There’s no doubt that when we started house-sitting we knew that we’d be seeing lots of animals. The statistics do, after all, say 92% of sits require caring for animals, and let’s face only one sit in our last year has been pet free.
But one thing I hadn’t allowed for before starting out was the amount of wildlife we would see, or even the diversity. If we were travelling the world - yes - but not considering that (as yet) we haven’t even left the state of Western Australia!
Why only yesterday I was sitting in the back garden having my morning tea when the Westie we’re presently caring for decided to join me, sitting on my feet. Minutes later our current cat came down and started sniffing my cuppa, but I have to admit I wasn’t really watching. I’d become totally distracted by a passing dolphin. It had decided to start playing only metres away, in the canal I was sitting next to!
Then as if that wasn’t enough, within minutes we were also watching the pelicans gliding and intermittently dive-bombing, the cormorants drying and, of course, the occasional seagull and magpie.
All kind of strange, considering I’d taken my cuppa outside because it was so quiet, still and peaceful!
The impact of being so close to native dolphins and pelicans hits relatively hard for me - as anyone might have realised by my amount of recent comments on Facebook. Why? Well basically because all my early life was spent in a British village where the only place you saw them was in zoos, books and on tv. So they became rare, exotic and spiritual animals, entwined with and indicators of fairytales, holidays, princesses and all things special!
(Hmm, maybe it’s a girl thing…)
Not that it makes me immune to all the other wildlife that varies so much from house to house. Especially those creatures found in our really rural spots, places that come complete with mobs of roos, regular visits from owls, and curious eagles and kestrels.
It does, however, make me currently wear more of my waterproof, winter clothing so that I can spend more of my writing time outside on the off chance I might also watch dolphins.
Now, there’s no doubt that Steve and I are living the life of Digital Nomads (and having a great time at it), but sometimes there’s no denying it’s more Digital than others. This a last week, for example, was definitely a more so than others week - and a bit more exciting too.
Why? You might ask. Hmmmm? Let me think… should I really tell you? Oh, what the heck, why not?
Well… as of a week or so ago… I launched my own Online Writing School - exciting, huh?
Of course I’ve been doing online courses for a stack of years, mainly through emails or touring. Then in the last few years I did Powerpoint style ones (‘Writing Skills: Go from average to great writer overnight!’ and ‘Write and Publish Short Stories Based on Life Experiences’). While just this month I released my third online course (Effective Goal Setting for Writers) which is entirely video, and simply me rabbiting on about all kinds of important and helpful insights that make a difference. Such is the advancement of technology. But regardless of the presentation, the courses have (thankfully) all proven to be popular and valuable.
But (believe it or not) this month didn’t just see the release of my Online Writing School and new course, it also saw the release of my newly updated writing website (writing-information-and-tips.com).
In fact, there were so many things crossed off my To Do list in the last few weeks I decided ‘What the heck!’ and am currently celebrating by offering a huge discount on the price of all three of my online courses.
What’s more, now that I have the school and website up and running I have the freedom and base to get started on a whole stack of other things! YAY! Long live the life of Digital Nomads! (We’ll just ignore the fact it took a year, okay?)
P.S.
Just in case you’re interested in finding out more about the courses, or know somebody who might be, you’ll find out all you need to know at www.writing-information-and-tips.com. Enjoy!
We’ve had a bit of challenge in the last few days... believe it or not - somebody (no names mentioned… What Steve? No never!) accidentally wiped ALL of our house-sitting emails. Not just some, but every single one of them, which in our current lifestyle equates to just about burning down the entire contents of our filing cabinet!
And not deleted as in, ‘OOPS! Good job deleted only means the emails have been transferred from the email programme to the Deleted folder so I can get them back.’ But deleted as in, ‘Oh darn! I wish I hadn’t pressed that button because now I remember that Gmail’s deleted means they have very kindly just wiped all our emails off the face of this world! Oh drat!’
So how did it happen?
Steve was busy tidying up all the files on his computer, as we have to do every so often. But this time the process of tidying also included sorting and clearing his emails because he knew all the important ones were safely stored on my computer as well. Then, well, he just got kind of… carried away, I guess. His logic being that if I’m the one writing and answering emails what’s the point of him having copies of them filling up the space on his hard drive. Sounds logical, right? Of course. Until you remember that his email address and mine are linked!
Something that I didn’t realise until later when I logged on to my computer to check my emails and guess what… they had all disappeared. I mean they had ALL disappeared! All the emails discussing individual house-sitting bookings! All the emails discussing arrival and departure times and dates! All the forms and details on bookings! Everything I had put to one side so it was always available and on hand! It had all gone!
Needless to say I was a little peeved… and the man, well he was a little flustered.
But thankfully, despite having been told numerous times over the last year things would be more streamlined if I kept all my notes on the computer the writer in me had rebelled. Consequently I keep a few handwritten notes with almost all the information I need - not quite enough - but almost.
So, therefore, if we seem to be asking you the same questions as before, please forgive us. We hope the recent changes to our paperwork system will negate the risk of this slight hiccup happening again - but no promises.
