Help-X is a free website which hosts can advertise for needed help in exchange for providing free accommodation (and sometimes food) for their helpers, and helpers can search for vacancy's. Hosts can contact helpers but if helpers want to contact hosts they need to upgrade to a paid subscription.
Without any luck on the job front and wanting to fill up some of our time before we fly to Sydney me and Jen decided to sign up. We received two messages; one from a family basically wanting a full time au pair (you don't earn a wage through Help X, it's voluntary) for only free accommodation. We declined this offer as we didn't feel it was our cup of tea or fair expectations for the reward.
A few days passed and we received another offer. This time 2.5 hours work daily in exchange for free accommodation. We felt this was a very reasonable offer. The wage for 2.5 hours work is roughly the equivalent cost of a private room in a hostel. We checked the hosts profile and saw they had a dog. A dog and a reasonable offer we decided to except.
A few days later we caught the train about 10 minutes from Perth CBD and waited for Celine to turn up for a lift to their house in Kalamunda, a suburb in the Perth Hills. At this point you would expect us to start thinking wtf are we doing waiting for a stranger in the dark evening light, but I was actually excited to see what was in store for us away from hostel life and to get some needed doggy fuss!
View of Perth CBD from Mount Lawley train station |
Our accommodation |
Before (left) & after (right) |
Before (left) & after (right) |
Completed flower bed |
Some days we opted to work for 5 hours so we could have some days off to explore. Jen or I may do a blog on our days off, so watch this space.
Our hosts Celine and Geoff were lovely. For two people to open up their house and trust you to have access to it while they are away at work is brave! We got on very well and were made to feel very welcome. Peppy the dog had such a gentle nature, gave us the love we needed and had great fun dropping his toy off the balcony to us working below to throw back up to him.
Peppy decided to lick me as i took our photo |
Amester x
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