Pictures and Words

Gavin here- Day 2’s letter never arrived, so we’ll just have to fill in the blanks ourselves.

HomelessPeter’s Fundraising Page

12:30am – Was woken up by what I assume was a security guard. I think he said that I couldn’t sleep there because it “wasn’t safe”. I’m fuzzy on the details because it takes my brain about a minute to kick in when I’m woken up abruptly. Truth be told, I spent the first twenty seconds looking around trying to work out where Gavin had gone.

I started to stagger down to the riverbank, but on the way noticed 4 cops standing around. I still wasn’t quite together, and I didn’t want a confrontation until I had properly woken up, so I turned around and tried to find a toilet.

Federation Square had a 24-hour toilet, and there are a couple of power points in there as well, which will come in handy when I need to recharge my phone. It’s currently still at 2 bars, so hopefully my prediction of once/twice a week was accurate.

I toileted and realised that 4 policemen just to stop people sleeping beside the river was excessive, so I wandered down to check it out.

There was an ambulance and a police car parked in the middle of the walkway, and four cops and two ambos standing around chatting. Another ambo was in the ambulance, I assume with someone, but I couldn’t see. I walked right past and none of them seemed to care or notice.

I continued, unhassled, down to the side of the river. To my surprise, there was no one there at all. I assumed it would be one of the premier sleeping spots, but there was park bench after park bench going unused.

Aside from the two others in the park on my first night, I’ve not seen a single other sleeping homeless person.

A couple opf years back, I was wondering Brisbane at night with a few friends. We were going through some gardens and found a huge open-air stage that I can’t remember the name of (Riverstage). It was covered in backpacks, and so, young and curious, we ran down to see what was being stored on this stage at night.

Turns out, they weren’t backpacks, they were sleeping people. We weren’t sure what to do, so we turned and ran back up the hill we came, in complete silence.

There must be somewhere like that here in Melbourne, because in the course of one day I must see 9 or 10 homeless people around, but I’ve got no idea where they go at night.

With the exception of Fed Square, I’ve slept in 3 different places on 3 different nights, and gone completely unhassled each time. Either I’ve been completely flukey or there’s an abundance of great sleeping spots in Melbourne.

12:54am- I sat down on one of the park benchs near the river. If it hit 1:30am and no cops came by, I figured I’d sleep here for the night.

12:56am- A policeman came by, shone his torch into some of the spots I thought I’d be able to sleep in unnoticed, ignored me, and started wading into the river, shining his torch around the bushes. Curious, I asked him if he had lost something.

In a surprisingly weedy voice for such a big guy, he told me that there was supposed to be be something around here, but he didn’t need help.

I watched as he poked around for a few minutes before he was joined by another policeman and they walked away chatting. No one else came by, and so at 1:30 I fell asleep.

9:40am- Woke up. This is the first night I’d not slept by a road, which I suppose explains why I woke up later than usual.

I spent about an hour watching the rowers, had some bread and spread for breakfast. I think I’ve been referring to it as “orange spread”, but it’s actually apricot. I checked the label today. I’m almost out of bread, but I’ve got $4.15 in funds, so I’ll pick some up today. Tempted not to ask around for money today; I’ve got enough for bread, and there’s not really much more I need at this point.

If I had access to razors, a shower and a washing machine, and didn’t enjoy the internet as much as I do, I think I could easily get a part-time job and live my life like this (during the summer, at least).

During my research, I discovered that there are people who do live voluntarily homeless. Some of them get jobs, some rely on begging, but they don’t bother with many possessions or a home. They live their lives on the streets. It’s not the life for me, but I can certainly see the appeal.

I should point out that I’m not currently trying to search for a house, or trying to raise kids, or suffering from a substance abuse problem or constantly looking out for an abusive ex or suffering from depression, or disabled, or mentally ill in any way. Actual homeless people don’t get to do this for 28 days, some people said I shouldn’t ever use the word “homeless” to describe what I’m doing because I’d be facing very few of the issues by the genuinely homeless.

Most people have a reason that they’re homeless, and it’s not because they had a spare month, or they thought it would be interesting. For most people this is a horrible existence, and any money donated helps make it a bit easier for them.

11:30- Got up from the riverside- that’s the problem choosing a nice place to sleep, you don’t really want to leave it when morning comes.

Wandered over to Fed Square, where the Vic Police show-band was playing. They were quite good, especially the main singer. Finished off my bread.

Chatted to the girl next to me. She’s down for the tennis. She asked about me, but I kept my answers vague. She eventually figured out I was living on the streets.

“But you’ve got a mobile!”

