A Beginning: Home is where the heart is

The concept of home is exotic.
They say that home is where the heart is, but does home have to have four walls and a P.O address?
My designs on a dream home challenge the traditional concept of what home should be while also celebrating its true essence. For me, home is a vehicle that allows me to see the world & all its peoples.
In my home, I'll be able to adventure in relative comfort. I'll be able to recalibrate my views on people & societies from a place of first hand experience instead of second hand opinion. And as I change and grow, so too will my home.
From an expedition truck for overlanding, to a catamaran that ferries me from sea to port, to a fantasy of a spaceship that'll carry me to every disparate location where civilisation manages to crop up.

Red Eyes Black Dragon

An expedition truck I will lovingly call my Red Eyes Black Dragon might be the smallest beast I ride, but it's a beast nonetheless. Built tough with wheels like a caterpillar's legs & an engine that never quits, this home is compact & cozy. With features like a NASA grade water recirculation system, an EV charging port like these guys have & a rooftop garden/pet chicken habitat. The route I want to take is from South Africa to Norway, taking as much time as I need to get there. I'd like to see & climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, to let gravity roll me uphill on my skateboard in Kenya, and to read as much as can from the tomes in Timbuktu before the wisdom of ages is lost to the sands of time. Or maybe help with digitising everything before disaster strikes.
I know that there's a lot I still have to learn and a lot of driving experience ahead of me in order to travel safely without breaking my home, but I'm still very excited about the prospect.

Blue Eyes White Dragon

A Leopard catamaran named Blue Eyes White Dragon will sail me across seas & oceans.
By the time I'm ready to switch my home from overlander to sea farer, some very smart people might have finally figured out how to power ships with hydrogen & I will never have to worry about how much fuel I have to use up.
My main worries will be about avoiding big storms, maintaining a whole boat & what local delicacy I'll get to try when I drop anchor & am still for a time.
There's a buzz around port cities & towns that just doesn't exist anywhere else & I'd love to experience that first hand.
And of course, the majority of my time will be spend attempting to be a literal mermaid in the open water.

Winged Dragon of Ra

And finally, the fantasy of space exploration.
I would be plenty happy to live out the rest of my day haulin' cargo from earth, to the moon, to mars & everywhere else civilisation blooms.
But I've been wondering if I should dream bigger (yes, it's possible!).
I would also be happy to run my own extraterrestrial hotel that caters to space tourism. Giving people an experience of a lifetime while getting to share in it myself & repeatedly is cool.
Traversing the stars and designing living spaces where direction can be altered & table side dining theatre could be the real show (will the flames escape and burn your outfit?) a la avenue 5. The safety measures behind simple things like cooking a meal or taking a bath are compelling. I wouldn't want my guests to drown in a swirl of uncontained water!

Steyn City Apartment

Alternatively, if I must grow roots instead of wings and remain here at home, I think I'd wake up everyday glad in my three bedroom duplex apartment at City Center in Steyn City.
This oasis of calm and sophistication, designed by Amanda Elliott of Design Collective is simply stunning. I could add my own playful touches, like fairytale stairs or a very striking outdoor patio design. Being engulfed in the fortress of safety that is Steyn City might calm a lot of the fears I have about simply existing in this beautiful country.
And I could finally learn how to golf in a Nicklaus design golf course while I embrace whatever parkland lifestyle would mean for me & mine.

An Ending: A life Worth Living

I've spent too much of my life inhabiting spaces surrounded by people who made me feel like a tolerated guest. As a child the instruction was easy; do as you're told to make up for the failures & disappointments of your parents. This was when I lived in my grandparent's beautiful homes.
No wonder my natural inclination was to fly the coop as soon as was possible & I almost succeeded.
The next few years were a series of temporary shelters; from student housing, house sharing, couch surfing & my parent's then abandoned house, before pinging back to my grandparents'.
The past nine years have been especially difficult as circumstance keeps me from carving my own path & getting out of this unpleasant place.
So it shouldn't be a surprise that my dream home is a vehicle that can take me anywhere I want to go, allowing me to see the world while still always having a place of my own, filled with my own beloved things, and surrounded by people genuinely love & care for me.