Dreams and nightmares

My rent was due and when that was paid I had $15 left in the bank. There’s a little petrol in the car, enough for a few carefully selected open inspections. I spotted a property at Chapman in which the write up seemed interesting. It was across the road from a couple of burnt out blocks with remnants of houses on them. The remains of Canberra’s bushfire.

This property was to be auctioned, and by the looks of the place would be miles too expensive for me. Just a short distance down the road was a very ordinary looking house advertised for $510,000. The property that was up for auction was very well finished by comparison. So I suspect it’ll go for something higher than that. We can have dreams.

While waiting for the agent to arrive, I walked onto one of the two ‘vacant’ blocks the bushfire had attacked. There was no sign of the inferno on the land, except for the fact that the driveway went nowhere, the level spots where the house used to be, and the empty swimming pool in the back yard. A few of the larger trees on the nature reserve at the back adjoining the block of land had clearly been ablaze, still showing charred trunks. It takes a long time to heal.

I felt a chill through my spine walking on this land, trying to imagine what it would have been like during the inferno. I have goose pimples on my arms while I write this just thinking about it.

There was a hell of a good view over Canberra from that block. My, oh my, was that a magnificent panorama.

I had a look at a few properties in Dunlop, that’s one of the newer northern Canberra suburbs. There are some very nice houses but generally on very small blocks which in turn have been covered with as much concrete paving as space for garden. I was shocked to see a property where the gutters seemed to be touching the neighbour’s house. There was a gap between the two brick walls of each building, but only barely wide enough to fit a broom. What a joke. How can builders get away with that? It’s not a design feature I’d be happy with.

I spent some time tidying up my new digs after my shift. I found some gold coins as I was going through my stuff; a few dollars of actual money. I’ll be able to buy some petrol and be able to get to work confidently. I’ll have enough cash until pay day. Isn’t this pathetic? If it wasn’t so serious it’d be funny.