Last housesit and start of planning for our next trip

Brian in Gloucester Cathedral

Things are suddenly starting to get close, we plan to depart the UK a week on Tuesday (2nd October) and there is a dawning realisation of how much we need to get organised between now and then, as well as a lot of socialising to see friends and family before disappearing for some months (Brian plans until mid July next year, Jackie thinks May/June time, we'll see who gets their way!).

We left our last housesit in Stroud on Thursday evening after finally meeting Rachel and her mum, Sarah, on their return home from the South of France. They had a great time by the sound of it and, in the two hours we saw them we talked non stop, but Bramble cat wasn't too bothered, she stayed upstairs on the landing.

The beautiful Gloucester Cathedral

On our last full day there we spent a good chunk of the day in Gloucester which is a really good place to visit. It's an old Roman town  and, although little of it can be seen above ground the remains of a whole Roman city is just below the surface. Any time a building is demolished a team of archaeologists move in to sift through and catalogue the remains below ground. The underground site displaying Roman and Tudor building remains was sadly not open on the day we went, but we did visit the very impressive Gloucester Catherdral (http://gloucestercathedral.org.uk/) and the Heritage Centre steeple standing on the corner of Southgate and Westgate Streets.

The Heritage Centre steeple

It used to be a church but all but the steeple was demolished in the 1950's. The steeple still has its bell and, on visiting, the lady told us all about it and then said I could ring the bell if I wanted. Well, I thought it would be rude not to, so I gave several tugs on the rope and disrupted the quiet town centre!

We also visited the Beatrix Potter museum (http://www.tailor-of-gloucester.org.uk/about/), mostly devoted to the 'Taylor of Gloucester' based on the local story of a taylor who went home on a Friday night leaving a whole pile of work undone, only to go back on Monday to find the whole suit finished except for one button hole on the waistcoat to which was pinned a small note saying "No more twist" no one knew how this had happened, so Beatrix based the whole story on the mice who went in and did the work. 

The white building on the right is 23 Westgate Street and where the taylor shop mentioned by Beatrix Potter originally was

In the Beatrix Potter museum

Much later it came to light that the taylor's assistant had gone to a local event on Friday night, got hideously drunk and decided to sleep it off in the taylor's shop, which, unbeknown to the taylor, he had a key for. Too embarrassed to be seen leaving the shop on Saturday he thought he may as well finish the suit, except for the final button hole, before sneaking out on the Saturday night. Still a nice story, but not as good as the one created by Beatrix.

Gloucester docks https://www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/

Sculptures in the Nature in Art museum (website here)

Since getting back we've had three nights staying with Jackie's mum in Alvechurch, during which we managed to get in a proper 'Friday night' - down to the local pub early evening for a bottle or two of red wine and a good chat, followed by a takeaway from the village Chinese - fabulous and just like the old days! On Saturday we managed to catch up with Brian's daughter Fiona and her man James, plus grand-daughter Becky, who all came over for lunch at Becketts Farm restaurant in Wythal (https://www.beckettsfarm.co.uk/restaurant/), followed by a trip over to the motorhome storage area to show them Big Ted (we think they liked him!).

Little Sooty cat is pleased to see us

Today (Sunday) we have arrived in Hall Green to spend three days looking after little Sooty cat, this now being the twelfth time we have housesat here. Abi has taken her mum away to Chester for her birthday so we have a few days to catch up with some friends, get a few jobs done and spend time with little, sweet Sooty.

Our diary until our intended departure on 2nd October runs like this:
Tonight: Sunday Tea Club with Manu, Crystal, Ian and Helen in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham. After meeting at a pub in the centre for a beer, we will visit a small Chinese restaurant where Crystal takes charge and orders everything, presenting us with delicious Chinese food which we eat with Chinese tea and, in the process, have a fabulous evening

The very grand house at the Nature in Art museum

Monday: Big Ted visits the doctor to have his door seen to. The door lock won't open with the key, only the remote, so that's being seen to. Then we visit the physiotherapist to have Jackie's elbow looked at (tennis elbow we think after lots of decorating and roof building), then to Birmingham City Centre (again) to purchase some International Driving Permits (this is just insurance in case Britain leaves Europe on 29th March next year with no deal and our British driving licenses are no longer recognised by Europe).
Tuesday: Pack Big Ted for his night away in Norfolk.
Wednesday: Head off in Big Ted with Jackie's mum to visit Ron and Margaret in Bury St Edmunds, followed by a night away in a small campsite

