As this was the first time another family had stayed in our home, we needed to make sure that it was very clean and tidy and that everything was easy to find (this is what Sunnie and Randolph had done for us). For six weeks before the holiday we did a run to the local charity shop and a run to the tip each weekend. We got rid of so much stuff that we ended up feeling as though we had moved into a new house. A major spring clean left the house spotless (and made spring cleaning in subsequent years so much easier). I compiled a list of places to visit and information about the house, where everything was kept and the local area.
When the time came for us to go away, we arranged for my eldest son, Dan, to show the family around the house. My friend, Claire, arranged some flowers for the table and we left some wine. We travelled to Devon, Dan let the family into the house when they arrived and I rang and spoke to Martin once they had settled in. Everything was going well so far.
We had a great time at the youth hostel and would have liked to stay longer. We met some great people from all over the world including Miho, who was touring Britain and Europe on her own (she gave the children Japanese stickers and origami swans, beautifully made), Andy and Kerry and their children, Alyssa, Celia and Alec who were in England on a home exchange from New Zealand (we were to meet them again a year or so later), and Marianne and Dagfinn from Sweden who exchanged some money for us and invited us to visit them at the commune they lived in a few miles north of where we were going in Sweden. The time came for us to leave and we drove back to Rochester to meet up with Martin, Susanne, Robin and Ludvig. We had arranged for them to be picked up at the airport and taken to the house.
On arriving home, we visited our own house as guests. We knocked on the door and were let in. We waited to be invited to sit at our table and chatted to Martin and Susanne about how things were going and where they had visited. They asked about the Isle of Sheppey and whether they should visit. We weren’t aware that there was much to see or do there and so wouldn’t recommend it, but after the trip they told us that they had been there three times and had loved it. It seems that different people want different things from an area. We had arranged to go out for a meal together and we took them to a nice pub, The Dirty Habit, where we knew they served good food. We paid for this meal and Martin and Susanne said that they would do the same in return when they arrived back in Sweden.
After the meal, Martin and Susanne gave us the keys to their house and their car, which they had left in the car park at the airport, and some information about where it was parked. Then our friend, Jyrki, drove us to Stansted Airport where we slept in the waiting area before getting our flight at 7.45am (it actually left at 9.15am). When we arrived at Save airport we were able to find the car and the house very easily from the directions we had been given.
The house was spotlessly clean and like an IKEA showroom. We immediately decided which rooms we didn’t need to use and shut the doors (less cleaning when we leave!) There was much more space than at home and there was a lovely garden backing onto woodland. The house was in a small town next to the sea with many boats, inlets and warm water. There was a sauna in the basement, which Brian and I used once and which we all used once (Beccy didn’t like it but Ben though it fine). Our only problem for the first few days was that we couldn’t find a broom or a hoover to clean the wooden floors, which were throughout the house. We eventually found a long vacuum hose but no cleaner and were thinking that we might have to contact Martin and Susanne to ask where it was. Brian, however, had a brainwave. He had read about vacuum systems that plug into the walls. We looked around and found sockets on each floor of the house. The hose plugged into the sockets and the problem was solved.
There were enough bikes at the house for us to use and we rode around the town where there were cycle paths everywhere. Otherwise we drove to the places we wanted to visit, all fairly local. We cycled to the local shops and used the local supermarkets and the local recycling stations. We weren’t fully prepared for the recycling, turning up with our paper, plastic and glass as we would at home and finding that we could have recycled much of what we had put in the bin!
Towards the end of the trip we drove to visit Marianne and Dagfinn at their home. We swam in the lake. The children played with Marianne’s grandchildren and Dagfinn took both of them out in a canoe on the lake.
On our last day, Martin, Susanne and the children came to the house (where we had tidied and cleaned and hoped that it was as they had left it). They took us to Marstand where we had lunch at a small restaurant on the quay, bathed in the warm sea and had coffee and cakes. We had a chance to swap stories about our experiences before Martin drove us to the airport where we would fly home and find our car in the car park at Stansted Airport where they had left it the day before.
We arrived home to find our house just as we had left it but with some new ornaments that Susanne had made from shells and stones she had collected on the beaches they had visited. They had left presents for the children (which we hadn’t thought to do) and a note to say thank you.
Benefits of exchanging for us were:
Our first simultaneous exchange over, we were already thinking about where we might go next. When we met Andy and Kerry at the youth hostel they had said to look them up if we were ever in New Zealand, but that was still too far away and we would wait to see what offers we might get next year.
