After much saving, the first one of these framed was like this one. Ink on paper

The letter from Ray White Estate Agency of Budgewoi came at about midday today. They have decided I should vacate the property. The letter is a “Vacate possession. No Grounds” You have to wonder at that. Just how badly does the owner want an excellent tenant who has looked after the property and paid rent on time for seven years to go? The only reason for such a thing is that the estate agent cannot stand someone who demands their rights! They have added a clause in the letter where they suggest I get them to give me a reference if I find another place with another agency.

Across the state there is not one place I can afford that is more than a one bedroom hovel. Have you read any of the past few years in this blog and the continuous effort that has gone into creating some art here. There are no places locally at all. The support network will be gone.

Mum and I have had the conversation I dreaded. When the doctors did the last lot of heart surgery they made it very clear that all they had been able to do was to give me a little more time and I should be gentle on myself and make the best of it. Considering it can take several days to find energy to work a drawing there have been some unpleasant realities in all of this already.

The woman who used to live next door with her husband had moved there with the understanding that they were ill and would be allowed to live their lives out in that place. They had barely settled when the house sold and they had to move. Her husband was about as ill as I am now so she took on all and suffered a stroke. He died soon after. The little time the doctors gave me back looks being spent in the service of my landlord and estate agent’s profits. You know, being a good tenant so I get a good reference, except that my benchmark of future possibilities now includes being too ill to ever get up and draw again, living on the street, or in a hovel where I have no hope of ever getting use of all study and learning, or dying. Hmm. Mum and I both had Valium tonight.

The conversation I had with her included the possibility that I would be facing a really bad slide into ill health and would not have a lot of choices about which outcomes I could still control. She will not get much sleep tonight. People die so other people can make a profit all the time. It happens on such a regular basis in the rental industry but the people who could write about it will not touch the idea. How many people who earn more than a minimum wage do not whack money into the property market with the hope of future security.

Bon appetit