Even a recommendation can still leave you with lingering thoughts however a cup of tea with Clive and Ali a few weeks before we went overseas soon put those thoughts out of our mind. They also stayed with us the night before we left to go on holiday which enabled us to have dinner with them and a chance to get to know them a little better.
They are a very warm, genuine and fun couple and we had absolutely no concerns with leaving them in our house with car keys, alarm codes etc etc. Just as importantly, they immediately formed a real bond with Lucas our ten month old chocolate lab and we knew he would be in safe hands.
Clive and Ali were generous enough to drive us to the airport (early) in the morning and then pick us up on their return, this was a real help as loading a taxi up with baby-gear, car seat included is not much fun. Clive and Ali obviously spent a lot of time with Lucas, swimming, running around at the dog park, fetching balls and just generally having fun, I've seen the photos and videos and I would say Lucas has more fun with Clive and Ali than us!
When we returned to the house we found it spotless, including clean sheets on the bed and even cold beers in the fridge - perfect. The only downside was that Lucas missed them for at least a week and soon resumed his digging in the garden, none of which happened while we were away, no doubt as he was having too much fun.
Hopefully Clive and Ali will be in Australia the next time we go away and in return hopefully we will be away a little longer so that they can enjoy living in Sydney for a little longer than a week!