August 2023 in Brighton was a month of ups and downs.

The ups included two lovely house sits, getting to look after some pets different than the usual cats and dogs, a visit from Karyo’s mum, a day out with friends, and the Van Gough exhibition.

The downs included non-stop rain all month and a very disappointing birthday night out. But more on that later….

Back in Brighton?

What can I say?

We are well aware that, even in the UK there are still many places that we have not yet visited. Back in 2020 when we decided to give up our permanent address so that we could travel around whilst pet and house-sitting we were flexible on most things

We did, however, have one golden rule that we vowed never to break.

‘Never return to the same place twice’.

Well, dear reader. That soon went out of the window!

Just one short year after our last visit, here we are again. Back in Brighton.

We had been invited back by a home host that we did a house sit for last year. To be honest, although we knew we were breaking our golden rule, The invite was far too good for us to refuse.

Brighton is one of our favourite places in the UK. It is a big, cool, fun city. There is always something to see and do here and comes, for us, with the very big bonus of being by the sea. We love the sea!

It would not surprise me at all if one day we decided to settle here permanently.

Brighton House sit number one

Our Brighton house sit (number one) was to cover the whole of August. This one is a house sitter’s dream assignment. Getting the invitation to sit here again is the reason that we find ourselves back in Brighton again this year.

We looked after this house twice last year, in June and September. We must be doing something right to be invited back a third time!

It really is a great house sit. A lovely home in a great location, with the added bonus of being one of the very few house sits that doesn’t have the responsibility of having pets to care for.

The owner is away often and likes to have someone stay for peace of mind that everything is all fine back home while she is not home herself.

For us, not having the responsibility of pets means that we have a lot more time and freedom for ourselves to be able to enjoy Brighton and all that it offers. Win-Win.

We feel really fortunate to have originally been accepted for this house sit. Having had the the opportunity to prove ourselves as reliable, responsible and trustworthy house sitters the homeowner now seems to be happy to give us first refusal when she has more sitting opportunities available.

I know we said we wouldn’t. I know we shouldn’t. To hell with the Golden Rule, There is already talk of the possibility that we may be back again in the not-too-distant future for our fourth visit.

Watch this space!

A Flying visit from the Mother in Law

As we had such a lot of free time whilst we were in Brighton we thought it would be a good opportunity for Karyo’s mum to come to spend some time with us on her annual visit to the UK.

She last came to visit us in May 2022. At that time she joined us on a house sit in Leeds. Having really enjoyed that first house-sitting experience she was looking forward to giving it another go.

We just needed to find a house sit that was suitable…

By sheer luck, I spotted an advertisement from a family that lived a few minutes walk from where we were already booked to stay. They were looking for sitters whilst they went on holiday.

Our plan was that we would apply for this second sit and then split up for a short while.

Karyo and his mum would stay at the house sit (number two), caring for the home and pets there. I would continue to stay at our original house sit fulfilling our obligations there.

We would then meet up each day to spend time together with his mum.

We put this offer to the homeowners. They said that they were happy with our plan, so we applied for the second sit, and were accepted.

Brighton house sit in August (number two) was confirmed!

Brighton House sit Number Two

The home

The location of house sit (number two) could not have been more convenient. It was just a ten-minute walk from house sit (number one). This meant that it was very easy for me to visit Karyo and his mum every day.

As I had no pet responsibilities and they had very low maintenance, easy-to-care-for pets, this allowed the three of us plenty of free time together.

The pets

House sit (number two) gave us a change from the usual cats and dogs. Yes, there were two very lovely cats here, but also, as a first for us, we had a gerbil and a bearded dragon to care for too!

THE CATS

‘Suki’ was the sister of the cat siblings although you would never have guessed. They looked totally different to each other and had completely different characters.

‘Kubo’ is the brother of the cat siblings. He was a very confident cat. Happy to be sitting with us on the settee as we watched the television but also very happy to be out wandering the neighbourhood by himself.

He left the house in the morning after breakfast and then would not be seen again until the evening when he was hungry again.

Suki was much shyer. She kept herself to herself. Every morning she would leave the house but never went far. You could look out of the window at any time of the day and be sure to see her sitting in the garden or on the next-door neighbour’s fence.

THE GERBIL

‘Storm’ the gerbil lived in a two-storey cage. He slept in the lower section of his cage and went ‘upstairs’ via a circular tube, to play and eat.

The cage was, in fact, more like a piece of furniture. It was located in the corner of the living room and we spent far too much time watching this comical, inquisitive little creature amusing itself.

Who needs a television when you have an in-house gerbil to keep you amused?

THE BEARDED DRAGON

‘Madam’ the bearded dragon was kept in a large, heated glass tank or ‘terrarium‘.

When we first met her, I have to admit, we did wonder what the attraction was in having her as a pet. She didn’t seem to do much except spend hours, hardly flinching, in a statue-like pose.

However, as the days went by it became obvious that she definitely did have her own little character and we became quite fond of her.

