The people you meet

Tarotvaning with Tachi

Thank you for being here, it’s nice to be with you again :). If you have received junk mail from Substack asking you to join this page via a paid subscription, please ignore it. I turned off the option to promote it, but Substack is sending them out anyway. Apologies for the added, unnecessary emails.

Do whatever brings you joy! If you would like to become a paid subscriber, you will receive half price readings for the duration of your support - Thank you to our list of supporters below x

A little update on Aunty Earlene… We are up to 12 Triple Zero calls... I keep hoping that this one will be the breakthrough that she needs. In amongst the shadow there is always light and I’m grateful to be here to help out.

Have fun with some jokes that A E receives from her good friend, Sues, each day :). It certainly brightens ours :)

I accidentally gave my friend a glue stick instead of a chapstick… She’s still not talking to me.

Thank you to our new subscribers, thanks for joining us! I wanted to reintroduce myself and Tachi to those of you who may not have had a reading or know us personally. I really like to think that I’m writing for an intimate gathering of close friends. Welcome to our inner circle of over 700 :)

I had my first reading in my teens and have been exploring the esoteric world ever since. I bought my first Tarot deck when I lived in London at the age of 20 (I’m 58 now - Libra Sun and Moon and Sag Rising). Shirley MacLaine is my muse! She inspires me with her open and curious mind. She is not afraid of saying how she feels and unabashedly questions the unseen world. She inspired me to walk the Camino, or Santiago de Compostela in 2008. I’ve moved around quite a bit, calling Port Melbourne home, before moving into Nelly the Van in April this year.

I’m committed to doing the Inner Child work and teaching in readings what I have learnt along the way. I believe that fear is the external world attempting to control our inner nature. We are all capable of doing anything that our hearts and minds align with. Old programs hold people back. Inner Child work gives you the remote control to change your story.

Tachi had a dental vet visit, so I went to the hairdressers.

There is more on my website if you at all interested, especially around my tarot business -https://www.houseoftarot.com.au/

Whoever stole my antidepressants… I hope you’re happy now.

I started fostering Tachi through Project Underdog Rescue. It was thanks to a very special young man named Mark, who connected with my friend Catherine who introduced me to Tachi. She was my seventh foster dog with Project Underdog Rescue and I happily became a foster fail. I adopted her on 11 July, 2021.

I have a cute story to share about Tachi’s adventures. Keep reading :)

She has a whole bed to stretch out on…

Last week I had a bit of a Tower card moment

…when the van warning light came on “Coolant Temperature” and shot up to 100 quickly, then my battery went flat with another warning “Battery/Alternator Start Engine”. I sat in the van thinking WTF! Stop overthinking it was my first suggestion to self. I called a friend. Chris, my old neighbour from Port Melbourne who lives in the next suburb up here on the Gold Coast (up until recently I thought I was on the Sunshine Coast). He was around the next morning with charger cables but didn’t have time to do more of a check up re the temp so I decided not to drive her.

I called Suncorp, my insurance company to organise a tow (they don’t do roadside assist for vanlifers, my insurance only allows two tows a year.) Turns out that their computer systems were undergoing an upgrade and were out of service for a few days. Useless as TOAB! So I called a Mercedes Benz dealer. The lovely lady there said that they would need Nelly for 5-7 days to do the work. I picked myself up off the floor and then she whispered… ‘Why don’t you call a mobile mechanic that specialises in Mercs?’ It was like a chorus of Angels lifted me up

I thanked her profusely. Lube Mobile was first on the Google. Two hours later Archangel Aaron arrived. A young man, he listened to my diagnostic blabbering like I was actually saying something important. I’m sure I heard him say, ‘Bless you my child’ ;-) and then he got to work.

He reset Nelly’s computers and said that the warning lights were coming up because the van’s battery wasn’t charged enough. That was the crux of it. My learning is that I’m doing shorter trips, not hitting the freeways as much. This means that I need to start charging Nelly’s battery to be on the safe side.

Learnings…

I learnt that Nelly’s battery is under Tachi’s footwell inside the van. I learnt that I can connect charger cables to the + and - points in the engine and that the positive connector speaks to the battery under Tachi’s footwell. I learnt that the black, negative, clamp is only for grounding, so it can be attached to anything that is plain metal, like a screw or unpainted mental. I’ve learned that the Battery Charger’s leads don’t stretch far enough to reach the said points under the bonnet. Thanks Pete for sharing that I can use my jumper leads to connect to the short battery charger and create an extension lead. Legend.

I still have a couple of jobs to do. I have two leaks in the bedroom. The first leak only happens when there is a gale blowing with sideways rain and the second happens when there is a torrential downpour and the build up on the roof must be too much for it to drain quickly.

It’s easy to put life into perspective when I look out into the wider world and the goings on. I only have control over what I can do, with what I have - and that’s alot! I’m excited about the future.

Favourite App!

We actually had some really overcast and rainy days here on the Gold Coast, so I turned the fridge off to save on power (and defrost it). The sun is back to shining bright and the battery is back to up 99% - free power! Why don’t we all have access to this? When I boil the kettle I use about 2% of the battery. I rarely use the electric cooktop, preferring raw food (too lazy to cook) and I use minimal lights.

I’ve learnt that everything is doable. Anything I put my mind to I can do. If I don’t let my thoughts get out of control and go into unnecessary worry, things just work out, or just move on to something that does work.

My wife told me I need to stop behaving like a flamingo… I had to put my foot down.

The last time we spoke we were waiting on Tachi’s trolley to arrive. It’s here and it’s fabulous! She can walk just fine, but not for the distances that I enjoy so this is our compromise. I realised that I couldn’t fit a full 13kg bag of food back into the boot with the trolley in it, so we have downsized the bag we buy and we’ll purchase more often.

I asked my dad to tell me what a solar eclipse was… He said, ‘No son.’

“Did your dog’s name used to be Tachi?”

We were looking for a new dog park and I was a little bit lost. I arrived at the end of a long, picturesque road and was turning around when a ute behind me gave me a beep beep. I thought I’d cut him off or something, but when I wound the window down and looked back, he called out “Did your dog’s name used to be Tachi?”

We left Melbourne on the 18th of April this year and throughout our travels I’ve been saying to Tachi - Imagine if we met your family up here? I had heard they lived in Queensland somewhere. I didn’t know any details. But anything’s possible I thought!

It was Tachi’s previous housemate with his dog, Franky! I shouted YES! And her name still is Tachi! Tachi had been perched up in her front seat and he had driven past us, recognised her and turned around! What a crazy small world… and very good eyesight! We organised to meet the following day with Tachi’s previous owner (they were still housemates). It was such a lovely knowing that they could see Tachi living the dream after circumstances that he thought was a sad ending… but it wasn’t, it was a fresh start.

My heart melted!

My uncle works for a bicycle manufacturer…. He’s the spokes-man.

How?

Thank you to everyone who has recently become a Substack Vanlifer/financial supporter and for reading my writing and sharing in our travels. It means more to me than you know.

As a thank you for you support, I would like you to receive a 50% off readings $220 $110, for you personally (below). Contact me directly whenever you would like to redeem a reading and we can organise the details:

Nicole B - Rosies Hospice of Compassion

Shannon C

Pete W

Maureen P

Jodie Y

Brett Y

Katie S

Sarah M

Jan M

Raelene H

Doris G

Ange H

Riss J

Lisa M

Susie L

Pooja & Barkly

Sam A

THANK YOU X

Tania & Tachi

Ear drawing practice