Experiencing Christmas

When I was a teenager, my father left home and his gifts became more expensive. The first year he gave me a suitcase with gifts inside.

Another year, he enrolled me in a scuba diving course, and he took the course right along with me. I still carry my diving card proudly.
It was issued in the days when computers took up an entire air-conditioned room and typing was still done on manual machines. I am surprised they even had plastic cards in those days. It must have been one of the first ever printed.

While I cannot remember a single gift that was inside that suitcase, I have always carried the experience of diving with me. That gift has lasted all these years and brought me much joy.

I spent most of my adult life as the stay-at-home mother of six children. I loved that time when my children were small, but travel and adventure could seem very far away when I spent my days washing clothes, faces, and dishes, or changing what seemed like hundreds of nappies.

Just knowing I had the qualification, made me feel I was still an adventurer at heart.

Almost thirty years later, my diving qualification has also been useful. Last year I was offered an opportunity to go diving at the beautiful Nelson Bay marine park in New South Wales, Australia.

The sea life was amazing and the coral seemed unspoiled and so beautiful in colour, shape and texture. I saw a huge blue groper with a droopy jaw, stingrays, baby sharks and a puffy orange boxfish. I admired purple and orange fixed coral and wavy, fronded, flower-like coral. It was magic.

The experience of diving was one of the best presents my father could have bought for me, and one that still has value today. When all the physical presents are gone, the experiences are still there, ready to be taken out and mulled over if I am ever grounded by age or illness.

As it comes up to Christmas, I have been thinking about what I can get my boys for Christmas. I want the gift to be memorable.

I would love to give them scuba diving courses but it would be too expensive this year. I will have to be more creative. I am thinking camping or maybe spending some nights on my friends moored yacht.

We are also going to put together baskets of goodies to leave anonymously at doors on Christmas Eve. It is one of my favourite traditions, and a fun experience for me and for my boys.

I hope your Christmas plans are coming along well. Experiences make lovely Christmas gifts. If you have any better ideas for Christmas experiences, please share them in the comments section. I would love to hear them.

Happiness is – A Sense of Adventure

Whenever I tell people what I do for a living, they often respond with “I would love to do that.”

I am a house sitter. I live in lovely homes all over Brisbane and the Gold Coast. I pay no rent and my phone and internet use is free. It all seems too good to be true and when I first heard of it, I thought so too.

“I couldn’t do that.” I thought and put it aside.

Years later I found out that I can do that, and it is every bit as good as I thought it would be. I move to a different area every month or so and explore everything. It is like being on permanent holiday.

I have free accommodation and the home owners have the security of knowing that their cats, dogs, fish, chickens or even miniature ponies are being fed and cared for in the familiar setting of their own home.

I love it so much I have written a book about it called “Housesitting in Australia – Big Adventures on a Tiny Budget”, due for publication early next year. Isn’t it amazing how life works?

Is there anything you want to do and have not done?

Sometimes we put off things we want to do thinking we have to do it tough. No pain no gain is an out-dated notion. There are people all over the world that do what they love and they are happy.

People make money painting pictures and others by scuba diving. Some make handbags, or walk dogs, or write blogs, or teach pre-schoolers or farm ducks or milk snakes. Why not you?

The other day I met people working with porpoises and turtles and a married couple that make and sell Dutch clogs.

What is there in your life that you would love to do but are not doing?

Maybe you can’t do it now but you can read a book about it, or take a class or search the internet for information. You could join a club or attend meetings of those in your chosen field. If you know someone doing what you would like to do, invite them to have lunch with you.

No matter what your situation, you can take a little time each day to do something out of your usual routine, something bold and adventurous and interesting.

Sometimes people ask me how I got into house sitting and express an interest. Very few ask for details and then give it a go. Get the information you need and get ready to expand your world. Wouldn’t it be fun to be more spontaneous, more adventurous and more real? Take the first step and the rest is easy.