One Word, Two Words, or Couldn't Give a ...?

Most people who know me, know that I’m one of those annoyingly pedantic people who has to work really, really, hard NOT to point out every misused or absent apostrophe, misplaced hyphen, misspelt word, and...

Well, enough to say that I’m particular about punctuation and, after so many years in the writing world, I believe that it’s possible to tell the age and nationality of most people simply by the way they use it, especially commas and hyphens. Which is why I’m in such a quandary about the word - or words - house-sitting.

I can remember three years ago when we started out on this journey that I was stuck with the same dilemma. Is it house-sitting, housesitting or house sitting?

Obviously, way back then, I decided to opt for the hyphenated version. A choice most likely due to my traditional English education. Plus the fact that housesitting was too long and new to be acceptable without a hyphen, while house sitting was too new a word to be split in half, risking the chance that readers didn’t know that the words were invisibly joined.

But now, things seem to have changed. Not so much with my logic, but with technology, keyword searches, and laziness, I expect. After all, if you have the choice of typing the word into your phone with or without a space against having to click to another screen to find the necessary hyphen, which are you going to pick?

I can see the reason for and against each spelling. But what really concerns me is, is my original, hyphenated spelling old-fashioned and due to become dated? Should I be ready for it to threaten the chances of my house-sitting courses, sites, articles, and such, being found online, because search engines won’t pick up the spelling? Perhaps I should even consider taking the hyphen out of everything I've created before there’s too big a pile of things to alter.

So I’m genuinely interested, what’s your thought? 

One word? 

Two words? 

One word with hyphen? 

Or couldn’t give a …?

I’d love to know.

Cars, Bikes and Junctions!

Sorry, I know this is a vent, but could you please indulge me and let me know if I’m being totally illogical? (Discussions, as always, welcome.)

There will always be dangers when cars and bikes share the same roads. This I don’t dispute. Nor do I have a problem with the one metre rule forcing cars to keep their distance from us (bike riders), and I’m grateful that a lot of drivers choose to give us an even wider berth - especially when they’re nervous, driving a truck, it’s raining, and so on.

No, my problem is with drivers who stop to let us (bike riders) cross the road. I know that sounds daft and irrational! After all, aren’t they just being helpful?

(Also, before I start, please understand this vent is not aimed at all drivers - just the ones that annoy me.)

So, imagine you’re riding a pushbike on a bike path (off of the road) and you come to a junction where you need to cross a road. You look at the traffic and decide that stopping and waiting is the best option, primarily because there’s a car about to hurtle past you and across the junction. But then the driver decides, for their own reason, that they're going to stop several metres before the junction and wave you across the road.

Of course, I understand that the driver might have stopped to be considerate - which I do appreciate, but (as usual)… I’ve already stopped a metre or two back from the kerb, I’ve put my feet down on the ground and I’m intentionally not looking at the driver. In fact, in my mind, I am in no way implying that I’m even vaguely eager to cross the road - other than, of course, for the fact that I’m in the vicinity of it.

So why would a driver stop? Do they think they’re making it safer for me? Do they think that the extra minutes will significantly impact on my day? Do they have no concept of how unsteady a bike can be to get going? Is their daily tally of considerate actions in need of a boost?

But even more so, why do many drivers appear decidedly put out when I choose not to take up their offer to cross the road?

After all, being waved across doesn’t guarantee anything is safer - personally I’d rather wait for an emptier road, than race across it in front of an unknown driver. Especially if there’s the risk of me obstructing other drivers, or (even worse) unobservant drivers! To say nothing of the occasions when I'm waiting to cross a two or three lanes of traffic and it’s a truck driver who insists he stop to wave me across. Doesn’t he realise my vision of how clear the other lanes are is obscured by his truck? And, if I should have to stop for other cars, how do I know he’ll actually see me in front of his bonnet?

I know it might seem like I’m being overly pedantic, and like I say, I understand that drivers may just be trying to be considerate. But we all know who comes off worse when a car and bike collide, so shouldn’t it be my choice when I cross the road?

The Life Of A Digital Nomad

Ever since I heard of it, I’ve always loved the idea of being a Digital Nomad. The phrase inspired in me a sense of limitless freedom, creativity and unique outlook on the world. Of course, I hadn’t heard of the phrase until a few years ago. In fact not until somebody had already introduced me to the phrase ‘house-sitter.’ And no doubt if you’d mentioned either of them to me the year before I’d have laughed in your face. 

Yet here I am, three years on, comfortably living the life of house-sitting Digital Nomad, and still loving the concept. Who’d have guessed? 

So why am I rabbiting on about this? Well… I’m hoping it will kind of explain what I’ve been up to - and more to the point, why there haven’t been any posts for a while. Truth is, I’ve been working on my digital nomadicness. 

