All posts filed under: over7seas

Are we feeling it this year? Thoughts on Christmas #1

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I don’t know what it is like for you this year, Christmas, are we feeling it? How much do the realities of our lives personal and global affect how the next days play out? Put on some nice music, grab a book, make a nice dish that smells nice and don’t worry if your Christmas is the picture book perfect one. Let’s remember just this: This is a good time to remember to be empathetic and kind.   If nothing else then: Sharing is a profound action within reach of each and every one of us. The below is written a little more with my UK life in mind than my US life, but applies probably exactly equally as much wherever you read this. It’s not so different in America.   Sharing time, kindness, care, food, gifts if you have them, donate to those in need. If you have it then go drop of £20 at somebody’s (a stranger’s) door step you haven’t met but you have noticed they have kids and they appear to …

Tips for petsitters: How to make your pet’s owners happy.

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Take a little time to be creative with the daily updates that you send to your pet’s owners. When they see that you took care to take a cute photo of their pet, rather than just a quick snap shot and THEN you add some text to it that makes the presentation overall cute and shows your care for the pet then they will feel at ease, they’ll trust that you really care about and for their pet and you will get called back again in the future. Repeat clients are what makes your life easier. It becomes an annual income as clients tend to go away at approximately the same time each year, for vacations and family visits. This isn’t to say that you should stick with a client whom you are not happy with. Whatever the reason: if you aren’t feeling 100% comfortable with and appreciated by your client or have any problems with your care pets then it may not be worth it. Complete this booking to the very best of your …

Trying out Trusted Housesitters for free accommodation

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I recently signed up to Trusted Housesitters and the grand master plan is to first build my profile and make myself a desirable house sitter and then look out for long term housesits in places that I can focus on developing my business, use the time and space to up-skill, network or relax. I am new to this but will share my progress and how it is going with you as soon as I am in full flow. If you, too, are excited about the idea of a free place to stay for a city trip, vacation, trip abroad or within your home country then maybe follow this link and sign up to Trusted Housesitters. And don’t forget to read my tips and steps to follow to creating an amazing profile that will get you bookings. ( I better start writing it asap!) You could use Trusted Housesitters to make travel more affordable & to take the pressure off paying rent while you bootstrap your business for a few weeks. And you could simultaneously sublet your …

Becoming a paid petsitter / dog walker in San Francisco, California, USA.

How you can earn $500 (£300) while on vacation – no catch

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.. to pay for your flight. (you can read my post or scroll straight to the bottom for the summary) I have a rented apartment and when I go away for longer periods of time I rent 1/2 of my place out to a longterm lodger who is only in the country for a limited period of time, matching the duration of my absence. Right now I am subletting my place to somebody I found offline, and am using Airbnb as a booking agent to make sure that I get paid and that they & I have a bit of an insurance against things going wrong. This aids me build my reviews and simplifies the financial side: easily, allowing my lodger to use their credit card to make the rent payments, something that can make their life easier than trying to navigate making international bank transfers. An additional tip is to use Trusted Housesitters to find a place for yourself to stay free of charge while on vacation. If you are able to match up …

Wearing face masks to protect against the heavy smog air in Chiang Mai Thailand.

Surviving the Chiang Mai Air Pollution

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Basically the best action is to leave town and return once the burning season is over. That is probably not what you came here to read so I have a few tips that will help but they won’t keep you as safe as leaving the area will. • We brought with us a multipack of high quality N95 rated face masks from our home country. • We went to Tesco and purchased several packs of M3 Filtrete filters & followed this youtube vide to install them in our rented room AC unit. • Wear the face masks religiously • Looked around for an air purifier but they were outside our budget, in hindsight we should have ignored the budget, respiratory diseases are no laughing matter.. • Keeping doors and windows firmly shut, wiping the floor with a wet towel regularly, placing a wet towels at the door to block the polluted air flow into the room, rinsing in the shower frequently as we bring in pollution on our clothing and body. That’s all I have …

Project German – American Citizenship / Projekt Deutsch – Amerikanische Staatsangehörigkeit

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Ahoi, ich bin die Birgit und ich lebe zweisprachig. Hey, my name is Birgit and I live a bilingual life. Ich wohne zur Zeit in Amerika aber fühle mich gleichzeitig Deutsch, das wird sich niemals ändern. Dennoch habe ich durch meine Beziehung auch eine starke Verbindung zu den Staaten. I currently live in America but I simultaneously identity as German and that won’t ever change. However through my relationship I have developed an important bond with the States.   Das Jahr eilt jetzt schon wieder so schnell voran. Es ist Mitte Februar und die Winterzeit sollte sich ja eigentlich super dazu eignen endlich wichtige Bürokratien in Angriff zu nehmen, aber irgendwie liegt noch immer alles unbearbeitet auf dem Tisch. The year is flying by faster than I can keep up with, a blink of an eye ago it was the beginning of January and now we are already passing the mid-February mark. You would think that winter is an excellent time to tackle important bureaucratic paperwork but somehow it remains untouched on the table. Die …