Aerogramme Or Email

I always used to say in my autobiography classes that you could tell the age of most people by how their milk was delivered as a child. Was it poured directly into a jug left at the end of their driveway? Was it left in milk bottles capped with silver or gold foil that would be pushed up and away from the bottle when the milk froze on cold mornings? Was it bought from Coles in cardboard milk cartons? Or was it bought and received in some manner used between these?

However this morning, as I conversed with family using Facebook messaging, I once again contemplated how I think how you communicate with people is becoming the new tell-tell sign of what age you are.

When I first came to Australia, back in 1985, I used to keep my family up-to-date with my adventures and experiences by filling in, and sending off, a crisp, blue Aerogramme every Friday. While phone calls, at peak times, then cost $2 for a minute – so not too many of those got made.

Now though, I send emails (or messages through Facebook) that arrive almost instantly, and can Skype anyone in my family whenever I like for free – with, of course, the benefit of seeing them and sharing phots and videos. Thirty years ago, I would never have considered the possibility of such interaction, and ask any young person now and they probably consider the past options just as alien.

Communication is so much easier and cheaper. Ideal for people who no longer have a landline they can be called on, or a permanent address mail can be received on. Plus with so many cafes, shopping centres and community buildings generously offering free wifi, there is never any risk of a Digital Nomad being out of touch for long.

 

 

Business, Coffee And Cake

Did you know that Perth has one of the safest public transport systems in the world? I learnt this yesterday while taking the train into Perth on this week’s only sunny (and maybe dry) day. 

Why was I going to Perth? 

Well, strange you should ask… I was going to Perth to overcome one of the challenges (or benefits - depending on how you look at it) of being a Digital Nomad - or a sole entrepreneur come to that. That of working alone and having no workmates.

Now there’s no doubt that one of the most vital things you require if you work from home is a door, but chatting about business, or occasionally working with others is equally as important, yet often overlooked. The arrival of Facebook and Skype have definitely helped, but nothing really measures up to discussing business ideas, challenges, achievements, or even just venting, with others of similar interests (however vaguely similar) in person.

Steve and I work well, and regularly, on opposite sides of the table, but even so I do enjoy meeting up with friends who are also business women. Hence my trip on the train and my growing knowledge of our train lines as we move from house to house around this wonderful state.

If you too are a Digital Nomad, or just working alone from home, I strongly recommend discovering a support network to take with you, create as you go or simply stay in touch with. 

If you do, however, I do hope you have more luck finding the chosen location to meet in than I did yesterday... Wouldn’t you think that after not only living in East Perth for several years and working in both the Stock Exchange and Myers for an even greater collection of years that I would know where I was going? Yet I still found myself looking for the cafe on Murray St when I knew darn well that it was on Hay St. Then, after a fun and productive business meet-up over coffee and chocolate cake, looking for my daughter on Hay St when she was waiting on Murray St. Clearly the City of Perth has been playing around with the city’s streets over the last few years, because it certainly can't have anything to do with my memory!

Anyway, that is not the point of this blog post or the fact that I felt like a total twit asking for directions when I was only a stone’s throw away from the cafe, or even how great and seemingly safe Perth’s trains are. No, I really just wanted to enforce my belief in the benefit of mixing with others as you house-sit, especially if you’re working as you go.

An Added Bonus

As you might expect, Steve and I put a lot of thought into house-sitting before we actually made the move. We considered all kinds of possibilities, changes, challenges, rewards, and a whole gamut of other things. One of the things I hadn’t expected, though, was all the memories that would surface.

Now there’s no denying that over the years a few things might have slipped my mind – especially in more recent years – but it would appear that they are currently returning quicker than slipping. Plus, the ones that are returning and what’s triggering them, is far from what I’d expect.

In our last ‘sit’ the main memory that surfaced is of being a young child and watching my mum mow the front lawn in our very first house. Then of me, a little bit older, enjoying mowing the exact same lawn on a warm British day, with an identical, but slightly newer, lawn mower. So what triggered that recollection? Mowing a small front lawn with a pusher mower – something it would appear I still enjoy.

Then in our current house (which we moved into over the weekend, and which has no lawn for me to mow), I’m reminded of how much I love living in a two-storey house. Something I don’t think I’ve done since emigrating here almost thirty years ago, and something I enjoy doing simply because of the fun of running up and down stairs. Strange, huh?

Then the thought of running up and down stairs as a child reminds me of Mum’s familiar comment about how many times she used to come and find me unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. Apparently I made quite a habit of running full pelt towards the stairs, stubbing my toe as I landed on the second or third stair, passing out from the pain and landing at the base of the stairs.

Which reminds me of… and so the memories go, one after the other, triggering all parts of my life long buried. The wonderful thing is, though, that everything that’s surfacing is making me smile or inspiring me to move forwards. How wonderful is that? I’d have been happy with just the memories.

This Week's First Move

Made a smooth move from house-sit number two to three over the weekend - and from dog to cat people.

As always, the cats think Steve is wonderful...

Thank you!