As most of you will know I’ve been having fun creating online courses for years now - mostly on writing up until this point. But as the months have passed it’s become more apparent that there’s something else I had to do, but… typically… I just didn’t know what it was. But now I do (YAY!) and that’s what’s been distracting me from writing the blog posts (for which I’m sorry, by the way). 

In the past month I’ve working on supporting, informing and inspiring house-sitters coming to Australia. (Yes, I know it’s a pretty obvious shift in direction, but somehow I’d missed it. DER!) Steve and I have, after all, had an overwhelming success with house-sitting so it seems only fair to share what we’ve learned. 

Of course it doesn’t mean that we won’t keep doing all we’ve been doing up until now, it just means there will be more! So now, along with everything House-sitting Life, there’s also a House-sitting in Australia website, blog, Facebook page, online courses, even house-sitting TShirts, stickers, notebooks in my Quirky Bees store… and that’s just for starters. I’m even hosting an All About House-sitting discussion at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore Cafe in Mt Hawthorn, on Friday 14th December (at 2pm if you’re interested). 

So… if you’re wondering about becoming a house-sitter (or know somebody who is) check out everything House-sitting in Australia and stay tuned for more. 

Well, I hope that explains my absence, apologies again, and here’s hoping the next blog post won’t take so long to eventuate. Now I’m off now to go create something Digitally Nomadic. What do you reckon, should I go work in the colourful lush garden or whilst lounging on a comfy sofa? 

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!)

Why I'm Not Answering Your Calls

 



Has anybody had any problems contacting me by phone recently? I have to ask because I know I haven’t been quite as contactable as usual. Not that it’s out of choice, and I’m still reachable by text, email, through the website and other computer based ways - thankfully. Why not by phone though you might ask, well… primarily because for months now I’ve been inundated with phone calls from all kinds of foreigners eager to tell me how they can improve my life if only I sign up with them! I rarely hang up on people, lie or even avoid calls (especially since much of our business is done over the phone) but it seems like it’s become the only way to go.

The funny thing is though that these generous, friendly people are all trying to inform me about the same thing – the federal government’s new offer on solar energy. Of course, I agree with solar energy (especially in a country with so much sun) but don’t you agree, it’s a bit difficult to collect any when you don’t have a roof or even anywhere to put a panel? I find it all rather ironic really – considering our lifestyle and our effort to be gentler on the world.

On top of all this, ‘nomadic’ doesn’t seem to be a word in everyone’s vocabulary - not even in the form of ‘Digital Nomad’! (I don’t like to say we’re ‘homeless’ because that has so many other inferences.) I’ve tried saying ‘we are renting,’ even ‘we have no roof,’ and, in fact, just about everything between, but I’m still getting numerous calls a week from unknown mobile phones and locations all over the world. Some hang up on me, of course, but others just keep pushing unable to understand what I’m trying to say.

Isn’t it a shame that some things in the world can be so desperate?

Anyway, that’s not really the point of this post… unless by chance you have the perfect solution for me in the form of what to say or do.

No, basically I just wanted to say, if you should phone me and not get through on the first call, please call back immediately or try a different form of communication – I promise you we are still here and I’m not really trying to ignore you.

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The Paths We Travel

The road wasn’t too busy as we cycled down the bike lane. Most semis, vans and cars giving us the newly regulated one metre clearance as they drove past us on Burns Beach Road. Not that I was paying particular attention to them, I was focusing more on staying well to the right of the white line and casting the occasional eye over the native bushland three metres or so to the left of us.

The highlight of our day was going to visit some long-time friends for morning tea. There’s no doubt that one of the advantages of house-sitting around WA is that we get to (temporarily) live close to all kinds of friends. In fact, at our previous stay we’d been only a stone’s throw from our daughter... which had led to more than the occasional morning tea!

This time round we are only a few minutes away from a gorgeous couple who became dear friends over twenty years ago when Steve and I physically built a kit home next door to them in Beverley (a rural town, just outside York in WA’s wheatbelt). And yes, I did say ‘physically built’! We put up the exposed beams, attached the Western Red cedar cladding, put down the slate floors, and everything in between… we did the lot! It still amazes me what we achieved… and the fact that the house is still standing!

Living in the country (on four acres), surrounded by wildlife, was so different from the life we have now. We haven’t been back though, not since we left twenty odd years ago, and I have little idea of how our house is fairing. Part of the reason we love catching up and reminiscing with old friends I guess.

These were the thoughts flowing through my mind as we cycled down the semi-main road.

Thoughts, suddenly interrupted as a wild kangaroo appeared from the nearby bushland, and hopped beside us for about half a kilometre before heading back into the bushland.

And, funnily enough, thoughts that were starting to resurface an hour or so later when an unexpected friend (a stranger to us, but friend of our friends) called in and interrupted our morning tea. Who was she? Believe it or not… the current owner of the house we built in Beverley! The person who is currently living under our exposed beams! On our uneven slate and behind our Western Red cedar!

Who’d have guessed? 

Certainly not me.