'I live in a double-decker bus that's also a library' Anstey woman says
She said she did not know where her desire to live on a bus came from, "but it's just always been there".Ms Hargrave said: "I've never really wanted kids or marriage or that traditional kind of life. And then I just thought, right, you need to focus on something."At the end of 2022, she said she gave up drinking alcohol for a year "to see what would happen"."That was the year I ended up getting the bus and everything just aligned for that to happen."I don't think if I wasn't drinking and I wasn't on this kind of journey, this spiritual journey, that I would have had the right mindset to complete such a huge task."I definitely feel like the more you kind of pursue your best interests, the more doors open in that area."
When asked what her favourite thing about living in a double-decker bus is, Ms Hargrave said: "It's having my own space, because I've always shared. I've always had a housemate."The favourite part is definitely feeling like this is my space that I can decorate how I want and all the rest of it."I've rescued furniture from free sites and from Facebook Marketplace and upcycled it all myself."I didn't want it looking all posh and brand new because that's not the vibe I was going for."I live in a library now, so that's surely got to be the best thing ever."
Ms Hargrave had the bus parked while she converted it, but is now looking for a semi-permanent base that she can return to between tours.She said living in the bus had "humbled" her and taken her "back to basics"."Every resource I bring on and every bit of wastage I take off," Ms Hargrave said. "So it's made me realise about plastic packaging and whether I really need this item and it's just really given me a wake-up call and changed my perspective."
Ms Hargrave will begin touring the bus this month, with her first festival on 21 June.She said: "I want to bring literacy to areas that no longer have libraries and also go to festivals and provide a bit of a community space for some people to connect."That's the point of the library and the books, to give people a reason to come along and then they can connect with people in the local community and with me and all the work that I do."Ms Hargrave, who worked in specialist education for 15 years, also runs a podcast talking about ADHD and autism which aims to provide an information service for well-being and mental health.
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