Gloucester Cathedral cloisters (used in Harry Potter films)

Thursday: Visit Attleborough in Norfolk to pick up a spare wheel for Big Ted that we've bought through the website Gumtree. It's second hand, but was always a spare and has never been used
Friday: Start sorting out all the gear we are going to need for a winter of skiing in the Alps and summer sightseeing, climbing, walking amd via ferrata in Europe. Evening, catch up with Corinne and maybe Helen and Ian to hear about her trip to Iceland
Saturday: More gear sorting and start of Big Ted packing. Evening looks like being the Solihull Mountaineering Club Annual Dinner, if we can get tickets (we may be too late!), but we have got permission from the venue to camp overnight in their car park in Big Ted so, if we do go, it'll be an easy few meters to walk from the venue to our bed!

Tomb of Edward II in the cathedral

Sunday & Monday: Back to Jackie's mums for the final pack of Big Ted, shopping for food to take with us and dropping our car off at the storage area.
Tuesday: Drive to Dover for 9 months touring Europe!

The next blog may be hastily written in between all that.

Jackie hiding behind a whale tail sculpture at the Nature in Art museum

I really liked this sculpture, all made from parts of a car. It stands on an old engine block, its claws are old brake shoes, it's body has a clutch plate in it and there are various springs, pistons and engine plates. Junk to anyone else, art here

A last picture of fluffy Bramble cat in Slough before we left...

And a picture of sweet Sooty cat who we're looking after now

Stroud, Housesitting and...a thermal cookpot! What on earth is a thermal cookpot?

Preparing our first meal for the thermal cooker

The thermal cookpot arrived, so I read the recipe book and decided on a simple recipe to follow to the letter for a first attempt, so had breakfast and started on dinner, felt slightly odd but.... chicken portions in the pot, with fresh herbs out of the garden, potatoes, onion, carrot, garlic and stock. Heat to boiling, simmer for a couple of minutes, put into the outer pot and leave for a minimum of four hours. 

It was going to be longer than that as we were heading off to walk from the house, to the canal, along to Stonehouse before getting one of the slightly oddly timed trains back. 

The new canal viaduct, old railway viaduct and river Frome behind

The woman in the canal information centre was very helpful, and very enthusiastic, really good to talk to. They have spent lots of time and lots of money restoring the bit of canal near here, including building a complete new section to go under a viaduct, where the original route is now a road. Apparently there is funding agreed to complete the section so it will join with the canal network at Gloucester, the timescale however is still a long way off. It was a pleasant walk, lots of information boards as well as little signs pointing out the bend in the gas pipe where it went round a Telegraph pole, or that the smell you were smelling came from the baize factory where they still make baize for billiard tables.

We got to Stonehouse with minutes to spare or an hour and a half, so tea and cake can wait, we rushed to the station. Perfect timing. As we walked out of the station in Stroud it felt like somewhere we’d never been before, only a couple of steps and we’d got our bearings, so tea and cake, or a pint? We found the pub first....

The restored canal in Stroud

Got back to the house, no smell of cooking, but there shouldn’t be, still somehow disappointing though. Eventually, the moment of truth, open it up and there is chicken falling off the bone, along with perfectly cooked potatoes, magic. Chilli is cooking for tonight with rice in the separate top pot, hope it’s as good.

Saturday, a lovely day for the farmers market, probably as well we’d just had breakfast as there was lots of yummy looking food, so we were restrained with a tartiflette pasty for lunch, to take us back to the Alps, and a Steak and kidney pie for a later dinner. 

Sheep racing at Frampton

We followed this with a trip to the sheep racing, we weren’t racing the sheep, they were meant to be racing each other, though in the event they weren’t that bothered, but with their colours and jockeys strapped on they looked the part. The first race, the only one we bet on, only one sheep could be persuaded to complete the course and jumps, though it did stop for a quick nibble of a jump on the way down! The whole event was for charity, so piece of cake wasn’t for our benefit.... it was a laugh, and a lovely family atmosphere. Here's a link to a news article on the Gloucestershire live website about it: https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/thousands-flock-village-watch-annual-2009698

Not so much as a 'race' more a 'follow my leader'

Yesterday we walked a bit of the unrestored canal, from the source of the River Thames, well a stone saying it was the source of the River Thames, though with no sign of any water, so a bit of a damp squib really, popular though, we were one of three groups being unimpressed on a Monday morning! Found our way to a pub, at the entrance to the long tunnel where the canal path was no longer viable, so not a complete wash out!