To all those wonderful people who were kind enough to write a paragraph or two a few months back to increase the chances of the Government understanding how our change of lifestyle didn't affect our daughter's need for financial support while studying, we would like to say... THANK YOU, IT WORKED!

We sent your paragraphs of support off with testimonials and yet another form, and we've just heard that it was accepted! Which is probably a good thing because Lex's three part-time casual jobs(!) and her course were starting to take their toll.

So to all you kind and caring people our whole family would like to send you a huge thank you. You really made a difference.

One Heck of a Jigsaw Puzzle

I love jigsaw puzzles, I always have. Whether it’s childhood memories of everyday at Grandma’s being spent putting together ancient jigsaws, fun memories of teaching our own toddlers the invaluable skill of finding and joining edge pieces, or even doing my own jigsaws just because I felt like it, my life has been filled with the pastime. Today, however, the activity was not as enjoyable as I remember, nor (to be honest) did the innate skill of ‘straight edges first’ come in helpful.

So what was the puzzle?

Believe it or not – packing the car! Now I ask you, after all the sorting, storing and throwing we’ve done over the past months, wouldn’t you think we’d have whittled down everything enough? Yes, I might have had concerns over the past few weeks but, how can we still have too much? Honestly, how can we? Don’t ask me, because I certainly do not know!

Most of our belongings have been sitting in the front room of our current house, with other bits in use around the house, all of which makes it hard to gauge how much we really have. Of course, it doesn’t help either that everything was ferried here in a variety of trips that fitted around us still clearing and selling the house even though Steve had already started the house-sitting.

Anyway, (as she stops waffling on) the big question is… did today’s trial packing of the car work?

The answer… better than I expected, but not particularly well.

The rubbish bins will be pretty full when we leave this weekend and we’ll be making a bigger delivery to the local Op Shop than I’d expected. But the main thing is – YAY! It fits! Who needs to see out the car’s back window anyway?

It’s certainly been a bigger learning curve than I’d expected though, and one anyone who’s taking up house-sitting will need to learn – depending on the size of their car. When we first started this adventure my aim had been to get all my belongings condensed to two suitcases and a box, and in hindsight I have to say, that that was a pretty accurate estimate. But I’m not, as yet, anywhere near it in reality – still we’re having fun stream-lining ourselves more each day, and there’s nothing like seeing an over-packed car to make you consider what you’re taking because you need and want to, as opposed to because you feel you should, think you should, think somebody else thinks you should, are taking without considering or because you simply can’t be bothered to decide.

So, I bet you can’t guess what we’ll be doing this week – other than driving around in a semi-packed car? Yep, once again, we’ll be sorting clothes, eating meals consisting of an unusual selection of foods, paying all kinds of things forward, and visualising what we truly want from our future. It’s almost becoming a way of life!

But, in the meantime, I have a question for you… do you think so many of the people we find ourselves talking to these days are in the process of minimalising their belongings because of our current focus, or is it a current world focus?

Success!

Yes, it's official! I can now use the ball-thrower and throw underarm without any risk of harm to Steve, or halfway around the world, overarm, with pinpoint accuracy. A huge leap from how I threw with it a month ago.

In fact, our current dog and I have been having so much fun with my throwing that my right bicep is now obviously larger than my left! Perhaps it's a good thing that our new residence next week is a cat household :-)

One Advantage of Two

This is an odd week, or maybe bittywould be a better description since we’re trying to get so many odd little bits done ready for our first move to the next house.

We’re in this house for another 10 days – or at least Steve is. I’m here for another 11 days because we have a day overlap between this and the next house-sit. Not something I’d considered we’d be doing, but there being two of us is a definite advantage to house-sitting. After all, let’s face it matching up bookings is hard enough as it is, without even considering how much tougher it would be if there was only one of us and no possibility of overlap. Not something that might be an issue for house-sitters who are only using it as a form of holidaying, I guess, but definitely an advantage to those who are doing it as a full-time lifestyle. But then we did make it tougher on ourselves when we decided to sell up everything, rather than keeping a house we could turn up at any time of day and expect a bed.

I’m delighted to say, though, that we’re now booked almost all the way through to early January, which is decidedly reassuring considering Steve and I took it all more or less on trust that this would work perfectly. There’s an odd few days, and a week or so, in October that still need booking, but other than that we’re pretty right. Believe it or not, there have even been some home-owners who really liked us but we had to turn down their requests to house-sitting due to double-booking.

Another thing I hadn’t expected was how so many home-owners are generously offering us extra nights of accommodation. Not just so that our bookings match up and we have somewhere to stay, but so that they can leave for their holiday at some ridiculous time of night and yet still know their house and pets are cared, or so that their animals find the transition of who’s caring for them goes more smoothly. Of course, there’s also the added bonus that it negates the risk of us turning up a house and not finding the spare key or having to win the dog over as it tries to protect the home from us.

Oh well, I suppose I’d best get back to the odd and bitty jobs. Other than writing the blog post today, we have to condense and repack everything we’re going to take with us, then check it fits in the car. Not something we could really do earlier, because until we were actually house-sitting for a month or so it was impossible to know what we actually needed or wanted. Fingers crossed.