8 minute read
Friendship & community during the time of COVID
by Sandy Ball
We are Sandy & Rob and you can find us at BritsHousesitting.com. Along the way we have made some lovely friends among fellow house sitters. When we were heading to Australia in February 2020, back in the days when everything was still normal, our initial sit in the Mornington Peninsula meant we were close to, and able to meet friends, Jacqueline and Glenn, who had done this same sit before. They even came to stay with us.
Advertisement
As this was their local area we had some great days out sightseeing and of course got to share the pets. So now we’ve managed to meet “The Aussie Lambs”, in England, Mexico, Scotland and two states in Australia.
Whilst on this sit we also had expert local background knowledge - the best wineries, and birthday and anniversary lunches - shared from Ian and Lloyd, the “Pet Sit Boys”, who we’d met twice in the UK. More from them later.
Before Covid, we had started virtually chatting with various folk we had met around the world and had even forged a plan to stay between sits with some Aussie sitters who we had met twice in Mexico.
Then came the moment when we suddenly needed to leave our Victoria sit due to Covid. The home owners were returning early from the UK and needed to comply with quarantine restrictions. This time we were helped and supported by Sue and Dave of “Wherever Are We” and we made a quick decision to travel to their location on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and rent an apartment in the same building for lockdown.
Settling in to a new kind of normal
Whilst in lockdown we were so grateful for all the support we received. We had an apartment with a fantastic view, we had great neighbours, we could still go out for exercise and we had virtual coffees and lunches.
As we began to find we had more time on our hands, we started video chats with various sitters we had met around the world, rather than just messaging. The joys of our house sitting community is that we were speaking to Brits, Scots, Europeans, Americans, and Australians some within their own country, and others still positioned outside their country of passport like us.
Within our initial Aussie bubble and as we got used to our new normal, we took part in virtual coffees and lunches and a weekly quiz, which meant we got to know a few more folk such as Andrew and Christopher of Global Wanderers Oz. Andrew even offered online yoga classes for those feeling bendy enough to join him.
When lockdown restrictions eased we were able to have some socially distanced meet ups. Meeting up with people you’ve followed on Facebook or Instagram, really does feel like meeting old friends. This was the case with Gail and Bruno aka “the Fraussies” and Lisa, who we’d first met at The House Sitting Conference in England the previous year. Her plans to stay in Europe long term had been scuppered by Covid. We also met up a couple of times (and even climbed a mountain on our penultimate day in Australia) with Gavin and Jill, who we’d met twice in Mexico
We were very sad to have to leave that fantastic place and all those lovely people for the UK.
Here’s what Gail and Bruno aka "The Fraussies" have to say about lockdown
When I think of Covid-19 the first verse of Johnny Mercer’s song, (yes, I’m that old) runs through my head!
Having said that I know we have had relatively smooth sailing through it all with living in Queensland and continue to do so, unlike some people, states and countries.
Covid first affected us in March when we had our homeowners return to Brisbane early from overseas and we thought it was only fair that they quarantined in their own apartment with their much-loved Boston Terrier. A quick search on the internet saw us book an Airbnb on the Sunshine Coast. We then stayed in another Airbnb in Wynnum, just south of Brisbane and were then able to negotiate a cheaper rate to return to the Sunshine Coast committing to a longterm stay. This obviously suited us and also the owners as any form of travel dried up quite quickly with the restrictions for the state coming into play.
During this time, we were very fortunate to be near to other sitters who had bunkered down close by in Maroochydore, Noosa and Peregian. Once restrictions were eased, we were able to meet with these sitters, some who we’d met before and others who we only knew through the internet.
It has been so nice to share time, thoughts, lunches, coffee, get togethers and a weekly online quiz with a lovely like-minded group. Just knowing they were there made a huge difference.
Travel within Queensland has been open for a while now and hopefully border restrictions will ease soon allowing interstate travel. I think Australia and perhaps New Zealand will be our go to countries for quite some time.
Next week would have seen us return from a 6 month stay in Europe – with that stay never happening. We had several sits booked and Bruno has all his family in France and Italy with two new bubs having arrived this year!
Aw oh I feel that first verse coming on!
And this from The Pet Sit Boys of "NomadicSummer.com"
While we were house sitting in England during the summer of 2019 we met two British house sitters, Sandy and Rob, in Cambridge and again in Dorset. We just happened to be house sitting in the same areas twice. We connected with them through Instagram and met at National Trust tea rooms on both occasions!
We then travelled to New York on holiday in September 2019. While we were there we received a message from Sandy telling us that two of their house sitting friends were house sitting in New York at that time. So, we arranged a meeting with their friends Glenn and Jacqueline at a café in New York. We spent an afternoon sharing house sitting stories and travel experiences.
Then all six of us had house sits in various parts of Australia over the southern hemisphere summer of 2019/2020. As Australia went into lockdown in March 2020 we were contacted by Glenn and Jacqueline, who suggested we join a weekly Zoom quiz with other house sitters, and we happily agreed.
Another couple who joined the Zoom quiz were Bruno and Gail. They are currently living on the Sunshine Coast. We were on a house sit in Peregian Beach in July 2020 when Gail contacted us, to arrange a meet up, and so we met them and had a very nice lunch at the local Peregian Beach Hotel.
Sue Pearce of "Whereverarewe" talks about yoga classes
In the early days of our strange new Covid world, a bunch of us house sitters were chatting and grumbling about the sudden shifts in our nomadic lives. By that stage we had all settled in to our “reside in place” accommodation and we were wondering how we would pass the time and stay connected while riding out the storm.
A few ideas were thrown around and, being such an easy-going bunch, we quickly agreed on a few suggestions.
Andrew Redfern is well known as a yoga guru and he very graciously offered to run Zoom classes for willing participants, 3 mornings a week. For those of us craving some other human connection those mornings were wildly anticipated and provided a terrific way to check in on how everyone was coping.
Our first challenge was to buy a yoga mat, but it seemed like everyone on the Sunshine Coast had the same idea and there was not a yoga mat to be found in any store within our 10 km allowable radius. Couldn’t even buy one online anywhere in Australia. We expected to see a lot of very fit and flexible people around when we were allowed back out again.
The classes were initially quite hilarious because many of us were staying in rented holiday accommodation and we had to create appropriate spaces between the chunky couches and cane dining settings and then put all the furniture back when the session finished.
During the class it was hard to not notice everyone’s random backgrounds and I made sure to keep any “personal effects” out of camera range.
Our yoga classes have evolved over the past 5 months with people moving on to re-join their previous busy lives, as well as some new folk coming in.
Even now that we have very few restrictions and some semblance of a “normal” life here in Queensland, I still look forward to logging in on those 3 mornings each week.
I schedule my life around the classes because the prospect of starting my day with Andrew’s welcoming and calm presence gives me feelings of restful bliss. It’s also nice that I feel the others in the class share my joy.
---
We hope you get some good vibes from this tale of our together/apart lockdown story and I hope you’ve managed something similar where you are. We are back in the UK and by some shuffling of the time the quiz is held, we are managing to still take part and catch up with our Ozzie friends despite the time difference.
Sandy & Rob
