Our Second HouseSit near Broxburn, Scotland

Skye, our temporary puppy
Skye, our temporary puppy

On Sunday we settled in to our second house sit as our billets left for a holiday in Sherwood Forest, Nottingham.  Yes, the home of Robin Hood is a real place!  Well thank goodness for a housesit, the timing was needed as both Janet and I have been sick.  Mine only lasted a few days as a bad cold/flu bug but as soon as we settled in to our second place Janet got hit hard. She’s been in bed since so we’ve just been laying low and enjoying our temporary home.  Luckily we were fine on moving days as I don’t know what we’d do if we had to travel while being sick.  We had anticipated getting ill at some point but not so early on, hopefully we’ve got that done and over with now. If Janet’s not better tomorrow we might need to make a trip to the doctor.

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Best Ways to Communicate While Traveling Abroad

Ways to communicate while traveling abroad
Ways to communicate while traveling abroad

Today there are more options that ever to keep in touch with home, cheaply and on demand.  We did a lot of research on this and I think have some great options for long or short term travelers. These aren’t all of them but all you’ll need, depending on the length of time you will be traveling will dictate some of the best options.

For 2 or 3 weeks the easiest option would be to just get an international add-on package through your cell phone provider, in Canada these are usually at about $5 per day.  So 3 weeks would add up to $105 but if you are away longer this begins to get cost prohibitive.  We are planning to be away for a year so this just wasn’t an option and we had to find more suitable means.  For our 10 months away we had a cell phone for local calls, a Magic Jack for calling home (banking, business, social calls), an Ipad for Facetime with the kids and a laptop for Skypeing and using the Magic Jack with friends and family.  Below is an explanation of these options.

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Stirling Castle and how to save money on the historical sites

Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle

Yesterday we visited the famed Stirling Castle and had the first opportunity to use our Historical Sites Membership card so entry was free, or included in the cost of the pass.  There are a number of ways to save money on entrance into the historical sites, the best option depends on your travel scenario.

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