Holy cow, how is it almost March already! We’ve been much busier then you’d think, considering we’re retired now and have “nothing” to do.
In December, while house sitting in some 
lovely homes with adorable pets, we spent Christmas and New Years in Sydney, Australia. George and I haven’t been here together since we left after our expat assignment in 1994. We were thrilled to be able to catch up with so many friends. We had Xmas dinner with Tom and Ya, spent time with Sally and Bryan (who we haven’t seen in about 25 years) and New Years Tom and Ya’s place in Potts Point with Jade (2 years in a row, now).
In mid-January we flew up to the Gold Coast for two more housesits. We started out in Ray and Tania’s newly remodeled manse. This is where we started our retirement and housesitting career in December of 2018. It was great to be back! 
Our second sit in sanctuary Cove was with friends we met last Dec while sitting for Ray and Tania.
We moved the their place in early February and had a thoroughly 
enjoyable two weeks hanging out with Dougal and Ralphie, and spending time with Tania, Ray and Eddie.
With our Ozzie “vacay” over we headed off for our next housesit in Costa Rica. Let me tell you, it’s a long way from here to there! We left the Gold Coast on Feb 20 and out flights went like this:
Gold Coast > Sydney > Honolulu > Los Angeles > Minneapolis > Liberia (the city in Costa Rica, not the country in Africa). Along the way we lost a day and all track of time.
We decided to take a day out and recover from the 30 hour journey 
at a mountain spa. It was a lovely place, but honestly, we hardly even had a chance to explore it – we slept for 13 of the 20 hours we spent there ??♀️. We’re now settling in with Emma and Mae (pronounced My) in a beautiful home in a very small town in north western Costa Rica. The coffee is great and innovative views are amazing!!
Things have been moving along at a breakneck pace. We got a great offer on the house and it is now in escrow and we close on Friday. We moved out of the house over the weekend, we sold and delivered both of our cars and we’ve been having farewell parties, large and small, for the past month.
Home upgrades before the house went on the market included renovations on the kitchen (cabinets, flooring & granite), new hardwood floors, adding central air conditioning, new carpet in the master bedroom, new lighting and fresh paint inside and out. The house in now officially 
