Adventures of An Urban Nomad

This week Danita & I flew to Melbourne. We decided to take public transport as that would make it a bit of an adventure. Leaving the house we each had 3 pieces of luggage – a large suitcase, a carry-on bag and either the laptop or a handbag (just to

Today Danita & I went to our storage facility in Chatswood. Our intention was to take some of the stuff we’ve been carrying around and put it into our storage facility. However, when we were there we were simultaneously struck by a sudden attack of insanity. This started when we

This week we moved house. After eight weeks in one place we felt very comfortable and settled. Unfortunately, the house owners could not be induced to extend their trip – we tried 🙂 Due to a rather complicated set of circumstances we now find ourselves sharing a house with a

This week I had a small party to celebrate turning 60. We had set the time for 11am-2pm and decided the simplest way to do things would be to have the food supplied by a caterer. Passion8 Catering does wonderful food at incredibly reasonable prices and so we arranged for them to

This week I turned 60. “Why did you do that?” – you ask. Without boring you with time/space mechanics, solar system dynamics and planetary physics (all of which you understand anyhow) and paraphrasing Tony Abbott when he was asked about the difference between the Baby Bonus and the Kiddy Allowance

One of the joys of housesitting is having access to a new library every few weeks. For example I read the book “They Marched Us Three Nights: A Journey Into Freedom” by Dr Abraham Wajnryb. It’s his experience at the end of the Holocaust. This is a short book and

Last Wednesday Danita had a car accident. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt but the car was rendered unsafe to drive. She was going through a roundabout when the car was hit from behind – the passenger side rear wheel. I don’t know about you but to me it seems that to

As an Urban Nomad we’re privileged to stay in many different places and so we find out what works about a house and what doesn’t. Here’s our list so far: Must have Solar electricity generating panels (or photovoltaic cells to be technically correct) – just because you ought to. There are actually

In last week’s post I pointed out the house we’re in now feels like being in our parents’ homes. Feeling almost normal we decided to have some friends over for dinner – something we haven’t done for a while. As a result of this, it’s probably something we won’t do

Last week we moved to Chatswood. We’ll be here for just over 7 weeks so this is almost a permanent residence for us. We’re enjoying the new house and while it’s in an amazingly quiet location (given it’s proximity to a road with heavy traffic) we have been subtly reminded

This week Danita & I separated. No we haven’t split up – we had an overlap in house minding commitments and so we needed to be in separate places. My job was to be in the new house, set up the IT infrastructure so we could keep working and prepare

For the last couple of days there has been a the noise of a dog (or dogs) howling in a nearby property. It started late one night and had being going continuously for over 24 hours. As you know, dogs are pack animals. Consequently, when one starts barking (or in

This week has been a bit of a tough one for the boys around here. In a household consisting of 7 dogs, 2 cats, 2 horses, 2 birds, assorted chickens, ducks, geese and finally 2 people there are a very limited number of males. There’s me, Sancho, a couple of

dog minding, Housesitting, Personal development, Urban NomadThis week we moved from the rural location of St Albans to semi-rural Dural. We are now in a house with a tennis court, swimming pool, outdoor pizza oven and more. Who says you can’t live in amazing locations without lots of money? One

There I was, getting some emails finished off and starting to shut down to prepare for bed, when there was a scream from the bathroom. I ran in to find Danita standing at the closed door saying there was SOMETHING in there. She thought it was either a bird or

The universe is indeed perverse. Last week I wrote about hot days and crystal clear nights. This week it’s been rain, floods and open fires. As you’ll have heard, NSW has been in the grip of a major weather event with much of the state being flooded. This has affected

As housesitters we’ve been very lucky to stay in some amazing houses. We’re currently in a lovely place past St Albans over the Hawkesbury River near Sydney. We’re tucked away in a beautiful valley overlooking a lake. On a few occasions recently we’ve seen pelicans in the lake and kangaroos

You’ve, no doubt, heard about the Arab Spring. We’re currently experiencing something similar – except it’s in the chicken house. When we took over the current house the chickens (yes we’ve now added chickens to our resume) were laying 4 eggs a day. This was fantastic and more than we

My motorbike (Yamaha 1100 XVS Star Classic for the enthusiasts) weighs 284.9 kg – keep that in mind. It will be important shortly. This week we moved to a new housesit in St Albans. That’s 20 km past Wisemans Ferry and so is the furthest from the city we’ve been

Recently, we’ve been staying with our special friends – the ones who give us a home when we’ve got a hole in our housesitting “dancecard”. I’ve spoken about them before. Their house was the first place we looked after when we started our nomadic adventure. You’ll remember the episode of