Watch Out Perth!

I’ve got rather a strange feeling as I sit in the sheltered sun today. The canal’s lapping near my feet, with the ducks, cormorants and pelicans not much further away and I’m preparing for our move tomorrow.

All moves feel different, because each house and community is different - especially when you’re moving from the outskirts of Perth back to the suburbs again. Plus we’ve been here for close on 10 weeks, in three different houses in one street, all with the same view but from a different angle. We even know which dogs bark when we walk past them, in fact we know several of them (and their owner’s) by name, locals wave to us as they drive past as if we’ve always lived here, and I even think that the girl at the local coffee shop is beginning to remember which of us has the cappucino and which has the chai latte.

Not that I’m complaining about the move. Next week we’ll have more than one supermarket to choose from, a train station less than an hour’s ride away, friends within cycling distance, and all kinds of other metro things. Who knows I might even go buy some new clothes and find a hairdressers…

Every house-sit can be so different from another, and that’s before you even consider the homes and pets. You’d think that after almost two and half years I’d be used to it, but sometimes it still catches me off guard. Just like people’s generosity and respect for the service we provide. When we started out I never in a million years thought our lives would be so diverse or that we would be so sought-after and appreciated. 

Thanks, everyone!

Well, enough of this relaxing and reflecting, time to go bring in the laundry, recharge the bike batteries and start sorting for packing. 

Watch out Perth, here we come!

Gale Force Winds And Torrential Downpours!

Yes, I know it’s been a while since I put my last blog post up. Sorry. I guess things just got a bit busy here. Although I suspect the real truth is… I’ve just been making the most of this year’s wonderful winter weather and, in the time when I wasn’t, I was working on some of the projects that enable us to live the amazing life that allows us to be able to enjoy it so much.

People often complain about having to go to work, to be there at set times and having specific things that have to be done. Well, I’ll tell you one thing, it’s a lot easier to get work done when there are expectations on you than when you aren’t. Fair enough when I was writing and running Writing to Inspire staying up-to-date with the workload didn’t seem too challenging, but now, when it’s a choice between working on the computer or going for a bike ride by the river…

It’s now that I sit down and appreciate gale-force winds and torrential downpours, because they don’t give me any choice. Or how about the pets that insist that sunrise is the best time of the day for you to wake up and give them their breakfast?

So basically, what I’m saying is the main reason this blog post is late is because I’ve been out enjoying winter too much, and when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been catching up on my work.

I am planning on writing the next post sooner but… well… can I get away with saying it has nothing to do with me, it all depends on the weather.

Would You or Not?

Despite us being in the middle of a stormy few days, when Steve checked the computer this morning it said the ‘chance of rain’ was only 10% - which I didn’t really believe, but our washing did need washing. Besides it was sunny outside…

But… by the time I’d put everything in the tub and pressed Start, the computer said the chance of rain was now 80%! Plus, when I looked out of the window it appeared the sun had decided to play Hide and Seek behind the huge grey clouds.

What the…? Was it watching me? Had it seen me press Start on the machine?

Still, by the time I was unloading all our soggy clothes the sun had reappeared. So I decided, what the heck, and put it all out. Besides good British training has taught me that thirty minutes on the line was better than none.

Twenty minutes later though, I looked out the window and the sky was tinged with grey.

‘Do you reckon we should bring the laundry in?’ I asked the man.

But, believe it or not, in the two minutes it took us to get from our chairs to the washing line, the weather had gone from greyish to torrential rain. Meaning, of course, that not only were our newly laundered, semi dried, clothes soaked again… but we were too!

Now, all I can say is… the garden is looking great, the wild birds are enjoying the overflowing birdbaths and good job we’re not moving house-sits this afternoon. Why? Well, because the only dry clothes we’d get to choose between wearing are our shorts, tee shirt or pyjamas!

(Oh yes! And just in case you’re interested, as I write this ten minutes later the rain has stopped and the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds. No… I take that back, it’s bucketing again!)

Crossing The Strait

At first we decided it would be best to go and house-sit in Tasmania next January (2018). It seemed like the perfect time.

The logic was quite simple - by then there was a greater chance that I’d have got used to being apart from our girls. After all let’s face it, I’ve only just got used to them both having grown up and gone off into the world to be adults - let alone adjusted to them living in different states!

But, as is often the case with plans, the universe seems to having had a different idea on how things should go.

I think it was around March this year that the bookings for 2018 started to come in and… to be honest… each one sounded fun and I simply couldn’t say ‘No.’ Then in the last few weeks there have been a few more… and, well, now… we’re basically booked up until then end of July!

Can you believe that, we’re so popular, we only have a handful of weeks within the next 12 months that aren’t booked? I remember looking at the bookings of other house-sitters before we started this adventure and being impressed if they were booked out for the next three months, and here we are with a year! The wonderful thing to is that most of our bookings are ‘rebooks’ or referrals. But, although we know we’re putting out lots of households, we still want to go to Tassie - sorry.

Our plan now though is to go house-sitting across the Bass Strait in late July/August 2018, not January.

As to how long we intend to stay there, well, we don’t really know. In other words, if we have fun and get lots of bookings (and I don’t get too cold) we could stay for ages, or we might travel on and sit somewhere else, or we might even come back to WA, who knows. Either way I just wanted to give you a heads up on the changes - even though they’re a fair way off.

The weeks that we’re free next year - and in WA - aren’t definite yet but you can find out when they are by checking the regularly updated calendar on the ‘Where We Are Now’ page of our website.

As to bookings in Tassie… we’re not yet in a position to take any but we would love to hear from anybody over there who thinks we might be able to assist them in having a restful holiday.