DEAR Jasminda,

MY husband and I are house-sitting a very large property and have been told that we can use the pool, spa and sauna along with making ourselves at home in whatever way we choose.

After day three of this month-long venture, the owners have alerted me to the very sophisticated monitoring system that they can access via their mobile phones.

I now feel like a contestant on Big Brother and don’t want to do anything except sit in the loungeroom under a blanket, whispering to my husband in case we are overheard.

This opportunity is feeling like a punishment.

Carrie B.

 

DEAR Carrie,

I can only imagine what prompted the owners to alert you to the monitoring system. Were they perhaps remotely checking the pool filter settings while sipping cocktails in the Maldives and noticed what could only be described as a rowdy toga party taking place around the pool?

Were they just making sure that the automatic sprinkler system was working when they caught you frolicking around the yard in their dressing gowns hitting golf balls in the direction of their stunned dairy cows?

Did they check the formal dining area and see your husband overfeeding their prized albino Asian Arowana because he’d missed a couple of days?

These are the sorts of reasons they have possibly told you about their monitoring system.

Like the property, you also need to be alert and alarmed.

I’d be refraining from any activity that you wouldn’t normally do in their company.

Alternatively, throw a few towels over those strategically placed cameras and start talking in code.

Or you could use it as a social experiment.

After a while you will probably forget all about the 24-hour surveillance.

How the owners deal with this is up to them.

They should have fully informed you of the set up prior to you agreeing to it, instead of being sneaky voyeurs.

Carpe diem, Jasminda.