Housesitting is *not* all beer and skittles.

Sometimes it can be pretty bloody awful. Occasionally brilliant, oftentimes mundane.

So I wasn’t in any hurry to rush back into it after leaving Western Australia in 2023, where a 14 month stay had included a handful of housesits of varying experiences.

I didn’t do a single housesit in South Australia during 17 months there, though I did dodge one particular bullet in what would have been an idyllic setting near the St Vincent Gulf. When I called the homeowner to say I was about ten minutes away from our meeting at a local pub, she replied, “Oh, was that today? I’m not there, and can’t be any time soon.”

OK, but we should meet as the first of your dates is coming up soon.

“Oh, I don’t need you for that one now. Only in a few months.”

Right. Fine.

She then went on to catalogue her dog’s various neuroses and I politely but firmly said she’d be better off with another sitter.

Big fun.

At the end of 2024, washed up on the east coast for the first time for any length of time in nearly six years, I realised I’d be on much firmer footing at a friend’s apartment. She was going off for a lap of the continent of indeterminate duration and her compact unit was going to be sitting gathering dust. We came to an arrangement and on the public holiday Monday at the end of January 2025, I installed myself into Gungahlin in my hometown Canberra.

I say ‘hometown’, though when I was growing up, the Gungahlin area was all paddocks and farmland. It didn’t start to develop as a residential or commercial area until the early 1990s. Now it comprises 16 suburbs and is home to nearly 90,000 residents.

For me, it was a great place to park myself and do very little after a berserk 2024 in which I criss-crossed the country from the Pacific to the Indian three times by road, and a couple more times by air. I’d also gone from the Southern Ocean up to the Arafura Sea in the north plus a return trip by road to Mparntwe/Alice Springs. I visited Perth/Fremantle five or six times for various reasons.

I was exhausted and needed to drop anchor. And I did so for what ended up being a tick over four months, in which time we went from stultifying dry heat to sub-zero temperatures overnight.

The unit was three-fifths the way up an apartment tower block that gave commanding views of the Brindabellas and the lower ranges to the north west in the Yass direction. In the four months I was there, I noticed the shift of the sun from over the Brindies tracking around to the north west at sunset more than I’d ever noticed the solar shuffle in my decades of living in the region.

Sunsets were breathtaking most evenings, but I could never do them justice with my assortment of devices so I didn’t try. Trust me.

At the start of June, my friend returned from her circumnavigation of the continent and left me this reference:

I have just got home from a four month holiday away. Bill guarded the fort for me and I was exceptionally impressed with the great care he took to clean my home and ensure it was pristine for my return. Plus he was thoughtful enough to leave me some milk and bread which I appreciated very very much on my late night arrival at home.

Thank you Bill. You are an absolute treasure and I would absolutely entrust you with all my treasures and highly recommend your services to anyone needing them. Very well done.