The stone marks the source of the River Thames

Tomorrow we may look at Gloucester as we have to collect some new ear protectors for Big Ted, before leaving Bramble on Thursday. Bramble who has finally decided that it’s ok to spend a day on the sofa with us rather than hiding upstairs, who has got us completely wrapped round her little fluffy paw with her huge purr and pathetic miaows. We’ve both had quite long conversations with her as she humours us, all the while thinking just give me Dreamies.....

So plans are coming together, depart for France a week on Sunday ish with a menagerie sit, in Brittany from mid October, cats, dogs, chickens, geese, ducks, goats, a pot bellied pig and a free flying African Grey Parrot.....

The writing on the stone plaque. It says "The conservators of the Thames 1857 to 1974. This stone was placed here to mark the source of the River Thames" This is it's location: 51deg41'40N 2deg1'46W

We walked another mile south hoping to find water. This, believe it or not is the first evidence we found of the Thames. Jackie is standing in the middle of the River Thames!

We walked another quarter of a mile to what was shown on the OS map as a small lake on the Thames. This was it, not a trickle of water to be seen, but there is evidence water sometimes flows here. It's been a dry summer! (51deg41'05N 2deg0'59.1W)

This is a field, but the Severn-Thames canal used to run here and under a bridge behind that tree. The plan is to restore the whole canal, so this just shows what a huge job it will be

This section isn't quite as bad, but still lots of work

The entrance to the 2.7mile long tunnel that forms part of the canal to be restored. Apparently the centre section has collapsed and other parts need major work. 

Our pub lunch stop at the Tunnel House 

Our walk took us over this main railway line. Time for a bit of fun, we thought. We walked over and up the bank and then....

A train thundered past. Hmmmm!

Bramble cat and Jackie have a serious chat at the breakfast table

My favourite photo of Bramble cat. "Where's my breakfast?"

Housesitting in Stroud

Getting to know Bramble cat

Another week, another Housesit, now in Stroud, with a very fluffy but low maintenance cat called Bramble. We came down after the final stage of Brian’s MOT, a CT scan, a painless and un-intrusive procedure, but one that we have to wait for results for, so we are still waiting, though don’t feel there is anything to worry about.

Where is Stroud? On the edge of the Cotswolds near Gloucester and who knew it was so hilly? Makes for a great view out of the living room window though. It’s a pleasant little town with interesting little clothes shops, if I could remember back to when I was interested in clothes shops! Like Loughborough it has a Park with a Museum in, free and very interesting, so that was our little jaunt yesterday.

Views over Stroud from the back garden decking

A slightly unusual arrival, mother and daughter, had left by the time we could get here, so a friend had been organised to let us in which worked fine, but left us to introduce ourselves to Bramble. Found her under the bed, said hello and waited for her to brave talking to us. We didn’t have too long to wait fortunately, though she is a shy little thing. We’ve had strokes, purrs and tummy tickles as she gets more used to us and last night she finally decided to come on the bed for a bit of bedtime fuss. We may have ruined another cat however, jumping up to open the French door as she sits outside waiting rather than bring herself in through her own catflap!

It's definitely this way!

We’ve done a couple of short though hilly walks and spent a couple of mornings waiting in for deliveries, a big insulated front screen cover for Big Ted, and a thermal cook pot for me, should arrive within the next hour and then we can go out and enjoy the sunshine. An accessory for BT though I will be testing it in the next couple of days. It’s a cooker that works on the hay box theory, get everything up to temperature and then leave it for hours, unpowered, until dinner is ready..... so, economical and efficient, bring everything to the boil as we set off for a long drive, or a days skiing, insert into its own vacuum container and come home and eat, there is even a separate container for the rice or potatoes mmmm.

