Manic Plans

It’s funny the things that seem plausible when you are manic.

I found an old notebook from a manic episode a few years ago in which I had detailed how I would like to set up our farm as some sort of family wonderland for the children, to be completed by the end of 2017. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we could achieve this, I mean we have the room on our property after all and we own a bob cat so we can do most of it ourselves! Money? Bah! Minor details…

I spent hours on houzz.com and pintrest for inspiration, just some of the things on my must haves list were as follows:

• A Tennis/ Badminton/ Basketball/ netball court all rolled into one
• Soccer / Rugby field combination
• Sandy Volley Ball Court
• Swimming Pool with sun deck, cabana and sauna  
• Fire pit with nice seating and an outdoor cinema screen
• Playground with tree house fort, sandpit, giant slide, swings, climbing frame with flying fox.
• Extensive raised vegetable gardens, berry garden, nut bushes, aquaponics set up, manicured espaliered orchard.
• My favourite... Paintball skirmish “Battlefield Course” complete with a map detailing the hide outs, trenches, old cars, 44 gallon drums, spot lights, tree houses and cargo net climbing frames positioned around the allotted 3 acres.

For the horses:

Image Stolen from HERE

• 6 bay Stables
• Jumps
•  *Dressage arena
•  Round yard 
•  **Sand arena

 *There are four horses on my property, they belong to a friend, I give them carrots occasionally and try to gingerly pat them on the nose whilst being silently terrified that “Jack” the narcissistic old gelding will bite or kick me at his first opportunity.

Proof of my amateur horse riding

Note: I have ridden an actual horse 3
times in my life and fallen off one of those times. In hindsight, despite me going out and spending $100 on a riding helmet I have never used, I don’t think that a dressage arena was a realistic plan.

**A dressage arena may actually be the same thing as a sand arena… I honestly don’t know. 

A “Games pavilion”:

Could anything be better than your own games pavilion?

An ultra large, fairy-light encrusted shed that would house full sized billiards table, full sized air hockey table, assorted pin ball machines, two lane bowling alley, lounge area with giant flat screen for gaming and cinema seating. A fully stocked bar area (we don't drink) and then sweeping its way around the outside of all of this there would be my very own miniature golf course.

My darling husband is a joiner so I felt sure he could create a super slick bowling alley floor, I was just a little stuck on working out the ball retrieval mechanism, Ebay would take care of bowling balls and bowling pins – I even wrote down that I wanted purple bowling shoes!

I researched how to create unique designs, level out a surface for optimal ball rolling and find the felt green stuff for the mini golf course and had put “100 golf balls” on the e-bay watch list. 

Image Stolen From Here

I had also looked into pricing for pin-ball machines (retrospectively surprisingly expensive) discussing them in detail and in person with a collector named John, whilst giving him the distinct impression I would soon be willingly parting with around $30k to purchase around 4 of these must have toys from him. Then one day I stopped answering his e-mails. Mania is fickle that way.

While I was planning all these grand designs I was also working a 50hour week, test driving fancy cars, gambling and sleeping about 4 hours a night (if that). There are 48 hours in a manic day.

So mania will lead us up the garden path with the fairies, leave us awake for days, weeks even months on end thinking about all the amazing wonderful things in life, seizing the day and making the impossible feel truly possible, planning, dreaming, creating in a world where EVERYTHING is plausible and the path to creating our ideals is crystal clear. 

Until we are finally brought back to reality by time, or medication and are facing the fallout of blindly chasing our dreams, lost friendships, lost relationships, financial debts and losses and the ultimate depression that follows. 

I am actually very grateful that I don’t have a lot of money or a credit card as $30,000 worth of pin ball machines, new cars, paintball guns and 100 golf balls would be a poor trade for my husband and family. However, if I had of been born a millionaire you have got to agree that I would have THE coolest house on earth!

Where does mania take you?