She was always really pleased to see us, running to the front of her tank as we entered the room. Every day she would tap on the glass with her nose in anticipation of the food she knew was coming her way.

On alternate days we fed her finely cut vegetables and live locusts dipped in vitamin powder. It’s fair to say that the locust days were her favourite!

She could hardly contain her excitement at the sight of me passing a locust towards her. Quick as a flash, in half a second, her tongue would dart out, grab the locust and eat it whole.

It all sounds rather macabre, but as Elton often reminds us –

🎵 it’s the Circle of Life 🎵.

Time spent with friends

During this stay in Brighton, we managed to meet up for a day with our good friends Mark and John.

Mark and John live in Bristol so we decided a good halfway point for us to meet would be Winchester, a city Karyo and I have not visited before.

We had a great day! Winchester is a beautiful city. As it is located on the edge of the South Downs National Park it is surrounded by beautiful countryside and has a plethora of walking trails available, suitable for all walking abilities.

We took a packed lunch and spent the afternoon walking one of the easier routes that took us around the city and up Catherine Hill. From there we had the most amazing panoramic views of the city below and far beyond.

For us, it was a great introduction to Winchester. We’d love to go back and are already keeping an eye out for any house-sitting opportunities that may come up in the future!

Time Spent with family

It’s always nice to have Karyo’s mum stay with us but because she speaks no English thinking of activities to do with her can be challenging.

That’s not to say she is hard to please. Her main reason for visiting us is simply to spend some time in our company. I am sure she would be very happy just to stay at home 24/7 cooking (she loves to cook!) and feeding us (she thinks we need to put on weight) In Karyos mum’s world, the more you weigh, the healthier you are!

We do, however, try to take her out as much as possible. Unfortunately, on this visit, the weather was not kind to us. Truth be told, it was bloody awful and it rained most of the time she was here. This made getting out and about more difficult than usual.

Luckily though, there was a bus stop immediately outside our house sit. This meant the typically unpredictable British weather didn’t stop us from having daily, albeit mostly damp days out shopping, drinking in coffee shops, and blustery promenade walks.

The Van Gogh experience

Just as we were running out of ideas as to where else we could take Karyo’s mum that was, A – Dry and B – didn’t rely on understanding English, we noticed that The Van Gogh Experience was showing in Brighton.

For those who do not know, this is one of a number of similar exhibitions currently touring the world. The premise is that they are a new, immersive way to enjoy the work of famous artists.

Instead of visiting a gallery to look at the actual paintings, The art is projected all around you accompanied by classical music creating a completely immersive experience.

The room was in darkness with Van Gogh’s art being projected on all walls, floor, and ceiling. It was shown on a loop in chronological order of when it was painted along with some snippets of information explaining the paintings and Van Gogh’s life and state of mind at the time.

With some seating dotted around the room, you could choose to stand or sit for the duration of your stay. The loud-ish classical music being played really helped you to forget all that was happening around you as you enjoyed the moment.

As it says on the can – Truly an immersive experience. We went with an open mind, not really knowing what to expect but it turned out to be an excellent afternoon. If a similar thing ever comes to a town near you, we would really recommend it.

Time Spent with Each Other

My birthday was fast approaching again and I noticed that, for one night only, which happened to be my birthday night, ‘Cirque’ was in town. This seemed something different to do for a birthday treat so I hot-footed it down to the booking office.

Unfortunately, as this was for one night only, the 25th, and I hadn’t noticed until the 24th, by the time I bought our tickets the seating choice was limited.

It was a choice of either me sitting in seat A1 and Karyo sitting in seat Z99 or two seats together to the east side of the stage.

After being convinced by the ticket seller that the seats at the side of the stage were “not that bad at all for ‘only’ thirty-two quid each”, I plumped for them. To cut a long story short, I was robbed!

Maybe our expectations were too high but all the reviews we had read were great.

We honestly are not hard to please but the night was (in our humble opinion) laughably bad.

For a start, our ‘not bad at all for thirty-two quid each’ tickets turned out to be the worst tickets sold that night. We were directly behind a light stand which meant the evening consisted of us leaning to the left, then to the right, then to the left, and then to the right again as the performers moved around the stage.

The singers murdered a few songs, The dancers were a bit clunky, and the juggler dropped his balls.

I hate to say it but the clown wasn’t funny either, and coming from me, that is pretty scathing criticism. Anyone who knows me will tell you, as a general rule of thumb, I would normally laugh at anything. Even if my arse was on fire if my mother is to be believed 😂.

As if that was not bad enough, to end the night on a low, on the way home, the heavens opened and we got soaked walking home.

Honestly, If ‘Cirque’ ever comes to a town near you, I’d order a takeaway and have a quiet night in front of the telly.

You win some, you lose some.

Hopefully, the weather will improve in September

Next Stop – Belgium!

Until then, as always, thanks for reading.

Hugs, Colin & Karyo x x