Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

The day has finally come to leave the UK.  Excitement with a few nerves mixed in made for a very surreal morning for two reasons: Firstly, I wasn't sure how the UK passport officers would react regarding my status, as there was no real record of my stay in the UK.  Having travelled to Ireland on two occasions, I left the UK and entered the EU, but there were no checks at the ferry terminal on either side so there was no one to process or stamp my passport. Secondly, the prospect of driving on the other side of the road was a little daunting as I've never done it. Max has been learning French on the Duolingo app so she can put those skills into practice. Our first destination is a sit near Bordeaux meaning we have an 867 km drive ahead of us, which we split into 3 days. We headed to Folkstone and drove onto the train for the 35 minute trip to Calais, France. After clearing both the UK and French passport controls, we drove onto the train and waited in the car. Since its such a ...

Just over an hour's drive took us to Henley on Thames.  Another new build with similar character to the previous place. Here we had the pleasure of looking after 2 beautiful spaniels and two cats who were also no trouble. I'm not usually a fan of cats, but these guys were easy. They looked after themselves as the cat flap allowed them to come and go, which meant no litter trays! Pablo - a smooch.  Ozzy - ball obsessed. Ngala - aloof, handsome and disinterested. Tyrion - a typical Balinese - clingy, cross-eyed and affectionate. Ozzy was constantly fixated on his ball or what was left of it. Mid-winter, it was very cold with temperatures down to -7 degrees C, so I can't say I looked forward to the walks. The ice made it difficult for Max to come on the walks but all was ok as the dogs were very well-behaved and took themselves off through the fields. Upon reaching a T-intersection, they'd wait for me to point the way and off they went! They were the best dogs for walking ...

 We have made a decision to leave the UK  temporarily as there has been no news of the status of my UK passport appeal and the time allowed for me to stay will be expiring shortly. However, we had booked another two sits to take us up to the 17th of January.  Nola is a beautiful border collie who was a pleasure to be with. The house we were staying in was a new build and I must say, had all the character of any new build in Australia, however, it was warm and comfortable and that'll do! The weather was quite cold with frosts never melting for the 10 days or so we spent there. Nola, like all borders, was impossible to wear out. The home had little backyard and so we had to walk her and throw sticks and balls in the freezing cold. She didn't mind the cold one bit! Both Max and I came down with heavy colds and we had to cancel Christmas celebrations with Daniel and Ellen. We did manage to get together a few days later so all good on that front. And having Daniel's birthday a...

  A change of pace indeed. Driving into London wasn't too bad considering we were travelling in peak time. We pulled up in a lovely leafy street and found ourselves in a little oasis in a very ordinary part of Chiswick. (Pron. Chizzick) Initially, we were to look after one dog and we ended up with two.  Two of the most dysfunctional dogs we've had the pleasure to care for. The owner and her friend briefed us on the dogs and it was then we realised that we couldn't just leave. If there is a problem with sits, it's that sometimes you don't get the full story about the pet(s) until you get there, or find out for yourself.  Harvey, cute but temperamental. Teddy, a 12 year old rescue with behavioural problems. As cute as they looked, both had a habit of indiscriminately snapping at us for no good reason. Teddy is a rescue, one can understand, but Harvey? We'd had a good run with sits to date and being just small dogs, they were more of a nuisance than a danger. Chisw...