49. Cricklade - House and Pet Sitting - Episode 6

We chose this sit as it was central to a few places we wanted to visit.

We were to look after two cats named Luna and Musta. The owner insisted we come the day before she left so the cats could 'get acclimatised' to our presence'.😄 

We caught a train from London to Swindon which only took 40 or so minutes from where we took a connecting bus to Cricklade. We couldn't get out of Swindon fast enough. The bus stop was home to a few crack heads and drunks and we held our luggage close. Swindon was once a thriving city but now seems to be struggling. Once magnificent houses are deteriorating as well as housing a very low socio-economic sector of the community. The types of shops indicate that they serve a significant number of  Polish, Romanian, African and Indian people. The one trip we made into the town centre had us witnessing a shopkeeper chasing a thief down the street. We couldn't find any decent places to get a meal as even the Google reviews of places having a 4.5+ rating were very ordinary.

We were hoping we weren't pet-sitting in a similar area.

After a 15-minute bus ride, to our relief, we pulled into this quiet, beautiful little village and were met at the bus stop by the house/pet owner. We were to sleep on the 40-year-old sofa bed with 3-inch mattress in the lounge downstairs.  The springs were so old that we immediately rolled into the middle without any hope of lying on one side and fitting two of us in the "bed".

Having rearranged the lounge to put the mattress on the floor, which was only marginally better than lying on the floor itself, we spent a fitful and uncomfortable first night. (Max: I gave up eventually and spent the night on the lumpy couch.)

She was supposed to leave by 9am and was still hanging around at 11.30. Having only had a couple of hours sleep we couldn't wait for her to leave. As soon as she left, Max moved all the crap off her single bed so she could sleep there and at least I had the whole floor-bearing mattress to myself!  And with this we discovered that one of the cats had an entire bed and bedroom to itself. The woman was half our size, thought a vegetarian meal was a plate of broccoli and was a complete fruitcake. 

This house had way too much furniture and once again, we were having to shift 'stuff' around just to be able to move in a straight line. 

The cats were easy enough, though, and low maintenance. That freed us up to go out most days for sightseeing for many hours at a time.