Life is beautiful and you shouldn’t waste it!
tl:dr – Our stories are meant as encouragement to enjoy life as it is. Life is a roller coaster, ups and downs, and YES life can be very unfair, even cruel. Vil had his fair share of lifetime disappointments, but he got up, continued and never gave up. He believes that there is always a way out and these are our stories.
These are the stories of Vil and Indy and their quest to find happiness!
We started our journey in February 2016. At this time we lived in Southern France. In Peyrehorade in the Basque Country to be exact. Our life was wonderful, going to the beach or the mountains, homemade food, self-grown vegetables and peppers. Vil had a house, cats, a family, a good life and all that changed from one day to the other and we needed to leave France.
A teaser 🙂
A teaser is very important, so we will disclose a few things to happen on this BLOG. “Vil will be arrested … twice, strip-searched … once! Indy will nearly be kidnapped, we will be homeless for a few months and sleep at the beach. We will live in El Raval and Badalona, Amsterdam, The UK. Vil will work several jobs. A gun will be pointed at Vil, luckily he will not shot, but unfortunate stabbed. We make really good friends, together we squat a house. Vil ends up in the ICU with dehydration, more dead than alive, … and much more.”
Where are we right now and what’s our status?
WWW.Indy-Ca.COM
You will find our posts start June 2018 on www.indy-ca.com. Every post older than June 2018 can be found in his original form on WordPress.com -> ‘The VW Polo-Camper’. We wrote more than 400 posts and we also shot a few hundred very nice pictures.
We started to transfer all content to our new domain and unfortunately due to a technical issue we lost plenty of already re-written content. So please excuse us when the content on www.indy-ca.com before June 2018 seems to be a little ‘unstructured’. If you can’t wait for the original content to be re-written, you can find all original posts start 2016 on ‘The VW Polo-Camper’ and we promise, we will re-write and re-publish all missing content soon.
Who are we?
Indy
My name is Indy and I am a Border Collie and Labrador mix. I am born in the beautiful Basque Country near to Bayonne. I am very relaxed, extremely social and I kill everyone with my love. I don’t play sticks or get the ball. Naaaa. I prefer to have a cuddle on the sofa and a nice conversation or a movie with Vil.
Vil
Vil is my best friend, my ‘tin opener’. He rescued me from an animal shelter in Bayonne. He is my best mate, my companion, I love him and despite all obstacles, he will never leave me.
Work and health-wise he is not the luckiest one. He is a highly trained ‘phone guy’ in support, sales and marketing. Last years he worked all over Europe for companies like Novell, eBay. PayPal, Cisco. When we lived in France he worked as a freelancer and webinar host.
Unfortunately, he suffers from an somehow un-diagnosed and medical unclear condition (click here for more about that topic) which causes him to feel not very well regularly. His symptoms are nausea, sometimes severe sickness and excruciating pain with seizures and he is tired and exhausted. Most of the time a bit of medicine and sleep will help but he ended up in a hospital dozen of times the last years. Not all the time, but too many times to build and maintain a career.
As a consequence, he is ok to work every job, but unfortunately, these jobs don’t pay enough to afford a living in any place like Amsterdam, Dublin or Barcelona … We tried, but it was very exhausting and for now, we decided to do something completely different.
Vil on LinkedIN
“To deal with customers on the phone is an ART! There are many trying, but only a few succeed and master the daily challenge. The phone is my tool, 35 years in the business, talking to people on the phone or on site, fixing problems or selling solutions and most of the time staring at screens, waiting for whatever driver, status or sales data to update. I am well trained and have years of hands-on experience in all company levels and types. A solid understanding of the newest technologies, combined with my unique, over decades developed communication style, enables me to connect to my communication partner over the phone.”
CV screwed up, sick and too old.
Unfortunately, he was told that he already passed the ‘magic’ age barrier, of fifty years, his CV is not German, looks like s*** AND that he is chronically sick. At the job center, he learned that he can’t be integrated into the job market anymore and should be placed on hold and welfare until he reaches retirement age.
Excuse us, please?!
