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We have not had a permanent address now for almost three years. Generally, we have embraced this well and, so far, it has brought us very few problems.

However, One issue we often come across is booking flights.

When we book our flights in advance, we do not always know, geographically, where we will be when we want to leave the UK and geographically, where we want to be when we return.

For this reason, for the past three years, we have only been booking one-way flights.

We leave the booking of return flights for when we know for sure our future travel plans.

It often feels like we are winging it, mainly because we usually are, but it has worked well for us so far.

When we booked the flights for our February Fuerteventura holiday, we already had some housesits booked in Brighton in late January, so flying out of Gatwick was a no-brainer.

The flight back home though, was more fluid. We still had no bookings for March so were not sure which would be the best airport option to choose when we returned to the UK.

One thing we have learned during the past three years is that two, one way flights are always more expensive than buying a return flight.

As house sitting opportunities in the south of the UK are usually quite good, we thought we would have a good chance of picking one up somewhere not too far from Gatwick on our return.

So, after much deliberation, we decided on this occasion, to take a gamble and go for the simple option. For the first time in three years, we bought ourselves return flight tickets.

Our Gamble Paid Off!

During our holiday I continued to look for a house-sitting opportunity that would secure us somewhere to stay on our return to the UK.

Thankfully, we got lucky. One sunny February day in Fuerteventura, as I was doing my daily perusing of the latest housesitting listings, I spotted, what looked like the perfect sit.

It was a five-week stay, caring for two indoor/outdoor cats in a town called Horley.

Horley

“Where?” I hear you ask.

Honestly, neither of us had ever heard of Horley either, but what had attracted us to it was that it was located one train stop from Gatwick Airport.

We applied and were accepted.

It really could not have been a better location for us. After landing at Gatwick Airport, we collected our luggage and took the short walk to the train station.

Four minutes later our train trundled into Horley, our home for the next five weeks.

After our holiday we had wanted to ease ourselves back into house and pet sitting as gently as possible. Easy pets, a comfortable home, and a good location were the criteria for March.

The home

The home was lovely. A five-bedroom detached house on a residential estate with a large conservatory that looked out onto a beautiful, private garden.

Unfortunately, as our stay coincided with a particularly chilly March, we did not get much use of the garden. However, it still made a nice view from the warmth of the conservatory.

The Pets

We struck gold with the pets here. We had two, very easy, cats to care for. Sophie and Abbey.

They were sisters, but you would never guess by looking at them. Abbey was long-haired, Sophie, short. Sophie was really friendly, Abbey more aloof.

Think chalk and cheese!

Both cats were really independent. They had a cat flap to let themselves in and out and were trained not to go upstairs. This meant no early morning meows outside the bedroom door. Perfect!

The Area

Thankfully, we did not choose Horley for sightseeing opportunities!

Without wanting to sound harsh, there wasn’t much at all to see or do here.

The town centre was walking distance from where we were staying. It consisted mainly of one large street lined with the usual stores you would expect to see.

There was no cinema, no theatre and a choice of only a couple of restaurants.

To be fair to the town. Although devoid of night-time entertainment, it didn’t seem like a bad place to live. You obviously would get a lot more house for your money here than in nearby London. Plus, with Gatwick Airport as your next-door neighbour for anyone choosing to live here, the world is on your doorstep.

To sum-up March. We wanted an easy month and that is exactly what we got.

We did join a gym in a local leisure centre and do some road running to get our keep-fit regime back on track.

Considering how little we felt we had done here, the month went quickly.

By the end of March, we were rested, relaxed, revived, and ready to move on again.

Next stop – London.

More on that next time.

Until then, as always, thanks for reading.

Hugs, Colin & Karyo x