Summer! In Norfolk!

It’s been absolutely glorious weather for the past few days. If it was like this in July I’d be happy as Larry; when we get it in mid-May it makes me as happy as Larry’s older, even happier brother.. 
Maybe the brightness and sunshine is what’s making the days disappear at an alarming speed. I truly cannot believe how quickly May is passing…
Anyway - to the matter in hand: we had our little meeting at the house-sitting agency on Friday. They were their usual uncaring, disinterested, we’re-only-in-this-to-make-money-out-of-you selves but we did make a bit of progress. 
The Willows is definitely back on for next Winter if we want it. We’re delighted, but obviously that means we have to find accommodation between June and December, and there isn’t much coming up on the agency’s listings. The only firm availability is still the place in Suffolk, but that would mean a longer commitment and that would count us out of The Willows; and we did so dearly love that place. However - do we turn down a two-year guaranteed sit for the sake of 4 months at the end of this year? I’m not sure we do. I think we bite the bullet and head over the border. Philippa would be a lot happier knowing we’re not going to be on the move again sometime in the near future. It would give us two years to plan our own lives and keep saving for a deposit on a decent house of our own, and as the family are moving to Australia for business we don‘t have to worry about keeping it clean and tidy too much! They’re a couple who are both in their fifties and he’s got a decent job in Sydney. They already have friends over there as they’ve gone on holiday annually since the nineties, and they were thinking of retiring there eventually, but then this offer came up so they moved their plans forward a decade. They only want to hang onto the place in Suffolk so that they have a fall-back plan is it all goes tits-up (which they don’t expect it to) and so that they don’t have to transport all their possessions over there in one hit (which means we’ll slowly be losing the furniture as the months pass, but hey ho…) 
They’re prepared to pay two years worth of fees up front (not to us, you understand, but to the Agency) and they assure us they will not sell the house from under us within that two years as they definitely want to give themselves two years ‘settling time Down Under’ before they make their final decision and cut their final ties. They even said that - if and when they do decide to sell - they would give us first refusal!
Anyway it all sounds grand but it is a big step so the missus and I are making lists of pros and cons and we’ve said we’ll go back to the Agency again on Friday with a definite answer.
I guess I’d better try and swap my shifts again…. 

RC 18-5-14