I'm beginning this post in the sitting room of a very grand mansion flat in my home town of Tunbridge Wells.
I've discovered house/pet sitting!
As you may have surmised from previous blogs, it's taking me a long time to reconcile myself to retirement and living away from home.
We still own a small property in the U.K. but according to my Husband we need the income from the rental to live, as otherwise we'd be very stretched financially.
I would prefer to leave it vacant so I'd have somewhere to stay in Blighty, but it's not to be, so I put my little grey cells to the task of achieving my goal without huge financial outlay.
I considered a camper van, a mobile home rental, and staying with friends, but none of those were suitable for a mix of reasons.
Then one of the ladies in our social group was explaining how she spent all of last July and August house sitting in Oxford in two different mansions. She showed us the pictures, they we're definitely mansions. Sweeping drives, landscaped gardens, and all for no charge!
In the first house she just had to occupy it whilst the owners were away, and in the second she had to feed a cat for the duration, hardly arduous.
I thought about this for a few months and in the end I decided to have a look at various house sitting sites to see if anyone in my area was mad enough to take me on.
They are!!
It's great. Luxury accommodation, grateful and considerate hosts, in exchange for a little pet care.
I usually go and meet them and their pet when I'm back home so they can see what I'm like, but you can do it online, I've done four visits since the beginning of the year and there's one more definitely booked in August.
I think I'd still rather have my own house, but it's better than a camper van any day.
Still a bit homesick, but loads better than I was.