3 weeks into my 5 weeks from hell

I’m over the hump of a very chaotic and emotionally draining 5 weeks – only 2 to go before I can completely relax.

My 5 weeks from hell began when I acknowledged that I had to let go of my brother and remove myself from his train-wreck of a life. Against my better judgement, I tried to be there for him, and all it did was suck the life out of me. While this was going on I was sent to Victoria to undertake building impact assessments on the houses that were destroyed or damaged in the fires. The days were not long, but it was draining on the emotions seeing the devastation, asking people re-live that time for them all in the name of research, and then watching them begin the clean-up process of their pile of rubble that was their beloved home.

I returned to work to a very hectic workload that had built up while I was down south. Normally my out-of-work time is my own, however numerous nights were spent preparing for (and stressing about) a job interview that I had a 9 hour round trip to get to. And I can’t forget that Beep has a big show at Easter, so she has to be exercised an hour each day to get her looking good for Erica. I’d really like her to do well, cause Erica has had a rough year after losing her house in the fires – she deserves some good things to come her way.

This was the turning point – I was over the ‘hump’ of my 5 weeks.

Evan headed to Thredbo for the MTB Oceania Champs, leaving me with Beep in season and the 2 week process which fluctuates from Beep wanting to rip Buzz’s face off, to very suggestively flirting with him. You’d think that Buzz would be confused by all this, but as soon as she swings her rear end near him and makes him feel manly, he quickly forgets the last week of PMS snarls.

So work is still very busy, Coffs Harbour is out of fresh ‘roo meat (so Beep’s not getting her protein for muscle building), and Justine is attempting to continue her training through all this for the Solo 24 Hour Championships at Easter. You’ve probably already guessed that the training has been shelved a bit, so I’m going into this event with the attitude that “all I have to do is roll around for 24 hours and qualify”.

Victorian Fires

This is the vegetation immediately adjacent to the house below

This house was featured in 'The Age' as an amazine example of a save

Some of the friendly locals at a house that was successfully defended

Note the destroyed houses in the background

Crew members Craig and Andy
Pre-fire mud brick home

Same mud brick home post-fire

PLEASE remove gas cylinders from beside house during a fire - check out the roof that was blown off when the cylinder vented

Geographically challenged team relying on technology (note it didn't work...)

Just when I thought I'd escaped being whisked away from my everyday life whenever fires hit Victoria, an opportunity of a life time came up, and it was one that I couldn't resist. So this meant that I've had a bit of a sojourn from riding for the past week.

I dodged being deployed to Vic as crew or IMT, but was offered a the opportunity to be on the Building Impact Assessment Team. The Bushfire CRC initiated teams to assess the impacts on the buildings that were destroyed or damamged during the recent fires. The research will be used to assist putting together the story as to why some buildings were damaged/destroyed, why some survived, and what can be done to prepare buildings and the community for such events.