Is This The World's Most Complicated Insurance Claim?

Earthquake off the coast of Japan. A number of tsunamis strike the coastal areas. Gas pipes ruptured and fires break out.

Has the owner of this house got the world's most complicated insurance claim on his hands?

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/gallery.htm

Can you imagine how much grief the insurance company is going to give him? Can he prove that an earthquake damaged his home, or the tsunami (flood damage) or the fire? Was he adequately covered for each eventuality? Legal minefield methinks.

Canning River Regional Park Fire Aftermath

On the weekend the Canning River Regional Park went up in flames. It happens every year. During summer the grasses around the river become very dry and the whole area is a tinder box. It's just waiting for some idiot to light a fire. I guess it happened again on the weekend. Actually, I'd say it's the most widespread fire that I've seen in the area in my time.

When I was riding my bike this afternoon to take some photos I saw an old bloke who was walking his dog. We got talking and he said that a woman had seen the guy who lit a fire in the area a few years ago was in the area only a day or so before. Makes you wonder why they don't shoot arsonists.

Canning River Regional Park Fire Aftermath photo album on Facebook.

South Korea Will Be In Mourning

This morning my mum alerted me to the destruction of Namdaemun this yesterday. It is/was South Korea's National Treasure No.1.

Associated Press article
AFP article
Guardian UK article

President-elect Lee Myung-Bak, a former city mayor, said after touring the site, "This is a symbolic place that people want to visit whenever they come to Seoul."

I visited it whenever I went to Seoul. It was a magnificent structure and had stood the test of time for 600 years and survived the Japanese annexure and Korean War. Last time I was there I took heaps of photos but none of them really did it justice. I feel for the Koreans' loss.

The Koreans, being a proud people, will rebuild.

Rest Would Be Good When Sick

I don't get sick too often. Work too hard to afford to be sick. On Wednesday I had a sore throat and managed to get through the day. Yesterday I felt even worse and came home just after lunch. Rang the missus to tell her I was going home, in the hope of keeping the house quiet when she came home with the boy after school because I would be asleep but she thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to pick the boy up and her to continue working.

Not only would I get about an hours sleep before picking him up but his friend from school was also coming to our house. So my planned couple of hours sleep had dwindled to 45 minutes by the time I got to bed. Just over 20 minutes into my sleep the phone rang. It was a policeman wanting to investigate the fire that I reported a couple of weeks ago. There wasn't much I could tell him except that we'd had about five fires in the last two weeks in that area. He corrected me with the figure of 15 fires in the last fortnight. On Monday of this week they charged someone with arson so he was hopeful that they had caught the firebug. Back for 20 minutes kip.

At least the boys played well together. I gave them a muesli bar each and made some popcorn for all of us. When the boy's friend's father picked him up we went to check the mail, quite a few Christmas cards rolling in and I haven't sent any yet, before picking up pizzas for tea. Miky had been able to finish her work so that she doesn't need to go to work today so the fact that I was sick worked out well for her. I'm not too bad today so I'll head to work a bit later.

Local Fire

In the evening last Wednesday I noticed a very strange light outside. Further investigation revealed that there was a fire nearby. No firetrucks were apparent so I rang the fire brigade. As I was on the phone a siren could be heard in the distance so I wasn't the only person concerned.

Yu-Jin and I went to investigate. Turned out that the fire was deep inside a reserve and we weren't going to walk into there. It wasn't easily accessible at all.

Firetruck dashing into the smoke haze.

It's not Mississippi but something is burning.

The birdlife doesn't appear to be too bothered by the fire.


A couple of firetrucks, that were too large to get into the reserve, were waiting nearby. We decided to look at one of the trucks when the driver told Yu-Jin to jump in. He had a good look around and then had a few questions regarding the instruments.

Firetruck in a hurry.

The newest recruit for the fire brigade.

Yu-Jin in the firetruck.


Going around the truck we looked at the jaws of life, the breathing apparatus and the hose and valves. Yu-Jin asked where the fireman's axe was and was told that they don't use them anymore. Well, very rarely. Buildings these days have steel doors or security screens and the axe isn't much chop, if you'll pardon the pun. It was great to have the opportunity to ask a fireman any question that we wanted to and we learnt quite a bit in the process. We were told that 99/100 fires are lit. And when I said that we hadn't had a fire in the area recently the fireman said, "Except for yesterday." Apparently a fire had been lit in the same place the day before and I hadn't even noticed!