Adventures of An Urban Nomad

It’s always dangerous coming between neighbours when there’s a boundary dispute. Thanks to Danita’s excellent negotiation skills we managed to avoid being caught in the crossfire. The house we’d been staying in had a brick fence at the back of the yard. One morning we woke up to a man

One of the challenges of being an urban nomad/housesitter is when you need to take time out. As you’ll recall Danita & I attended a family wedding in Bali a couple of weeks ago (Welcome to Bali). For that we were lucky to find houseowners who were willing to put

Eastern Suburbs people are really interesting – they see the world in a special way. Danita and I both grew up in the Eastern Suburbs and for the last few weeks we’ve been housesitting very close to where we both lived as children. Since we leave here next Friday we

Recently, we spent 8 days in Bali to attend my nephew’s wedding. Prior to leaving Sydney we had arranged to be picked up from the airport and taken to our villa. On our arrival there was no-one to meet us at the airport – not a good start. We managed

The current house we’re in has an interesting dog – a poodle shihtzu cross. She’s very cute but does some distinctly odd things – especially associated with her toilet habits. To do a wee she does a handstand – standing on her front paws with her rear sticking up in

In Jewish tradition rain is called a “siman brakha” – sign of blessing. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Recently, we had a phone call at 8 o’clock one morning from the owner of the property on which we’re staying. She’d had a call from one

Ever since arriving at our current housesit I’d wanted to climb the hills bordering the property. From where we were, it looked like there would be a spectacular view of the valley and our house. This week I decided it was time to take action. So early one morning (7am)

I’m writing this using pen and paper. (Well, clearly not this specifically because it’s now on the web. The original was done with ancient technology.) The reason is that there is a power blackout. Apparently, they occur fairly regularly in this part of the world. A tree brought down the

Last week I visited some friends of ours who live nearby. They had jokingly said I could come up and spend some time on their ride-on mower. As I’d been thinking of doing some mowing at the property we’re currently on I decided it would be a good opportunity to

This week we’ve been trying to get a young horse into a travel float. That’s much easier to say than do. The horse (Holly) is very reluctant to walk up the ramp into the float. The main technique we’ve been using is to have a bucket of feed at the

We’re now back on the farm (for about 6 weeks). I’ve often heard complaints from country people about the poor quality of internet and mobile access they have. As a city slicker it never meant much to me and so I tended to write it off as “the country cousins

One of the “fun” aspects of house sitting is those periods where you don’t have a booking. We’ve just hit one of those times. It’s only for a few days but that can be a real challenge. The BIG question we get from people when we tell them about our

As you know we’ve been travelling with our dog Sancho – a 9 year old Lhasa Apso x maltese. The Lhasa Apso was bred as a companion dog for Tibetan monks. Hence, he has a particularly ‘zen’ personality. If you think dogs can’t communicate it’s probably because you’re not listening.

Having now been housesitting for nearly 5 months we’re clearly experts at it 🙂 A number of people have told me they’re considering housesitting and so I thought I’d outline the pros & cons we’ve discovered so far. The “normal” arrangement is a win-win with no money exchanged. The housesitter gets

A little while ago we had a dog visit us and stay overnight. As a result we had 3 dogs – Sancho (ours), Molly (the house owners’) and Paris (the visitor). Paris’s owners had left her with a few packets of food and treats. These were left on the kitchen

I’ve just spent a few days at the Montefiore Home, a Jewish home for the aged. In many ways it was a frightening experience while in others it was quite uplifting. The frightening part was being around people who were clearly “old”. You know what I mean – they’re frail,

The Universe works in fascinating ways. Have you ever thought about how you came to meet a particular person who had a significant impact on your life? They may be your husband, wife, partner, mentor etc. It might have appeared as a ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ experience. Ultimately, it was probably

On Thursday we moved back to the big smoke. We’re now in Sydney’s Northern Suburbs with housesits booked until December with a prospect into January  in the wings. As a nomad, knowing where you’ll be living for a couple of months is very comforting. Today we went shopping. We’ve become

Today was September 11 2011, the 10th anniversary of the day the world changed. It’s a decade since the destruction of the Twin Towers and unless you’re living under a rock you’ll be very aware of that. It got me thinking about the significance of anniversaries – especially major ones

This week we started our first country housesit. We’re on a property of 150 acres near St Albans. It’s been a wonderful week. Starting each morning lighting the fire with wood I’ve chopped has been very satisfying. Becoming reacquainted with muscles I had a vague recollection of but haven’t actually experienced for