- Not able to afford a place with a dog.
- Too sick to build any carrier.
- “Too old”?
- No home
- …
No perspective?
We don’t give up!
Imagine how it feels, when there is nothing left of your life and now you need immediately to decide what to do. We decided not to sit on the couch, play video games, drink or use drugs and wait for the welfare payments to arrive. We choose not to give up and to look for our luck despite the odds.
“We realized that every day is precious and we learned to live in the moment and enjoy every second. Our stories are meant as encouragement not to give up, not to let yourself down. OK, we totally agree, sometimes life really suxxs, but most of the time it’s beautiful and we only have one.”
During our journey, we already learned to embrace every second of happiness and we strongly encourage you to realize that there is only one NOW. You can’t live in a future house or drive a future car, but you can enjoy the cup of coffee with your loved ones.
What do we want?
After years in the road we learned that we are not the only ones with similar problems. Maybe we can start a discussion, make a statement, create a forum and a voice for everyone in a similar f*** up situation.
There are thousands like us struggling to survive. For example thousands with low or medium ages which can’t afford a living in. Shitty rooms for hundreds of Euros, ripped off by shady landlords, without any registration or legal status. Fraud everywhere. We even slept on a hallway floor and paid for it, so we know what we are writing about.
Also, there are thousands more ‘phone drones’ like Vil without real social security. Vil worked all over Europe. He paid loads of social security and taxes, all enough to have an affordable life, BUT the achievements are spread all over Europe and to consolidate them all is nearly impossible, so he end up with nothing.
And there is way more ….
This website could be the start of something,
be a part of it and spread the message!
We are thinking about protesting against for …
- … affordable living space in densely populated areas.
Nowadays companies are normally located in city centres and there is no difference between, Dublin, Barcelona, Amsterdam or wherever…..Shiny newly built offices and most likely way better than we live. For example, there is most likely an air condition and a heating system in the office, but some of us don’t have even a proper bed, not to dream of a kitchen or a working, clean fridge or even a legal registration. - … more dog-friendly apartments.
Vil had a very good job, he enjoyed to go to work but he was never able to find a permanent place for us. It’s a big challenge to find affordable, legal housing in Amsterdam and with a dog, it’s even harder, let’s say impossible - … better support for ‘travelling phone drones’.
The last twenty-five years Vil worked in several jobs all over Europe, he collected social security numbers like candy and he paid loads of taxes and social security. Now he needs to ‘summarise’ all his achievements to get ONE payment and that’s a real task. First question: Which Country to collect all? Second question: How to prove everything? Third question: How to survive and have food until then? It’s a real pain in the **** to do all this paperwork and it lasts for weeks even months. More about that -> HERE! - … better legal protection.
When we relocated to Amsterdam, Vil was so screwed by Oracle. They let him die and he had no chance to fight. The whole story will be published. - … and more (to come).
There is more shit in this world worth thinking about!
How to support us?
If you think we have a point. please support us. Nowadays there are so many new ways you can help and support a project like ours and it’s for free. For the start, a like on Facebook would be a good start and if you think we have a cause and you want to buy us a beer or some food, there are other ways.
Thank you.
Our Status
If you want to know where we are and what’s going on, please click here to see our latest status updates! If you want to read our whole adventure from the beginning and in chronological order please click here.
Like and Follow us
Nowadays there are so many new ways you can help and support a project like ours. A simple like on Facebook, for example, might not seem very much, but with the power of the internet, hundreds or thousands of Likes and Share are a real value which can make dreams come true. A Like or a Share on Facebook, a Follow on Instagram or Twitter and you are already a part of our dream.
You can like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IndyCaTheDog
You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/indyderhund/
You can follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/IndyDerHund
Where are we in the moment and what’s the plan?
tl:dr
We want to leave Amsterdam when we sorted our papers and need to find a final agreement about the termination of Vil’s contract. For the next few days, we rented a small car to sleep in and during the day we try to find a place with reliable WIFI and good coffee.
You can find our latest Status Updates here!
Indy & Vil
