The Part Time Pets LOVE to Help Out at the Puter

The one thing my part time pets seem to have in common, particularly for the smaller ones, is their need to put their IT skills into action and help with the puter.  Its a shame they are not so willing at filing!

"Marcel the Parcel" as I called him was a master at supervising anything going on in the office in the last few days of the sit.  He had surgery before I arrived and was meant to be out of his cone by the time I got there, but he figured out how to get around his first smaller cone, and chewed out all his stitches.  So he was very quiet the first week of the sit, but once he started to feel better - he was right into everything.  Not bad for a three legged rescue cat :-)

The Clean Underwear Dilemma SOLVED!

Any travelling adventurer knows the burden of getting your clothes clean whilst on the road.

Well this clever Australian company has come up with a great invention that is going to make turning your undies inside out a thing of the past.

It's a bag with little nodules on the inside to help the cleaning process, it uses minimal water and is very light so it won't take up those valuable ounces on the airline scales.

Incredibly simple, it takes away the stress of trying to keep things clean, and when most hotel sinks don't hold water without leaving the tap running, this clever little bag will really help save water too.  

You can see it in action here - not sure if the bloke in the ute comes with :-)

Find out how to get yours at their website here

Will Technology Replace HouseSitters?

I was amused to read about a new service in cat shelters which allows the shelters site visitors to play remotely with cats in cages.  Its a great scheme and is showing greater number of adoptions and donations to the sites.

But of course this technology will be easily applied to other areas including housesitting.

Sylvie loved to climb up on my knees and have a snooze
while I worked on my iPad - she made a great stand

But will there ever be a replacement for a pat and hug, being walked all over and sat on and really just to have human contact while an owner is away?

You can visit the website here

Misacapades of Clean Underwear

One must never be traveling down life’s highway with a suitcase full of dirty underwear - its just one of those universal laws that must not be broken.

Last night saw me ensconced in the Marriott at Santa Clara California.  So many hotels only offer the highly priced “send out” option that sees a load of washing costing more than the price to buy it new.  So the gift of an in-house guest laundry where you can soothe your wash day blues for $2 was beckoning.  So off I choofed to the gift shop to get soap powder and quarters for the machines.  

I have attended three conferences at this hotel and they are really good at making it easy for the masses to get things in a hurry.  Their pricing reflects that.  Small items are rounded off to a dollar incl tax, meaning the transaction happens quickly in the lunch line.  So if you want a banana - its a dollar - you want a yoghurt - its a dollar - you want a bag of crisps, yep its a dollar.  So I have a thing in my head that says most small things at this Marriott are a dollar .. because pretty much they are!  

I got this great laundry bag in Aspen many
years ago - its one of the things that
ALWAYS travels with me

So down I went to the lobby with three $1 notes in hand only to find that the soap powder was $1.35 - what the?  This kind of threw a spanner in the workings of my brain because the washer and dryer, funnily enough were one dollar a piece so I needed 8 quarters, but now I’ve only got 6.  But I’d looked in my purse before hitting the lift and I could see several quarters lurking in the bottom, so I figured I didn’t need to come back.  

So I went back to my room and took ALL my dirty clothes off and donned “big red” - my big ole fluffy red comfort dressing gown, not elegant, but is like being wrapped in a hug.  I wandered down to the laundry, put my load of washing in, inserted four shiny quarters and got back to my room without anyone seeing me.

Then it was time to go back and put the now clean, but wet clothes in the dryer.

Now if you’ve done your maths, I have two quarters (.25c) left from the gift shop and I’ll need the two other quarters I THOUGHT I had in my purse.  Half correct - I had one quarter and one nickel!  They look very similar in the bottom of a change purse - DAM!

So now I’m standing in my room, butt naked under the big dressing gown looking less than glamorous, all my clothes now wet in the washing machine and I’m one quarter short.

I turned my bags upside down seeking another quarter but alas, not one to be found.

The thought of wandering through the plush lobby in “big red” to get more change didn’t inspire.

So I phoned up guest services to see if they would bring me up a quarter.  After a long discussion ....... imagine my strong Australian accent trying to relay this to the young woman on the other end line, who kept rationally telling me I had to come to the desk and get change.  

