The Grey Invasion

Get ready citizens of Europe, we're on the move. The northern summer is under way and the grey invasion is, once again, coming to a town near you. Old Farts are descending in planes, trains and boats, to clutter up your streets, erode your river banks, and spend their money—which is the only compensation.

This particular O F is planning to confine her activities to England and spend as little as possible, making her a less than acceptable tourist.

My initial modus operandi re economising was to house sit my way around England for eight weeks, thus eliminating the cost of accommodation. Being a new kid on the block when it comes to this particular method of lodging, I made a few blunders and ended up securing a mere 2 ½ week stint. But, like Anne of Green Gables, although I'm prone to making blunders, I don't usually make the same one twice, so I've learned my lesson for next time.

My blunder in this instance was booking my flights before getting the house sits. In haste to take advantage of 'early bird' airfares, I locked in my dates last November. Mistake number one. I would have been better advised to postponed booking a flight until I had a house sit. Emails arrive regularly with house sits starting just before I get there or extending to just after I've left. I realise now that the cost of a more expensive flight booked later would be well and truly offset by securing free accommodation.

When I dreamed up this house sit plan, I went straight to the internet, as one does for anything from a recipe to a romance (not that I'm looking for one of those!). I found a site that looked perfect: House Sitters UK. I paid up, AU$26.79 for a one year subscription, up loaded a lot of guff about what a legend I am (all true of course), included some photos that were as flattering as photos of a 67 year old can be, and waited for the offers to roll in. Yes, well …

I checked the web site regularly and discovered there wasn't a great deal of activity. Maybe this is the wrong site. Another Google search and I found the House Carers site. Hit the pay button: AU$50 for this one. A hasty decision as this site, while having an international reach, is Australian based and that's where most of the activity is happening.

Back to the Google drawing board and I found Trusted House Sitters, an American based business: AU$79. Oh well, it will be worth it for free accommodation. Every day they send an email with house sits available world wide, plenty of them in the UK. Ah, now this is more like it! There's a lot of activity on this site. Well, yes, but there's also a lot of people wanting to house sit—hundreds, more than likely. I applied for quite a few with Trusted House Sitters but no luck, sometimes no reply at all.

The House Sitters UK people that I joined first revamped their web site (very good) and started to send emails about new positions. An opportunity for a 2 ½ stint in Cheshire popped up so I quickly sent off an email and — bingo! They liked the sound of me (apparently) and I got the gig.

The charming 200-year-old house is on the edge of a village near the Peak District National Park. The family, who will be holidaying overseas, have a labrador, a cat and three chooks. Given that I've had four children, six grandchildren, dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs, chooks and pet lambs, caring for these pets should be a total doddle by comparison.

Emails continued to arrive, some with suitable dates but unsuitable pets e.g. elderly diabetic cats requiring daily injections (no thanks), loveable 'lively' dogs (read 'out of control') or families who for some reason find it necessary to have four large dogs, several cats and a guinea pig or two. I may be looking for free accommodation but I'm not that desperate!

Time ticked on. March came and went and still no other suitable position presented itself. I had to make alternative plans, what if I got near my July departure date with no accommodation booked? By the end of April I'd booked and paid for cottages and B&Bs for the intervening weeks. The emails keep rolling in, often with suitable dates and acceptable pets, so mistake number two was panicking too early and rushing to book alternative accommodation.

My advice to prospective house sitters: be flexible about location, be flexible about dates, and don't rush to book your flights. I'm three weeks away from departure and the airfare has only increased by AU$100 on the amount I paid last November!