End of our three month exchange - Now one day (almost it is 11.30pm Thursday29th Nov) before we depart for home – this three months house exchange has gone so incredibly quickly, driving to the movies last night (to see James Bond, very good) Laurie remarked he could not believe the experience we had been so looking forward to is now nearly over. Nothing but good things to say about it.
We settled in very well, feels like home. Neighbours speak to us, cat welcomes us home and we feel very comfortable.
No problems with the car and just a minor hicup with the central heating which a plumber put to rights by adding a new thermostat and a problem with the lighting which Laurie was able to fix.
I can see when we fully retire we will be doing more of these longer term exchanges. It does not feel like a holiday, it feels like a short term secondment and the opportunity of making the most of a different lifestyle.
We have enjoyed having the time to read books from the owners collection, watch local TV and listen to local radio. We have enjoyed the luxury of 'lying in', going to bed early with a good book, entertaining friends, strolling around the neighbourhood admiring the houses and gardens, browsing in the local shops, trying the local restaurants, going to the theatre and cinemas, exploring the countryside of England and further afield, Spain, all without the pressure of trying to cram everything into a short period of time or not feeling we are wasting time.
I think the success of this exchange has been because of the relationship we have built up with our exchangers over the one year planning stage and any queries we may have had were settled prior to the exchange taking place.
The more one exchanges the more one builds up a set of questions one needs to ask and the requirements which need to be fulfilled. Obviously over a long-term exchange some of these are more important than on a short term exchange and they will differ with the individuals concerned eg I like a good computer with good internet access, I learnt from a previous exchange where the computer was so old and had such limited on-line access that I had to go to the local internet cafe to send emails and go on-line to find out things about the area such as train services etc – don't assume that because you get emails the computer is up to scratch...previous exchanger had used a daughter's computer which was not available to us – this, in fact, did not spoil our exchange but for me would not be good on a longer exchange.
As we have just completed our packing, something we don't seem to learn yet say every time we must cut down on what we take on our holidays, we do bring too many clothes and end up fighting to get the suitcases closed for our return – stressful!
Our exchangers arrive back in Caversham early this afternoon, we hope to have an hour or so catching up with them before we take off to Windsor staying with our friends for our last night in the UK on this exchange.
We are now looking forward to our next confirmed exchange - to Vancouver - and looking for another one before that one takes place – where to we don't know until maybe something falls into our InBox or I do some searching to see what is out there... Who knows, the world is our oyster.