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Hello and a very belated Happy New Year to you all!

Apologies for the radio silence recently. We have been on our annual holiday to sunny Gran Canaria so not too much moving around over the last couple of months to speak of. Having said that, we have still managed to squeeze in a holiday, four different Airbnb bookings and complete our first house sit of 2022!

January didn’t start well!

After our December house sit in Girona, Our next plan was to take a break from house sitting and to head over to Gran Canaria for our well earned annual winter holiday. We had confirmed this a few weeks ago so already had an Airbnb for four weeks booked in Playa del Ingles starting the 2nd of January.

A cancellation

The Girona house sit had finished on the 29th December. After that we had another, short house sit booked in Barcelona. This was to be our last confirmed house sit of 2021. It was also to be the last one before we flew out to start our holiday.

We don’t usually do short house sits. Mainly because of the hassle, stress, and expense of travelling too often. However, this one was a good ‘filler’ and suited us perfectly.

It took us to Barcelona which is where we needed to be for the airport and also it gave us accommodation to fill the exact four night gap between our stay on mainland Spain and our flight to the island of Gran Canaria.

Everything looked like it had fallen perfectly into place. Unfortunately though, once again our well planned itinerary suddenly unexpectedly went to pot.

On the day before we were due to leave Girona we were contacted by our Barcelona home host. She told us that she had tested positive for Covid and so had to cancel her planned trip and hence would have to cancel our house sit.

Airbnb number one

We started to look for an Airbnb in central Barcelona to cover the cancelled dates but available accommodation was really limited. Those that were available were really expensive. Presumably because A- Barcelona is a major tourist attraction and B -The dates we wanted went over the New Year holiday period.

We widened our search area slightly and came across this gem. We were worried that it may be quite far from the centre of Barcelona but to our surprise it was much closer than we were expecting. Just a €2, very simple ten-minute train ride from Barcelona took us directly to the apartment.

The biggest negative of this Airbnb was that the apartment was in a residential building that seemed to mainly have VERY loud speaking Latin Americans as residents. This, together with the usual thin walls of apartment living meant we could quite clearly hear the conversations of all the neighbours.

However, on the plus side The host was really lovely, It was spotlessly clean and we found ourselves rattling around in a much larger than average apartment. There were three bedrooms to choose from that could easily have accommodated five people. The all important WiFi was strong. It had a well equipped kitchen, and was walking distance to the beach. Plus the train station, with easy access to the airport was just a ten minute walk away!

..and all for just €70 a night! Great value for the two of us. For larger groups a real bargain. If anyone is wanting to visit Barcelona on a budget we would highly recommend this Airbnb as a great place to stay.

Airbnb number two

We had already decided to have a month long holiday in Gran Canaria and also knew we were house sitting in Spain through December. Hence, January was the logical month to use as our holiday time.

We were looking for our Airbnb accommodation when Spain had just announced new Covid regulations. All children over the age of 12 now had to be fully vaccinated to enter the country. This created a problem for many UK families as the UK were not vaccinating children at the time. This caused a huge wave of Canarian holiday cancellations. Luckily for us, this also meant a sudden surge of available accommodation and also prices dropped considerably.

I did a quick search on Airbnb and a huge choice displayed. Amongst them, was this lovely apartment. The price was ridiculously cheap. 28 nights for £953.30 – £34 a night for a two bedroomed apartment two minutes walk to the sea!

Last year, when we stayed in the same area, there were very few tourists travelling and our accommodation costs averaged £47 per night. I can remember thinking that this seemed like a once in a lifetime bargain price yet here we were, a year later paying even less. Great for us but obviously not so great for the hosts.

You have to feel sorry for the accommodation providers and the tourist sector as a whole . The Spanish governments decision not to accept un-vaccinated children just when tourism had started to pick up was a huge mistake. A few weeks later they relaxed the rules again but that ill-thought-out decision must have been a huge blow to the already struggling tourist sector and cost them dearly.

