Returning to house sitting from (Queensland Australia)

Welcome & Getting Started
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Hi everyone,

We are Wendy and Tony from Australia. Returning home to the Gold Coast, Queensland in late 2018, after living permanently in France for 3 years, the need to return is stronger than ever.

During our time living in France we purchased a house in the small Vendee village of Sigournais, which we renovated into a small Bed & Breakfast. We operated our b&b until we had to return to Australia for family reasons.

We have travelled to various countries in Europe and Asia on many occasions, as well as mainland America and Hawaii. We have also participated with several home exchanges. We love the feel, vibe and friendships that travel offers. Having completed Workaways at various locations in France, caretaking homes and businessā€™ prior to buying our house.

We have completed 2 house house sits, for the same people in Montreuil Bellay, 15 minutes south of Saumur, on the Loire river France, looking after 4 cats with very different personalities. We have also house sat two lovely dogs in Clapham/ London for two weeks over Xmas & new year. Through word of mouth, we completed 2 more house / pet sits for the same people looking after their elderly family cat, also in Montreuil Bellay.

Having, ourselves been pet owners of cats and various breeds of dogs, sadly we no longer have any pets of our own. Although we no longer have pets of our own, we thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to look after other peopleā€™s pets.

Being in our early 60ā€™s, and still working, we believe the time is again right to follow our passion to participate and appreciate other cultures in a more permanent way. I currently work in the Aged Care sector as a Facility maintenance Officer and Wendy works in Retail and Administration.

As the world opens up again, we too are looking to return to our spiritual home of France.

Moderated to remove links and info as per forum guidelines

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Hi @Kirrabeach

A warm welcome to the forum, and may you enjoy many hours of perusing topics as well as finding answers to any questions you may have. If you use the spyglass on the top right hand side, there are lots of discussions on various threads which could well answer any of your questions.

Please do add your profile to your forum profile so other members can ā€˜meetā€™ you through your profile as well.

https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/how-to-add-a-listing-or-profile-link-to-your-forum-profile

You certainly have seen much of the world and it is so special that you found your spiritual home in France.

When do you anticipate to start your travels again?
Best Wishes
Therese

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Hi Therese,

Thank you for your reply.

We are looking to return to France from late November early December. We are looking to spend all 90 days of our visa in France.

Yes, it is the coldest time of the year, but we do enjoy it. We are looking to do various house sits in different regions over this time period, finishing in Paris.

We look forward to reading the various posts on the forum.

Kind regards,
Wendy and Tony

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@Kirrabeach
How wonderful. Wintertime in France can be special, and I am sure you find some lovely sits to see you through your time there.

Keep us posted as to how you go.

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Welcome, @Kirrabeach! I was going to check if you had info about your desired sits in your sitter profile. However, it looks like itā€™s not linked, but rather a search for all sits in France. Usually, members link their actual sitter profile to their forum profile. Hereā€™s info on how to do that again:

If you plan to visit France in December for 90 days, thatā€™s promising. There are usually a lot of sits available for Christmas, at least.

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Hi Geoff,Thanks for your email.
I have tried to link our preferred sits to our profile, itā€™s obviously not working.
I would be very grateful if this could be done.

Thanks again for your help,
Tony Powell

Admin Notice: Edited to comply with posting guidelines

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Hi @Kirrabeach welcome to the forum and back to sitting ā€¦

As @geoff.hom and Therese have advised I have now linked your sitter profile to your forum profile, as this is the only link, apart from pet parent/owner listing links, that can be added to the profile.

Community members will now be able to meet you through your THS profile ā€¦

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Youā€™re about 4.5 years late for 2018ā€¦ Thatā€™s a typo you might want to correct in your sitter profile.

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Thanks Ketch, all changed.

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Hi @Kirrabeach.

What I meant is that you could make it crystal clear what your desired sits are, within your sitter profile. Now that I can read your profile, I can tell that you want to sit in France. But it could be easier to parse. The easier you make it for your reader, the better results youā€™ll get.

For example, if I wanted to sit in Singapore, I would do the following:

  • add a paragraph at the top of my sitter profile (so the start of ā€œAboutā€)
    • itā€™d have a date and be well marked by (), , and/or whitespace, like ā€œ[Update April 12, 2023: Looking to sit in Singapore in December 2023ā€¦]ā€
  • Iā€™d probably even change my first photo so it has a caption embedded in the photo saying Iā€™m hoping to sit in Singapore (e.g., photoshop caption, not a text one that can only be read on the app)
  • Iā€™d change my profile location to Singapore (and explain that in the update paragraph)

Posting in the forums is great for sharing advice and getting to know fellow members. However, itā€™s not really meant for sit matchmaking. Among other things, like the guidelines, the forums have relatively few members (<10% of TH members?). And even fewer would read all the topics/intros.