Where to begin? To paraphrase Maria, I’ll start at the very
beginning, a very good place to start. I
got up at 6am – ok, to be honest the alarm went off at 6am, but I didn’t
exactly hop right out of bed. Anyway, I
threw on some tennis shoes and headed out for a jog, although I definitely
walked more than jogged. I was going to
Gawler for the day, but had to put out the green recycling bin at Adams. Since I wasn’t sure what time I’d get back
from Gawler and didn’t want to have to do it in the dark I decided I’d best do
it before I headed out. I had no idea
how long it would take me to get there so I decided I had best start
early. A bonus to the early start was
that I got to see a bit of the sunrise. After
my trip to Walkerville I got ready for the day and then realized that Easter
Monday was probably considered a public holiday and the bus wouldn’t be running
until later than I had planned. So the
moral of that story is that I’m still bad with the bus schedule and I could
have slept in.
I caught the train to Gawler and met Dick
at the station – well I walked right past him and he apparently didn’t
recognize me from the photos I have on my housesitting profile. I’d never seen a photo of him, but thanks to
cell phones we found each other. We went
back to their home where I met his wife Les and the 2 dogs, Pancho and
Jordan. They’re very nice dogs, but I’d
definitely prefer if they were outside only dogs. Just the neat freak in me I guess, well that
and I’ve never lived with a dog inside before.
They’re actually British, but have lived here longer than they lived in
Britain they told me. If you know any
Australian immigration history, they’re 10-pound poms. Anyway, they showed me around the house and
then their daughter who lives nearby joined us for lunch. She was very nice and if I have any issues or
need anything she said I can just call and she’ll help me out. I wanted to be back before it got dark, so we
headed out around 3:30 and Dick showed me the park where they walk the dogs,
the vet and other places in town I might need to know. Thankfully I didn’t have to memorize any of
the directions quite yet, as some of you know I’m not known for my sense of
direction. They’ve had plenty of house
sitters over the years so they have lots of maps and print outs of what to do
while they’re gone, so that’s really good for me. 
I made it back from the train station in
town and decided I should feed the gold fish quickly before I headed to the
garage (in case I never mentioned, I live in the apartment above the
garage). I’m usually quite careful with
the keys, I’m a bit worried about locking myself out of the house since she’s
gone for the weekend. I put my keys in
my purse (or so I thought) and set it on the table while I went to feed the
goldfish. I grabbed my purse off the
table, turned around and locked the door as I walked out. As I was reaching into my purse to get the
keys back out to unlock the garage I got that sinking feeling and turned around
to see them still sitting on the table.
Ugh. I quickly texted Lesley to
ask if she had a spare key hidden somewhere, knowing full well she rarely has
her phone right on her and since she’s on vacation probably wouldn’t have it
with her anyway. I tried calling as
well, but didn’t get a response. It was
starting to get dark and I had no way to find the phone number for a
locksmith. I’ve never even called a
locksmith! I knew the Rowstons were
having family over for dinner so I really didn’t want to bother them, so I
decided to just send a quick text asking them to send me the number of a
locksmith whenever they got a chance. As
I sat at the patio trying to figure out who I could ask for a phone book it
dawned on me that there should be one at the nursing home next door! Indeed there was, so, after looking through
the ads I decided to just call the one on the keychain. I just remember thinking when I first saw it
that if I locked myself, out knowing the name of a locksmith doesn’t do you any
good when their phone number is with the keys.
I probably should have called around to try to find a good price, or
someone who could arrive quicker, but I figured Lesley must trust these people,
or know them, or has used them before, so it should be a safe bet. I gave them a call and they said it would be
about an hour, maybe an hour and a half before they could be there, but they
were on their way. As I sat waiting
Rosalie called me to give me the number of a place they’d used before. I’d already paid a deposit over the phone
(which when I told her that she seemed to think I shouldn’t have done – like I
said, I’ve never called a locksmith before, I’m not sure of the standard
operating procedure), so I told her I was just waiting for the other people to
arrive. About a half hour later she
called back asking how it was going and told me that she was sending Doug over
and if the locksmith didn’t come he’d just bring me back and we’d settle
everything in the morning. Seeing as it
was now dark I guess it wasn’t such a bad idea to have Doug be there when the
locksmith arrived...I just hate to cause a fuss.
Tom (the locksmith technician) arrived to open the lock and by the
time I filled out the paperwork he’d picked the lock. As we were walking back out to the car I saw
Doug’s head over the gate. I paid the
rest of my fee and Doug saw me safely back inside. Not at all how I’d planned to spend my
evening. But, I really can’t complain –
all that was hurt was my pride and my wallet.
Lesley texted me this morning to say she’d just received my message and
Joy had an extra key. I honestly can’t
remember if I’ve ever met Joy and I definitely don’t have her number, but oh
well. Definitely unsettling knowing I’m
about to be in charge of someone’s house, two dogs and cat for 6 weeks by
myself – and driving their car – but I’ve got to just let it go. So that my newest Aussie adventure.
On a lighter, more random note – the
Sunrise morning show always gives me a laugh.
The other day, must have been a slow news day, they had a video of an
American couple’s encounter with a moose while out snowmobiling. After they showed the clip, the Aussie news anchor
says, “I love America, the wife was packing heat.” And that my friends, is why I’m proud to be
an American.
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