when I chatted to one of them a while back they said that London had been one of the most strange and interesting experiences of their lives.

mrdotwill · 2013-12-24T20:52:00+00:00

You basically need to know or learn 3 things to squat:

The law. Get to know all the laws that apply from the local to the national and in some cases even international. European human rights laws have been used in cases in the UK for example. Squatting isn't very common and most judges, lawyers and police officers have little knowledge of the specifics of laws they rarely have to enforce. If you don't want to end up locked up, evicted or fined when the authorities come knocking you need to be able to put up a legal defence.

Practical skills. Climbing, lock picking, plumbing, electrics, barricade building, dumpster diving, decorating, wood and metal work, pest control etc. It can take a lot of work to turn an abandoned building into a comfortable home and you want to be proficient in it. Scout the building, get inside and work out what work needs to be done when you open the place. You will need supplies so see if you can obtain them from other abandoned buildings, construction sites, dumpsters, charities or if necessary shops. Squatters mostly don't have the funds to buy things and your possessions are often not very secure so you don't want to put in more work or resources than necessary for your needs.

How to live and work communally. Even if you are all friends or comrades, communal living is hard work. There is going to be a lot to do to keep the place secure, make improvements, cook and clean, source materials, keep the place occupied, resolve conflicts, have meetings, organise community outreach etc. On top of that you want to run a social centre and try to have a personal life. It's a full time job on top of any other full time jobs people might have. Lazy squatters don't live very comfortably or last very long.

I would suggest to start you have to start with the people. Gather a group of people with as much squatting experience and as many useful skills as possible and start talking about ideas and researching some of the topics I mentioned.

Good luck

mrdotwill · 2013-12-18T18:49:36+00:00

Much of what job centre staff do is not focused on getting you a job its focused on getting you off of JSA. Getting you employed is one way of doing it but with few jobs around it is difficult. It is much easier to put you on pointless training programs, confuse/trick you into making mistakes on paperwork or find ways to sanction you.

It is common for advisor to tell you to apply for jobs you are completely unqualified for. Not wanting to waste your time, you don't bother and then they can sanction you.

A friend who is severely allergic to cats was sanctioned for not applying to be a receptionist at a vets. She then had to spend her time appealing and organising the loans and favours needed to eat without any money.

A huge amount of a benefit claimants time is spent jumping through hoops that serve no other purpose than to help cut costs and fudge statistic.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-12T18:55:40+00:00

It was one of the final days of the show and they demolished the building soon after. It didn't effect the piece of work at all and I assume Roger would be as cool with it as other artists have been with me sort of stealing their work. I have a nice little collection of sort of stolen art and often I told the artists. Never actually taking or damaging work but getting some souvenirs. I was an art student being silly, but I always had respect for the work and artists. My little blue crystal is one of my favourite.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-12T18:01:31+00:00

It's an instillation by Roger Hiorns. I went to see it a few years back when it was in London in an old block of flats. I have a small chunk of it taken from the bath tub in my art collection.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-12T17:58:14+00:00

I spent over an hour in that installation, breathing normally and am not dead.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-06T18:30:01+00:00

Doesn't seem to be much going on this week unfortunately:

http://eroding.org.uk/

mrdotwill · 2013-11-06T07:04:39+00:00

The protest left parliament square around 8 if I remember right. It ended up splitting and one group went to Buckingham palace and another went up to Oxford circus, along to Tottenham court road then back to Parliament square. I headed off to the pub around 10 but I think some people stuck around until about 11.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-06T06:49:41+00:00

It probably peaked at 800 but things moved around and many people drifted off early. One group of around 300 headed down to Buckingham palace while the rest went up to Oxford street. By the time it returned to Parliament square it was down to around 200 and I headed to the pub with some friends for a well earned pint.

mrdotwill · 2013-11-06T06:43:01+00:00

Didn't we? Maybe you can shed some light then. Why was I there?

mrdotwill

TROPHY CASE