I told her, as I’ve been told, that most homeless people have mobile phones. Hope I’m not spreading disinformation. I’m pretty sure that’s true.

1:00pm- The Big Screen in Fed Square told me that [ACMI?] had a free exhibition on. I wandered over to have a look.

Since a large part of this is recording people’s reactions, let me tell you that the entire staff of ACMI (Gavin- I think that’s what it is) were incredibly lovely, from start to finish. Not one disparaging glance, not one word spoken. They were absolutely great.

In general, people just don’t care. I’m sitting on a bench on the side of the footpath writing this, and people will just glance at you and keep going. When you’re asking for money, they can ignore you, be irritated that they have to deal with you, or (rarely) be sympathetic, but again- for the most part they just don’t care. So being greeted by smiles at the ACMI was unexpected, ad a strange feeling. I realise it’s their job, but it was still nice and refreshing.

I’m a huge film buff, so I went right through the film history exhibition. I had a look at the video game exo thing they had on, but all the games were being used, so I left.

Most interesting facts I learned:
-”Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” was filmed during a season when all the leaves were green. It was the first movie to be shot on film, entirely digitised (which is when they changed all the leaves to brown and yellow) and then exported it to film again for distribution.
-Danii Minogue was famous before her sister was.
-Oscars look really dodgy.

If you ever go, make sure to check out the strobing animation thing. It was fantastic.

4:00- Decided to go to Melbourne Central to pick up some bread, and rather than walking the length of the city, I thought I’d take the free tram. We had a guy yelling out stops rather than the computer do it, and so while I missed my stop, the extra stuff he added in was most interesting. Got off at Telstra and caught one going the other way.

A fellow near to the city asked me for help with the trams, which I was somewhat able to give him. He’d been in Melbourne for two days longer than me, and this was the first tram I’d caught, but I managed to help him get on the right one.

5:30- Saw a guy with a “homeless” sign on the way into Melbourne Central. Gave him 60c. He had a dog and only 5c in the cup, which could mean he was having a terrible day, or could mean that he was using a technique I read about online, making sure you have at some money in the hat/cup, but not too much, or else people won’t give. As I was walking away I saw a cute girl stop and give him some money, then kneel down to talk to him.

At Coles I bought another loaf of bread. It turns out they do have the cheaper bread and I just missed it last time. But I got the lightly more expensive stuff, as I prefer multi-grain. I also bought an orange and a carrot, which I then ate.

6:00- Picked up a copy of MX, the free daily paper. “Up” was nominated for the Best Picture academy award, which is interesting but not surprising. A guy asked me if I had any spare change, and I gave him 50c. It may not sound like much, but I now only have $1 left.

6:30- On a whim, I went up to a donut shop that was closing and explained that I was homeless and couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a donut. The girl behind the counter looked extremely sympathetic, but explained that they couldn’t give out donuts due to store policy. I said that I understood, and went back to doing the sudoku in the paper.

A few minutes later, she snuck over with a bag full of donuts. “Don’t tll my boss, and you can have these,” she whispered.

I was floored and thanked her profusely. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I ended up taking one and giving the rest to the homeless guy outside the station.

7:00- Managed to scavenge some leftovers from KFC; several chips and most of a potato and gravy. If you’re ever in a public food court, and you have food left over, don’t clear your table.

Some people left food around 6pm at the same place, but the guy cleaning up was much faster than I.

I’d just finished the chips when another homeless guy came sniffing around for food, so I left him to it.

7:15- Decided to try sleeping in the CBD tonight, instead of in a park, so see if I got moved along.

9:48- Drifted off to sleep outside an office block. I’m near a cab rank and across from a 24/7 convenience store, so I think I’ll be safe. Curious to see if anyone hassles me.

Money Gained: None
Money Given: $1.10
Food Eaten:
-Lots of bread with spread.
-An orange.
-A carrot.
-Chips, potato and gravy.
Strangest Thought:
“The Damage is irresistible, but the Fashion is to die for.” (Gavin- yeah, I’m not sure either).

Up next: Day 4

Hi guys, Gavin here. It would appear that day 2’s letter was lost in the post, because the next letter to arrive was day 3, which I shall type up tomorrow, because now I am very tired.

Important things:
-Peter is still alive and well. Or he was as of 5pm this afternoon.
-He will be at Federation Square in front of the “big screen” this Sunday from 1-3pm. If any of you Melbournites would like to meet him for a chat, that would be the time and place to meet him.
-Without my noticing, the donation meter has almost doubled. We are now close to $600, which is absolutely fantastic!

HomelessPeter’s Fundraising Page

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