House Sitting No More

 The House Sitting Start

My "career" as a house sitter started strangely.  I was around 56 years old, had been married for a long time and our children had "flown the coop".   After a career in nursing, I was working for a community organisation, which assisted unemployed people of all ages, to get into the workforce.

Someone suggested I should get good qualifications for what I was doing, so after investigations, I found a course at Griffith University in Brisbane - not far from my home.

Lessons were on the campus, and there was more work at home on-line.  I continued to work during this time, and with a house to run, and dachshunds to manage (we bred them and occasionally showed them), I would do my study in the evening, or the early hours of the morning.

But my husband wasn't happy about it.  I don't think he liked the fact that I was likely to be seen as "more educated" than he was - I didn't talk about that.  I was just keen to study and see what happened.  

I had no idea that this decision, would lead me to a long "career" of house sitting.

In My Office

I had an office downstairs, and we had a room with a desk upstairs, and I would work upstairs if it was night, and daytime I would be in my special room downstairs.

But early on, I learn how my husband did not like what I was doing.  He felt lonely watching television on his own, and would appear in the evenings with a glass of wine for me, or just come to talk.  Even if I asked for time to study, he'd find another way to interrupt and annoy me.  

Then I read about house sitting somewhere, and I paid for an advertisement (a tiny one that he never saw), in the local newspaper, and within a couple of days of publication, I had a phone call from a man, wanting to meet as he and his wife were due to travel and needed someone to look after the house, and pets.  He liked me, and a few weeks later, I moved into the house and spent a lovely time there.

My husband questioned me, as he didn't know the family and wondered how we had met.  I lied.  Just friends of friends.

But that was the start of it - from that one tiny ad I got plenty of calls, and I'd be away from home for several weeks - usually only a short drive away, so I could keep up with many household duties.

Years and Years

The house sitting went on for over 25 years.  I would go long periods at home, but when study was on, I'd take on more, and eventually after a few years of  study I graduated with my teaching degree.  A few years later, I spent time teaching at a university in China, and some months teaching in South Korea.

When my overseas teaching came to an end, not surprisingly, so did the marriage. 

But the house sitting was not over.

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