2 Weeks In Coburg

As I come to the end of my second week of house sitting I would like to share my experience with you.

Being in someone else’s home for an extended period of time can throw up all kinds of issues. Now I must say I have had it very easy here and nothing has gone wrong. It is a nice house to sit and I have the joyous if not manic comfort of a canine called Lucy. I have had plenty of free time whilst I am between jobs with the exception of a day here and there. This has made it easy and relaxing not having to be concerned about work every day and transportation. But, I now have responsibilities that I cannot ignore. Such as the feeding of the dog, collecting the mail and putting out the rubbish bins. At home I don’t have a dog and my flatmate has the only key to the mail box. He also puts the rubbish out more than I do. Here I am lucky that another neighbour puts the bins out each week along with any other bins for neighbours who are away at this time. The mail is really a non issue but they do receive lots of it so I am going to separate the letters for each individual. The dog however is a major consideration when it comes to organising my day and means I must come home at a semi regular time, in fact I must come home fullstop.

Some pets need a lot of attention and some don’t. This fluffy little barker needs a lot and when I say need, I mean NEED! For some reason before I arrived I thought I was going to meet a big dog, a Labrador or something similar which filled me with joy. Lucy is not a Labrador but a Terrier. This means she is a “yapper” and that is not good for me. Lucy and I have become the best of friends and she is a gorgeous dog and very playful but oh so needy. I am sporting scratches of various sizes on my arms and legs due to her claws needing clipped. With the hot weather of late my arms and legs are bare when the playful jumping up on me occurs. Ouch! When I come home after several hours away she goes mental and at times rubs herself along the ground!!!! I’m afraid I don’t feel the same Lucy and I am sorry to let you down. She doesn’t yap a great deal but if the front door is open she will lie there and emit little growls and grizzles now and then with a few barks thrown in for attention. If we go out the back, the first sound we make sets off the 2 yappers next door which sets off the other yapper out the back way. Lucy isn’t really interested in them but will investigate for a few moments. We usually go back inside leaving the 2 next door to fight amongst themselves. By now though, all remaining dogs nearby have started adding their 2 cents worth. I do not like excess noise.

I had to give Lucy a bath and isn’t it uncanny how animals just know what’s coming even if you haven’t said a word. Off they go racing outside daring you to catch them. I don’t know what to do about her breath so I avoid getting too close when she is panting and excitably jumping all over me. When I was growing up and we had dogs there was never any suggestion of walking them. It’s just something we didn’t do. There were no fences in those days for pets unless of course it was a guard dog. So the dogs would exercise themselves, play all day and come home for dinner. Just like a child after school! It’s not that simple nowadays and you are required by law to have a fence for a dog (I think). This means they need to be taken out daily and walked and a dog with no road safety sense needs a short lead. It was enjoyable I admit.

The surrounding streets are pleasant enough and while Lucy keeps herself occupied by sniffing the ground and anything that could have the scent of a friend or foe, I take time out to smell the roses. Literally! Almost every garden here has roses (with a dog out the back) and I’m not talking about 1 or 2 bushes, I’m talking the whole garden! It’s really beautiful and it’s a pity the main roads and thoroughfares aren’t maintained. There are lots of abandoned or run down shops and there are no cafes around the corner for me to sit in and watch the world go trundling by on the #55 tram. My god, even the bottle shop closes at 7pm!!!

Moving on to household problems. Televisions and video/dvd players are notorious for catching people out with their technical skills or lack thereof. I have always been proud that I have not had programming problems and can show others how to do it. My current video/dvd player has stumped me. I cannot record one channel and watch the other as I get the sound from both. Now, funnily enough I showed someone else how to do this very act on the very same model player without problem. The television I am sitting is not difficult to use but the remote labels are partly missing which made it a little trying when looking for the volume button. I cannot work the dvd player, end of story. And I was told it was basic.

There are some terrific pluses that I have made the most of such as a deck out the back. I have been eating breakfast on the deck in the morning and of an evening around happy hour I pour myself a little drinkie and peruse the paper or do a quiz. It is ever so civilised and most relaxing. I have a balcony at home but being in a flat does have its differences with privacy. I have read 3 books from the owners’ collection and been introduced to the music of the Dixie Chicks. I also borrowed 2 dvd’s and watched them at home in Fitzroy. Cooking hasn’t presented any dramas and it’s a treat to be using gas once more. The shower is one of those fancy ones that you can set to different pressures like massage or splintering rain, if that's what you like. I can’t quite get it right but it’s good enough. My biggest problem and the most ridiculous is the iron. It’s one of those that come set up in their own cupboard, the board folds down and you switch on the iron. Well, it can’t get any easier than that, can it? As a matter of fact it can. This one is set up for right handers with no option for visiting left handers. Do you see my point? Anyway, all I needed to do was iron my dress a little but the iron didn’t heat up and so the water came spilling out. I turned up the temperature and waited, checked the dials on the power board and waited. Nothing happened, nothing changed. I gave up! Thankfully most of my clothes don’t need ironing and I have avoided bringing over from home any more that do. What’s the world of gadgets coming to if I can’t use a bloody iron!

So my last 4 days will be taken up with work at my 2 new jobs, the first 2 days are day shifts and the following 2 are afternoon/night shifts. It does present me with the problem of feeding time for Lucy but I am sure she will be thrilled to have dinner 3 hours early. That will only be for 1 day actually as the family come home on Sunday.

I can’t wait to sleep in my bed, stand under my shower, watch a dvd, not listen to the dogs barking, walk down the street for a coffee, not catch the wobbly #55 tram in peak hour, ride my bike and admire my blossoming geraniums.