Finally , after some negotiation and a slight hissy fit I convinced her that the lobby was probably not a place for big red to make its catwalk debut and a lovely lady from housekeeping bought me up a quarter to trade for my nickel and two dimes.

My life looks awfully exotic to so many but it took over an hour to get that load of laundry in the dryer - its the small every day things on the road that drive you the most nuts!

Always Talk With Strangers

It was so indoctrinated in me from childhood "don't talk to strangers" that I still have to force myself into conversation with outlanders while I am on the road.

An encounter in Canada bought home just how much I miss out on when I don't engage with the magnificent souls who walk this earth.

Getting on the Ferry at Horseshoe Bay BC

Now I am not condoning a chat with a shady character in a dark alley or asking you to break into conversation with anyone who gives you a bad vibe.  But it's my belief that there is a lot more good people than bad in this world and we shouldn't let our fear overwhelm us and lock out experiences with awesome people.

I was coming back to the mainland after spending five lovely weeks in Sechelt, a holiday destination on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Already I had encountered one horror cab driver who seemed to be living in his own reality, most certainly not in mine. So I felt blessed that I had made the ferry terminal in one piece, after living through a real life episode of the keystone cops with the cab driver. You know you are in trouble when you are sitting in the back of a cab shouting "follow that bus!"

Its a spectacular ferry ride

By some miracle I made it to the ferry terminal ON the bus, but my luggage was heavy and I had too much of it and I was already feeling harrowed.

The walk down to the ferry was a LONG haul and I knew from the journey in that I still had a LONG way to drag those three suitcases onto the boat.

A human in discomfort will do just about anything to get out of it!

So what did the damsel in distress do?  I sought out the first knight in shining armor I could eyeball.

This happened to be a well dressed, trendy looking young man, who had just arrived at the "get on barrier".

I had my line ready, and out it came.

"I'll give you ten dollars if you roll this suitcase on board for me - it's not heavy, I just don't have enough hands".

Good grief, if my mother could have heard that!

A little taken a back, he agreed to the task but wouldn't take the cash.

He was generous enough to just want to be of service and he did duly get me on board and seated.  He also offered to come back and help me off at the other end.

Sure enough he did.

Turns out he was also going on the same bus into downtown Vancouver and as he helped me on board the bus, a drumstick fell out of his bag and clattered down the aisle.

What's the chances?

I had chosen the one person out of several hundred on board the ferry that day who I could have a slightly intelligent conversation with.

So it was time to take the coach approach and ask a question.  I asked the first one that came into my head.

"So, are you some famous rock and roll band drummer I should recognize?"

I figured I was pretty safe because I knew he probably wouldn't be riding the bus if he was, but he took it as a compliment that I thought he could be.

It's a long time since I have played in a rock n roll band, but that DNA never dies and very quickly he was telling me his dreams of playing professionally. In fact he had an audition to go to that week, hence why he had his practice sticks with him.

But I knew there was something more because he was a little too well dressed for your standard rock drummer, so I got more questions rolling.  Sure enough, he was studying archeology, hence why he was spending so much time in South Africa.   He had mentioned several trips there in a previous conversation and I figured he had a beau there, but no, he worked at a "dig".  He was the guy that cataloged everything the diggers found.

WOW - this was your not so classic "digs and gigs" guy!   I might not have been on the bus with Nirvana's drummer but I was with a real life Indiana Jones! 

I was very moved when he commented that he felt very humbled to be the very first person to handle and catalog these precious artifacts after fate had placed them in that spot all those centuries ago. He described the amazing energy they carried.  I was able to share my theory that it was probably him in another incarnation that put them there in the first place. For an academic, he was surprisingly ok with my "out there" totally unsubstantiated theory.  You could tell he was deeply connected with his work, not just at "books" level, but also at a very deep heart level as well.

We then went onto a discussion on all the great bands his parents had dragged him along to see when he was little and they were living in England.  All my favs - Queen, Rolling Stones, in fact there was a strong chance we had both been in the crowd for the Stones at Wembley, if only I could remember the year.

It amazes me how in even the most unlikely situations likes will attract.

All too soon he had to get off at his stop, but he made sure I knew where I was getting off and bade me farewell. I thanked those gawd awful heavy suitcases, because without them, I wouldn't have had my life enriched by this encounter with a total stranger, whose name I forgot to ask.

Then, it was time to get those dam suitcases off the bus!