Marguerite, a Home Base Holidays member and experienced home exchanger from Harrogate, Yorkshire, has recently shared this lovely story with us:

‘I have now been a member of Home Base Holidays for exactly one year. During that time I have had some wonderful home Swap holidays, and have many more planned!

There was one thing happened this month which I had not expected when I joined the website, and that is that the very first person I exchanged with in London would become a very good friend. Thanks to our long conversations leading up to that first exchange, our mutual interest in history and historical buildings, we kept in touch. Sandra wished to visit Harrogate again, but this time we decided that instead of an exchange, she would come and stay for a few days.  We realised that, despite the many places she had already visited last year, and the unseen places I introduced her to, there is still so much more to learn about and see in North Yorkshire. So Sandra will certainly visit again, and thanks to her knowledge of London, I will have a wonderful guide next time I go. And there was of course, lots of chatter and some lovely meals, especially at The Fountaine Inn in Linton near Grassington, where Sandra bought me lunch, and we found that we were sat in a small cosy room with a log fire with about eight other people in different groups. Having discovered one couple lived near Bingley and had been dancing regularly at a local ballroom, we quickly discovered that three other people, plus myself, had all been dancing during our teenage years at the same dance hall, the Mecca in Bradford! Linton is not so close to Bradford that on a weekday lunchtime you would find so many different people with the same link! Very odd! The room was alive with nostalgia! After all,  I am going back more than fifty years, I shan't mention my age.....but, thanks to so many holidays and new friends met, I am certainly not feeling it!’

When asked if she happened to have a photo of herself and Sandra together, Marguerite replied:

‘Just back from Rome, a great exchange! As to a photo of myself and Sandra, we did intend to do it, but when at home with iPads handy, we spent so much time chatting we forgot! When out, neither of us are apt enough with iPhones etc I'm afraid so photos didn't happen. Next time we’ll make sure!’

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