Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Oh no, here I am blogging. Have avoided it so long, but now it makes sense so I can achieve the following:

- tell my story,
- document the details well

This'll help myself and others reflect on the events and my feelings about those events, as well as save me having to retell the story in any other form.

Long story short:

I moved to Melbourne about 11 years ago, on a day that was then the hottest day on record: 46degrees.
I bought my first home 4 years ago, about 10km out from Melbourne CBD in what I later found out was a bit of a dodgy area - so be it, it was the only house with a view that I could find & afford at the time.
The next 46degree day, February 7th 2009, soon became known as Black Saturday - a grassfire that started in my neighbours front lawn, with hurricane-force winds forcing the fire directly into and through my house saw the destruction of my home and most of its contents.
The following Tuesday, I arrived at my former home to find it had been broken into and, as I learned when the police arrived to inspect the situation, had been partially looted. That same day, as I went about setting up motion-detectors and moving any remaining valuables from the house within the small amount of time I had - I caught two looters, red-handed stealing from my property. After a chase and scuffle, I had apprehended one of the looters and, with the help of some very nice neighbours, located the whereabouts of the other looter - both were caught by the police. I slept under my house that night to ward off any other potential looters.
Following events are a lot less exciting to hear about, however have caused me great pain and anxiety. At this stage, some months later, I am still trying to deal with the situation, which doesn't seem to be getting much better.

Hopefully this blog will eventuate into a happy story. Until then it'll likely focus on details of the problematic events I've encountered and my insights into those events.

(note: I will be backdating some posts and editing posts to add detail when I get the chance to attempt to tell the story of what's happened so far...)