The holiday

We always visit Gran Canaria early or late in the year to take advantage of the winter sunshine.

Last year we extended our stay and ended up being there for ten weeks. Due to Covid restrictions at the time the island was very quiet. We really took advantage of this, hired a car, and travelled around much more than we normally would. We spent much of our time driving to the mountains and exploring many of the smaller towns and villages.

This year, in contrast we decided to take it easy. We didn’t hire a car and spent our leisure time mainly on the local beaches with occasional bus trips to Las Palmas, the capital city.

One Day, we jumped at the opportunity to meet up with Rita and Philip, another couple of house sitters. We had made a connection on a Facebook house sitting group, realised that we were all going to be in Gran Canaria at the same time and so arranged to meet for Lunch in the capital city of Las Palmas.

This was the first time we had met any other house sitters. It was a great day sharing and comparing our stories. Rita and Philip are much more experienced than us having been house sitting for 12 years. Their stories of house sitting all around the world were really inspiring and we left with our heads spinning contemplating all the fantastic far-off places we want to visit in the future.

We have never been the type of people that are thinking after a two week holiday that they are ready for home. We are definitely in the ‘I could stay forever’ camp. So, as our month of doing not-much-at-all was coming to an end far too soon we decided to do the same as we did last year and extend our stay.

With our month in Girona plus the month we had already been on holiday we had already used 63 of the 90 days that we were allowed because of Schengen Visa regulations. So, with 27 days allowance left we searched the Airbnb listings once again.

Airbnb number three

By this time the regulations allowing children into Spain had relaxed and this had a huge impact on our choice. This time there were only 4 apartments in our price range available so we sent off our usual message.

” Dear xxx, We are great guests, we need good WIFI, an early check-in, and, if at all possible – a discount! We look forward to hearing from you soon . Yours Sincerely, C & K”

A bit cheeky but if you don’t ask – you don’t get. Our trump card is that we were booking late, we wanted 25 nights starting in two days time. This is the way we always do our bookings. Hoping that anyone with accommodation still available at this late stage would rather have it filled at a discounted rate than have it stand empty earning nothing.

We didn’t have long to wait and within an hour we had a reply.

This lovely fourth floor apartment was offered to us and the host kindly gave us a small discount. As it was very close to where we were already staying we went to check out the location. All looked fine. The complex seemed well kept and it was on a quiet road so we booked.

We loved this apartment and were delighted that we had managed to find it at such short notice when choice was so limited. It was super clean, had a private balcony, balcony, great WiFi, Netflix on the telly – the perfect environment to relax and enjoy the last month of our holiday. What could possibly go wrong?

On day three of our 25 night stay the hotel directly opposite decided it was time to install a new swimming pool so the diggers rolled up!

To be fair, it was not super loud noisy. More of a constant drone of engines and machinery working all day – every day. We knew this was out of the control of our hosts so cursed our bad luck and said nothing. It did restrict our use of the balcony but we laughed it off and joked that it could have been worse – the apartment above us could have been having major renovation works… How we laughed!

On day 16 of our 25 night stay the apartment above us commenced major renovation works!

The noise and dust was horrendous. Again, not the fault of our host but also definitely not something we wanted to endure for the final week of our holiday so we gave the host a call to explain our situation.

To her credit, she was lovely. Very apologetic and immediately offered us a refund on any nights lost if we could find alternative accommodation so, unexpectedly, we found ourselves looking on the Airbnb site once again.

Airbnb number four

This time finding accommodation was much more difficult. Availability was really thin on the ground and those that were available, were getting expensive. This time we did not have a long stay as our usual negotiating tool – just the very last minute booking. We wanted to move now – today!