Sunday we had a day out as we went to visit Judith and Richard as they are 17 miles, but 45 minutes away. Had a lovely lunch, (the fantastic lamb shanks she served would be a great meal to cook in the thermal cooker, me obsessed?) and did we stop talking? Not for a second. 

Are you sure?

All cats were present and correct as I jumped out of the car before he’d even stopped, to say hello to, garage living, little Lottie, rapidly followed by Ginger and Fred. Judith appeared at the door asking whether we’d come to visit them or the animals? The dogs hadn’t even really alerted her to our arrival as we didn’t get barked at like strangers, which is lovely, despite not having seen them for a year. Sadly I can’t say all dogs were present and correct, Flora passed away in May, though a new black lab puppy Polly was a joy. A really enjoyable day, and another example of why we are so grateful to our housesitting way of life... people we would never have met otherwise!

Yes, here's the lake! (Toadsmoor lake - what a great name, is there a Toad Hall nearby?)

An update on Brian’s last blog, we were asked our equivalent costs for living in the UK as well as everywhere else we’ve been, and the answer is..... Now she's put me on the spot! I haven't got a final figure yet as it takes time to work these things out accurately (and I like to do that), but my initial stab is about £14,000.00 per year, but it will vary depending on how much housesitting we have done. I'll update. 

Bramble cat looking a bit wary as I approached with a camera

She's a very fluffy cat!

Stratford House museum in Stratford Park, Stroud

Meanwhile, preparations are underway in Costa Blanca, Spain for Big Teds visit. Jackie's dad is busy trimming the trees in their driveway so Big Ted doesn't scrape his head as we drive in. What you see is an electric chain saw on the end of a long pole. What could possibly go wrong?

Review of our 6 years of travelling

Housesitting Sooty cat (2016)

We've moved on to Stroud for our last housesitting assignment, this one for two weeks, before heading off travelling again. Whilst here we had a Facebook memory notification that Jackie got voluntary redundancy and left the BBC 6 years ago this month (here's her first post about that), four and a half months after I sold the shares in my business and took early retirement at the end of April 2012 (here's my first post and the start of this blog). As we've now been unemployed and travelling the world for six years and it made us stop and look back on all our travels. This post is therefore about our last six years and what it costs to do what we've done, rather than this housesitting assignment, we'll talk more about that in the next post.

Memories of the bridge on the river Kwai, Thailand (2012) 

We've now done three major trips and three full ski seasons in the French Alps in those six years, spending a total of 1,363 days travelling abroad (63% of the time) and 827 days travelling in the UK (37% of the time). None of that time has been at either of our homes as we have tenants in both on long term rental agreements and, to some extent, they are funding our early retirement, so most of our time in the UK has been spent housesitting, looking after other peoples pets while they are on holiday. To do that we have our own car and pay for our own travel and our own food but, other than that, housesitting is cost free and allows us to visit places we may not otherwise go to and, when housesitting near home, to visit friends and family. In doing this the UK has thus become one of the cheapest places in the world for us to stay and travel! Of our time in the UK we have housesat for 497 days out of 827 days over 6 years (60% of our UK time), the remaining being holidays or staying with friends/family. This has resulted in average costs of £16,115.00 per year, which includes all costs of running our own car, with the exception of the initial car purchase price. See graph below to see how this compares with other country costs. If you are inspired by this way of living, have a look at our housesitting page (link here - or click the button at the top), which gives details of all the sits we have done round the world, with links to our references. More importantly, if you use the link near the top of the page you can get a 20% joining discount to the 'trustedhousesitters.com' website (copy of the link here), which is the one we have mainly used and find most useful. As well as your 20% discount they give us 2 months free membership, so it helps us all.

Skiing in the French Alps (2018)

Our world travelling and particularly our three seasons of skiing in the French Alps have been at a cost that's lower than most people would think. To cut to the 'bottom line', whilst travelling abroad we have spent an average of £23,840.00 per year, but travelling in the UK has been much lower due to our housesitting lifestyle at £16,115.00 per year, so our average annual spend has been £21,076.00 per year overall to do what we've done and what a fantastic six year adventure it has been. By the way, those prices are for two of us and includes everything we spent. Is that lower than you thought? We hope so - and we hope it inspires you to give up work and join us, we can absolutely recommend it.

