Making the money box

Cat copyright Susan Morrison Jones

this is Cat, he sits on the floor by my sister’s chair and he eats money. every penny, every pound, disappears through the tiny slot and is swallowed until the grand opening.

You can't open him without destroying him. It was a deliberate ploy, if getting the money out means breaking Cat open, then it is a little bit of thinking time before the hammer gets used and a reprieve is generally the result.

He was made to hold £1,000 in mixed coins and paper so he is a hungry little devil. One of a kind whose presence has the real cat (one Baldrick the B'stard Jones, part Main Coon and evil personified) going ballistic. He doesn't like Cat at all and will stalk up to him to stare into those empty eyes and swish his tale a bit.

Cat was made from papier Mache covered with plaster of Paris and a final coating of No Nails then painted, he is tough, he can take a few knocks and to deliberately smash him is going to be a tough call for anyone still less someone like myself.

I made him for my sister, she has her own plans for the future and I am in the process of making myself one, it will be as individual as he is and as unbreakable, currently however, my savings amount to very little and lie inside a tiny china piglet who luckily for me, has an easy access opening, but the time is coming when my finances need locking down and so, as with all hopeful one day millionaires...I shall start that new money box and get crafting.

The Last Great Adventure and Independent Means

copyright SusanMorrison-Jones

The image on your right is myself 24 years ago. A focussed and pretty young looking 40-year-old. Life hits you between the eyes when your growing older, at 64 (image on your left) I have a fair few issues to deal with as I grow old.

One of those issues, is finances. Like a lot of Mum's my children have had all I could spare and beyond. It’s a parent trap we can all fall into, but I believe waiting until your dead to gift your children finances, jewellery you haven't worn in decades and paintings you never even notice on your walls anymore.........is selfish. So my children have had it all and I am now at the 'rock bottom' end of the scales personally.

Not that I am suffering, indeed no. I have a roof over my head, good food in the cupboards and a fair amount of positive views to my life. But I am what is called an Old Age Pensioner. With a small pension due me on a weekly basis. Before anyone thinks 'oh' pensions are not out of the people’s purse, I paid into that pension scheme for decades it is my entitlement. That’s obvious from my statement here, an old thorn in my side. Just as the National Health is a thorn but digression isn't needed so back on track......

I need to fund myself during my adventures, beyond what my pension will provide and so I obtained a small job to pay for my stationary life style as it is now and began to create ways to fund myself in the future. It takes a while to establish a following on Facebook, Google Plus and other social media channels. It also takes a while to establish yourself as an on line funded personality. That’s what my Google Page is all about. Seeing me.

As I gain a following and visitors I am learning what interests and what bores my possible audiences. What creates a buzz, what is a fat zero interest ripple and according to my data I will bring all that knowledge into order over the next few months. It is also important to me that I record the process as I go along. These blogs are a 'warts and all' series of blogs, images, thoughts and feelings. They’re the 'real me' so I don't lie in them, I don't procrastinate about what to write. I let rip.

To enable my adventures, I need Independent Means, money or help that is freely available to myself and responsible only to myself. I would LOVE a millionaire to say 'here girly go adventure' but that is so not going to happen, I can't rely on miracles I can and will rely on me....so I started a long term series of blogs, links and ideas to do just that. I haven't connected anything to advertising or any cash returns from any formats as yet...but I will eventually. Every little penny, cent or pound or dollar is going to be needed eventually.

To that end I began publishing my books on Kindle and as a result I now have three books online, more to come. These books have been sat in my PC for a long time, my promise to publish them for my 64th birthday was fulfilled. Now I need them to earn their keep.

I also began a programme of saving in a separate account for the adventure. I have a whole £30 in there so far. If you knew how difficult that was to manage from a place in life where I was completely homeless, you would feel the emotional high this has caused me.

Further I am growing plants from seed, potting them up and they will be sold next year when they are healthy and established plants. I am also creating a series of videos of that process and how to turn an 80p packet of seeds into £50. which sounds ridiculous but ten packets of seeds and a bit of time is £8 becoming £500 and every little will help.

