Boxing Day Clean Up :(

So I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!  I apologise in advance for the quality of this blog post, but have consumed a number of beverages at this point.

Boxing Day did not quite turn out as I'd hoped.  I had in mind a lovely sleep in and then heading to the shops for a bit of hectic bargain-hunting.  Instead I ended up knee-deep in mud, soaked to the bone and shovelling up debris for the day.

If you were in Melbourne, you probably know some of the shocking weather we experienced.  There were hail stones the size of golf balls, there was epic rain, there were thunderstorms and spectacular lighting displays.  Worst of all, there was flooding.

Bizarrely enough, whilst my parents place experienced only heavy rain, Liam's parents were flooded through and serious damage was done.  Above is the sight that greeted us in the back room. Even with all the havoc caused there, they could be considered lucky.  The water caused the next-door neighbours kitchen window to shatter, the window frame was ripped out and the entire house is now unlivable.  When we arrived at the house this morning to help out, SES were swarming out front trying to clear up the place and tape up the window until a builder could come out and repair the damage.

Liam's old car, the Valiant, actually got picked up by the water and moved approx. two metres across!  Luckily there was a tree blocking the way, which stopped it, otherwise it is quite likely that the car would have been pushed through the fence and into the house next door.

It was a pretty heavy clean up job.  Liam's parents, Liam, myself, his sister and her boyfriend spent over six hour just sweeping, collecting mud, picking up debris and we've still got a long ways to go yet before it is back to normal!

Caddy the dog had the right idea though.  She found a little spot of sunshine amongst the mess and enjoyed it!

We finally called it quits for the day though, and managed to get home in time to have some friends over for a catch up and a few drinks.  The boys have put the Atari Flashback, which was one of Liam's Christmas gifts from me, to good use! Rocket seemed pretty entranced with it too! (in reality, he's keeping an eye on his rats who were sitting above the television!)

Rocket-boy and I are now chilling under the starlight by the fire and catching up on blogs, whilst the boys play oldschool Atari games in the bar!

I hope you've all had a less hectic Boxing Day than me! Did anyone manage to hit the shops and score a bargain? :) xx