Sven
Member
I am not on the road or anything like that.
I was involved in a bit of squatting and the new age traveller scene in the 90s, in the UK.
Later I lived in a squat for a period in Nottingham, but it was not exactly through choice. More through doing too many drugs and letting my life run away from me.
Then I went straightish, got a job in a Bank, moved back to London and cleaned up more or less. Had a weed and coke habit for a number of years, but I am over that now.
Then after that, I moved to Sweden and I run my own IT business with my Finnish wife.
Mostly I got interested in here, because of the stories and accounts of living this way. When I was first working at a bank and had my social circle shift to "young professionals", a lot of people thought I was plain talking shit about the stuff I had got up to and the sort of people you encounter in this world.
One guy in a houseshare, outright accused me of complete bullshit when a house near us had burned down and I explained that I suspected junkies. He had grown up in a very upper middle class world. Been to Cambridge university, worked for BP.
He did not believe for one second that junkies were real. He first accused me of trying to convince him that the film Trainspotting is real.
He got even more upset when I told him about a squat I lived in and how that had ended up burning down because some junkies (Crack and Heroin addicts) had moved in, stole everyone else's drugs and money, and ended up chopping up the internal doors to make fires in the front room.
Luckily I had moved out and got an apartment by then.
This guy really genuinely seemed to think I was trying to lie to him. I was not sure at the time why he reacted in such a hostile manner.
Thinking back, part of what seemed to make him angry was the fact that I did not really seem to be phased by him. He was not big, but really seemed to not understand that because I had had to be in nasty fights with genuinely dangerous people, posh middle class boys were not high on my list of people to be worried about.
Previous to this, I gathered that every violent situation he had been involved in had mostly been him and his rugby team bullying people.
After this, I did figure out that there were people who really just did not or did not want to believe in the alternative to their world. About desperate poor people. They knew about drug addicts sure, but drug addicts in their world went and checked into hospital and got treatment.
Anyway! The point of me wanting to join here is that I like reading about this sort of stuff, the stories, and the lives.
I tried it for a while, but I am too soft and middle class for it. Plus my wife is recovering from breast cancer, so I do not want to place her in a position where her recovery might be compromised.
Now that I live in Sweden, it seems that people who want to live off the grid steer clear of the cities.
Swedes, while a very nice bunch, are very ordinary and also find descriptions of squatting either baffling and frightening, or attractive for the wrong reasons. Drugs, especially are not tolerated here, so a lot of kids want to hear about doing drugs and how it is comparatively more common and socially acceptable in the UK.
Basically, I can't talk about that sort of thing, and never hear what's going on!
I was involved in a bit of squatting and the new age traveller scene in the 90s, in the UK.
Later I lived in a squat for a period in Nottingham, but it was not exactly through choice. More through doing too many drugs and letting my life run away from me.
Then I went straightish, got a job in a Bank, moved back to London and cleaned up more or less. Had a weed and coke habit for a number of years, but I am over that now.
Then after that, I moved to Sweden and I run my own IT business with my Finnish wife.
Mostly I got interested in here, because of the stories and accounts of living this way. When I was first working at a bank and had my social circle shift to "young professionals", a lot of people thought I was plain talking shit about the stuff I had got up to and the sort of people you encounter in this world.
One guy in a houseshare, outright accused me of complete bullshit when a house near us had burned down and I explained that I suspected junkies. He had grown up in a very upper middle class world. Been to Cambridge university, worked for BP.
He did not believe for one second that junkies were real. He first accused me of trying to convince him that the film Trainspotting is real.
He got even more upset when I told him about a squat I lived in and how that had ended up burning down because some junkies (Crack and Heroin addicts) had moved in, stole everyone else's drugs and money, and ended up chopping up the internal doors to make fires in the front room.
Luckily I had moved out and got an apartment by then.
This guy really genuinely seemed to think I was trying to lie to him. I was not sure at the time why he reacted in such a hostile manner.
Thinking back, part of what seemed to make him angry was the fact that I did not really seem to be phased by him. He was not big, but really seemed to not understand that because I had had to be in nasty fights with genuinely dangerous people, posh middle class boys were not high on my list of people to be worried about.
Previous to this, I gathered that every violent situation he had been involved in had mostly been him and his rugby team bullying people.
After this, I did figure out that there were people who really just did not or did not want to believe in the alternative to their world. About desperate poor people. They knew about drug addicts sure, but drug addicts in their world went and checked into hospital and got treatment.
Anyway! The point of me wanting to join here is that I like reading about this sort of stuff, the stories, and the lives.
I tried it for a while, but I am too soft and middle class for it. Plus my wife is recovering from breast cancer, so I do not want to place her in a position where her recovery might be compromised.
Now that I live in Sweden, it seems that people who want to live off the grid steer clear of the cities.
Swedes, while a very nice bunch, are very ordinary and also find descriptions of squatting either baffling and frightening, or attractive for the wrong reasons. Drugs, especially are not tolerated here, so a lot of kids want to hear about doing drugs and how it is comparatively more common and socially acceptable in the UK.
Basically, I can't talk about that sort of thing, and never hear what's going on!
