This is the blog section of the Bill The Housesitter site. See above tabs for ‘About’, ‘Availability’, ‘Contact’ and ‘References’.

Burleigh Heads is one of my new favourite places on the planet.

It’s also my new nominal “””home””” address, and my use of the three sets of inverted commas is to denote that I don’t really have a home address in any sense of the word!

However, it is the home of an old, old friend and former work colleague*, his wife, and their furry triumvirate: a very sweet little collie dog, and the actual, true house-owners, two Persian Himalayan cats.

(* We also played hockey for the same field hockey club in Canberra, though he played at A1 level and I was in the C2s. Our team motto: there is NO C3 team!)

We’d lost contact for about 15 years or so, but caught for two days up back in May – and my liver has almost since recovered!

In July, they took off interstate on a well-deserved holiday, leaving me to supervise the menagerie.

The house itself is huge, sat up on a hill, with breathtaking views over Burleigh Waters, over to Miami on the coast, and further on up to Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise. The vista swings west to the mountains and almost, but not quite, gives a good view of the sunset. It’s a filtered view through the trees, which are no doubt a blessing in the warmer months.

And while the trees might provide much-wanted afternoon shade in summer, there and then smack dab in the middle of what is laughingly referred to as ‘winter’ in south east Queensland, I sat and watched myriad sports into the wee small hours (it was prime Tour de France viewing and tweeting time), and most nights I was still in shorts, t-shirt and bare feet at 2am.

The cats took a day or so to really warm to me, but being totally food-obsessed, they soon forged an undying love for the fat man who opened the tins and dished out the dry food. I could rarely pass by the food cupboard, or even walk past the kitchen, and they would be mewing at my heels like they hadn’t been fed for a week (instead of the 30 minutes that had elapsed since the last meal).

And while the younger, fluffier one was a little stand-offish, the older cross-eyed of the two soon sought out my lap on the couch.

As for the collie dog, we became permanent fixtures at Burleigh Heads beach, arriving most afternoons between 3 and 4pm, wandering up and down the promenade, and here endeth the waxing of the lyrical, because you can see the video in my previous post.

Suffice to say that when my mate offered me a friendly berth and a warm welcome if ever the house-sitting gods did not smile upon me, plus the offer of a butt-load of housesitting gigs in the future, I was happy as a pig in muck.

My friends were stoked to have me house-sit, and had this to say on their return:

Bill is our preferred house sitter.

We have had many over the past 20 years. We had become accustomed to returning after holidays to find things missing, damaged, or just neglected, for example dead plants and dysfunctional fur babies etc etc.

With Bill, we go on holidays and enjoy our time away knowing, on our return, there will be no “surprises”.

So if you are looking to maximise your holiday enjoyment, you can’t do any better than Bill.

Jack and Debra, Burleigh Heads