There was only really one that we fancied, a ground floor apartment advertised at £700. A bargain in comparison to others available for the week we needed but, sticking to our ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ philosophy we sent off our slightly tweaked standard message once again –

” Dear xxx, We are great guests, we need good WiFi, check-in TODAY, and, if at all possible – a discount! We look forward to hearing from you VERY soon . Yours Sincerely, C & K”

Success! – The host offered us a very generous £100 discount and within a couple of hours we were once again dragging our suitcases through the streets of Playa Del Ingles. This time heading towards our third (and final) apartment of the holiday!

The unexpected move was a bit of a hassle but in the end well worth. This final apartment turned out to be our favourite of the three. It was in a small complex of only twelve apartments of which our host managed six. The living area was really spacious. It had floor to ceiling windows that opened up to our terrace and a lovely garden area. Again, less than five minutes walk to the beach. It proved to be the perfect end to this years visit to Gran Canaria.

The house sit

Having used all our visa allowance for this period it was time to head back to the UK. We had a few 2022 house sits already confirmed and our first was in Romford, London so we took a flight directly to Stansted airport.

From there, an hour and a half on the train took us to Romford. More specifically, the neighbourhood of Harold Wood which is situated in the London borough of Havering. This was to be a short house sit of nine days looking after a Fluffy, a Maltese dog and Lili, a cat.

This was a perfect sit and a great way to ease ourselves back into House sitting after our two month sunshine break. The house owner was super generous. She picked us up from the train station then treated us to dinner whilst introducing us to Fluffy and Lili. Her flight was very early the next morning so she then headed early to bed and left us to it.

Both pets were a little hesitant at first but soon came around and both turned out to be great companions during our stay.

Lili was a real lap-cat, slept most of the day then came to life in the evenings wanting to be on your lap at all times!

Fluffy was a Maltese, and very cute. He was like your shadow and followed you everywhere. His only problem was that he had anxiety issues when left alone. However, his owner told us about this and the ‘trick’ to easing his anxiety whenever leaving him home alone.

Basically, In the past, if you left without him he panicked and thought you would never come home again so howled constantly until your return. To combat this he had been trained to understand the command “I’ll be back” -(Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator).

It was amazing to see the success of such a easy command. Normally, as soon as you stand up Fluffy would immediately follow you wherever you were going. Whether that was to the kitchen or to the front door. However, if you said “I’ll be back” before getting up he didn’t budge and would happily, calmly stay where he was for five minutes or five hours, however long it was until you returned!

This sit was a joy to do. The apartment was in the middle of a large, newish housing estate but the best thing about London is that you are never too far from some decent green space and this was no exception. There were a few decent parks within easy walking distance that made a nice walk for Fluffy. Every walk though, brings it’s own surprises.

One day as we were heading to the park we came across a herd of deer happily enjoying themselves on a small plot of grass they has found in the middle of the housing estate. It’s not what you expect to see in a residential street in the middle of Romford.

There are a few herds of deer living in the nearby Dagnam Park. Since the roads experienced fewer traffic during Covid lockdowns the deer got into the habit of crossing the main road and now see it as their territory so it is now proving difficult to stop them regularly wandering over to the estate for a change of scenery.

This sit really was a joy to do and before we knew it, it was time to leave.

However there was a problem.

Transport for London decided to call a strike on the day we were due to leave. It put us in quite a predicament. Our next sit was due to start very early the next day so we had to be there.

We were on the outskirts of London and needed to get to central London for our connection to East Grinstead. Trains were disrupted, all underground services suspended, buses had huge queues of people fighting to get on and taxis were like hens teeth!

Our home host saw the situation we were in and, like the wonder woman she was, she saved the day.

She offered to drive us all the way! We felt awful as she had just had a nine hour flight then an hours drive to get home but she insisted. Even worse, Gatwick airport, where she had just driven from was more or less where we needed to be so she was having to drive all the way there again – then another hour to return home! What a star she was. She would not take no for an answer and drove us all the way to our next destination.

With all the troubles in the world going on today it is so important to not forget how far small acts of kindness can go to restore faith in human nature.

Next stop – East Grinstead.