CASTLE on WHEELS
My mobile home is fit for a king!
Dropping my work colleague o at home, I noticed a bus parked in his neighbour’s yard. “at looks like the Playford house bus,” I said.
I wandered over and knocked on their door.
“Did your house bus used to belong to the Playford family?” I asked the bloke who answered.
“Yeah, do you know them?” he replied.
“I do. I used to play with the kids when I was a boy.
at’s a beaut of a house bus,” I said, admiring it.
“I’m selling it,” the bloke said, and my jaw dropped.
“Well, I’m buying it then!” I said.
It was 2018, but I’d been drawing that house bus since I was 13, dreaming of owning one just like it one day.
My dad was a painter and I spent my whole childhood travelling around New Zealand in house trucks, alongside both my parents, my two sisters, a dog, three cats and six chickens.
Once you’ve lived in a house on wheels, it gets under your skin.
In 2000, I’d renovated an old Mitsubishi into a house truck which I called Turtle’s Tree Hut. I travelled around New Zealand in it with my family twice before I sold it.
Now, I sold the house I was living in, bought a small farm and the Playford’s old house bus.
I parked it in the farm yard, and lived in it while I renovated the woolshed.
My kids, Isiah, ve, Christabelle, three, and Anna, one, lived with my ex but they stayed with me in the truck every second week.
e 1970 Bedford SB3 featured a full kitchen with a range and gas oven, a full bathroom, two upstairs bedrooms and a main room that doubles as a bedroom and a cinema.
Appliances ran o four 12-volt 200 amp batteries and water tanks held 200l fresh drinking water and 240l of grey water.
I wanted to paint it to look like a pirate ship.
“Only crims live in pirate ships,” my friend Jock said.
So I painted it to look like a castle! e kids loved it.
I’d pick them up from school in it and when we got to the playground they’d be the king and queens.
“Hear ye, hear ye, your king and queens have arrived,” I yelled from the balcony’s bay window.
All the kids in the playground rushed up to take a look.
Sadly, I’m looking to sell it. I’ve just had a baby, Ember, with my girlfriend, and we need to buy a house in town to be closer to Isiah’s school.
e mobile castle, which I’m hoping to sell for $65k, would be a great purchase because you wouldn’t have to pay for power, and the range heats up the small home.
One day, I’d like to buy a cattle truck and add in a two-storey pop top.
Living in a normal house just isn’t the same.
e best bit about a house bus is the view, because it constantly changes!
My kids love the house bus
A WELCOME RETURN
e last time I’d come to the ai capital was in the mid-90s. I stayed for just a night or two before continuing on to a beachside holiday. Apart from a must-see trip to a temple or two, most of my time was spent in the tourist den of Khao San Road. It didn’t leave much of an impression – certainly not enough for me to return in the following 20-plus years or to even choose to stopover there on a longhaul ight. But either I’ve changed (most likely) or Bangkok has (probably), because after ve days there recently, I would return in a heartbeat. One thing that hasn’t changed in the time between visits is the white-knuckle ride you can get in the back of a tuk-tuk.
e time saved weaving through tra c while feeling part of this vibrant city was well spent.