Feeding wallabies in Queensland (2013)

It just requires a careful bit of forward planning to get your finances in order and you could do the same! Read on to see what it's cost us and where we've been. For the full details visit our pages 'Our Travels - where we've been' (link here), have a look at our 'Maps of our travels' (link here), where you'll find Google maps of where we've been on each trip, with photos and links to blog posts. For more in depth costings of what each trip has cost, have a look at our page 'Our trip costs' (link here), which has a lot more detail.

Zion National Park, Utah (2014)

Our first trip back in October 2012 was for a full year and took us as far as we could go, to New Zealand for six months, Australia for three months and three months in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore (link here). Trip two, in December 2013 to May 2014 was our first full ski season in the French Alps, something we've always wanted to do and had us out skiing most days when we could. We also did a side trip to Spain to visit Jackies dad (link here). Trip three from August 2014 to April 2015 was a 'round the world' trip: three months through the USA and five months travelling through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra (link here). Trip four, from November 2015 to May 2016 was another ski season in the French Alps with another side trip to rural France and Spain to see Jackies dad (link here).

Machu Picchu, Peru (2016)

Trip five, from September 2016 to May 2017 saw us head out to South and Central America taking in the countries of Peru (we saw Machu Picchu and the Nazca lines), Patagonian Chile and Argentina (Torres del Paine, Fitzroy), Mexico (Mayan temples and Cenotes), Belize, Guatemala (more temples and volcanos), Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, returning home on a cruise ship that was relocating from the Caribbean to Europe (link here). Trip six was our third ski season in the French Alps with another trip to Spain to see Jackies dad and some of southern Spain and Gibraltar and we arrived back in the UK in May of this year (link here). So here we are now, about to depart again for anything up to 11 months, this time to Europe in the motorhome we've bought (link here). We think it should cost us even less per year to travel that way (excluding the cost of buying the motorhome and all it's equipment of course), but we'll report back about that next year!

Fitz Roy, Patagonian Argentina (2016)

We've already mentioned what we've spent on average to travel, but it's varied quite a lot country to country as you might imagine. One thing we've noticed is the similarity in the costs of flights for the three big trips we've done. Our trip through New Zealand, Australia and SE Asia cost us £2,506.00 in flights, our 'round the world' trip through USA, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesian Sumatra cost £2,962.00 and our trip through South and Central America £2,739.00 so, as a rough guide to flights on a round the world trip £3,000.00 to £3,500.00 seems a sensible price to budget, as long as you don't mind economy class!

Smoking volcano in Guatemala (2017)

Travel insurance is a must and it can vary quite a bit depending on what activities you want to do and where you go. We insure for things like rock climbing, high altitude mountain hiking, downhill skiing and ski touring or mountaineering and, on occasions scuba diving when the mood takes us. Including the USA ups the price as our £1500 for an annual policy for our trip three shows, whereas our trip to NZ, Australia and SE Asia in 2012-13 was only £500 (which still included rock climbing, scuba diving and skiing).

Playful Kea in S Island New Zealand (2013)

We've looked at what we spent in each country we've visited, divided the total by the number of days we spent there and then multiplied by 365 to give an equivalent annual spend. We did that in order to compare our costs in each country, we didn't stay in any one country for a year, it's just to provide a means of comparison. This graph below shows how the cost of countries can vary, from Singapore, the most expensive country we visited at £36,500.00 had we stayed there a year, down to Mexico where, had we stayed there a year we would have spent just £8,168.00. Mexico however is a special case for us as we spent over half our time there housesitting, where our accommodation costs were zero. It was still a low cost country, but probably nearer £15,000.00 to £20,000.00.

Rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world, Sumatra (2015)

As we said above, there's a lot more detail on the other pages on our site, accessed from the buttons at the top, but if you want any more details get in contact with us by email or the other ways we show on our page 'About Us' (link here), or via the button above.

Finally, we're very near to heading off again, this time through Europe, France and Spain at first as an easy entry to motorhoming life so, if you'd like to follow us, we'll put a link onto Facebook each time we post, but if you're not into that, you could always enter your email address into the box at the top right and receive an email of our new entry immediately we post. Don't worry, there's nothing dangerous about entering your email, it goes nowhere except to automatically receive our updates and you can unsubscribe whenever you want.

Inspired? We hope so!