My paintings continue and i will do the odd commission or sell the occasional one here and there.... that adds to everything.

I will add the adsense to my blogs and create more videos on youtube asap...that will add a little every now and again. Pay Pal and I are about to become firm friends.

I am buying, doing up and selling on, some material things which I hope to garner another 500 and so on. I have three years left and in that time I need to make £20,000 and I will.

So I am proactive and eventually I hope to master the publishing thing with Kindle...would love those books to go viral but they won't. I have to be realistic, there is not one swear word, act of violence or sex scenes in any of them. They were written from the knowledge my grandchildren would want to read nana's books and my Mother would too...so nothing naughty, just adventure and history bound into a storyline. Never the less they now have a presence on line and that’s important. If all they do is create £10 it’s a tenner I didn't have before.

So its Tally Ho again

Here’s the link to my books if your interested.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fingal-Village-Book-Susan-Morrison-Jones-ebook/dp/B01FWPZQJC

Catch Up on The Last Great Adventure

The Universe is mine copyright Susan Morrison-Jones

Trying to stay focused on The Last Great Adventure is really difficult. Life continually throws you curves, matters to distract, confuse, deter.... but every now and again something momentous will happen to me and my focus is back. Needle sharp and revving to go.

In recent weeks I lost a dear son in law to sudden heart failure and a good friend to a long drawn out illness ending in his demise. My son in law was a lovely man and far too young to have left us, but in that single emotional trauma lay the lesson 'tomorrow isn't promised'. In my friend’s demise came the reminder that my mortal coil cannot stay fixed at 'time yet' because it isn't, never will be. But it is so very easy to put things off until tomorrow and if that tomorrow has been denied you, then of course the list of 'things to do' no longer has any importance, it is defunct.

My determination to set off on one last adventure, the greatest of them all had waned of late. I have been very tired, very challenged over smaller issues and the idea, the difficulties and the aspects still in need of attention just swamped my enthusiasm enough to quell it.

A series of blood tests had revealed a dangerously low level of Vitamin D in my system which did manage to at least explain my continuous tiredness. It also linked to other physical issues such as a massive increase in the pain I feel from various ailments, but it was, as an experience very debilitating and had squashed the old me into a dark and depressing corner. Now being addressed fully, never the less that too was a lesson in self-care which I had not employed for some time.

I need a little time, I hope that time is granted me, to catch up on my adventure plans and sort out other things. I will endeavour to do so in the next few weeks.

I made my choices and original decision to attempt a full road trip around and criss crossing the whole of the British Isles for when I am 67 at the latest. By then I had decided that my health and fitness would just about manage to fulfil its purpose and I would be young enough to enjoy the experiences. But I had a five-year time line to work towards gaining the right equipment, the right vehicle and the right amount of financial support to fund myself.

That was almost two years ago now and I am galloping towards that 67 mark quite fast. I am now 64 nearly 65 and I am, in part, able to say I have managed some of the criteria necessary but not the whole of it. I have found a stable place to rent, a job to ensure I stay put for a short while and a whole gamut of information’s, maps and ideas.

Ahead of me is the finances being made stable and enough money to purchase a vehicle suitable for me and the dogs to live in as we tramp across the Isles...they are, I suppose, the biggest challenges.

From designing my own wardrobe (I know the hardships of homelessness and long camping trips) to get suitable clothing for roughing it, being presentable and being comfortable. To equipment I will need, I am almost there or in the middle of doing it. The fund raising for the rest is going to be a strict way to live for a while. No sudden expenditure splurges or destructively expensive bills can be accommodated. If the car dies, it stays dead, I can't afford to pay loads of maintenance for this vehicle and save up to buy a motorhome. If I have a pile of debts I can't save so I am ending a cycle of living on my overdraft even as I write. It began to feel (at one stage) as if I were back in the old days of being a student again, making one penny do the work of five.... but I AM getting there. Just a tad tired currently, but still keen to carry on.

Dora’s' Daughter the Explorer....is moving forwards.