As predicted today a severe storm hit The Netherlands. I woke up at 6AM this morning, from the sound of rattling roof tiles and the wind torturing my home. Last night I already emptied the terrace and put deckchairs, bins and plants in pots all inside the house – to prevent them from flying around.

Nevertheless, I was worried. Funny how that goes eh? When I was a little Caity I always found these Autumn storms exciting and could never wait to go play outside and be amazed by trees that had fallen over and the chaos. For some reason..this excitement disappeared the moment I turned into a home-owner with a car on her drive…..

Anyway, the storm was bad and we even had a Code Red Alert due to the wind-force reaching 12, which is pretty rare overhere. I got a text from my neighbour saying we needed to inspect the roofs once the storm had passed as he also heard alarming sounds coming from the roof and he was, like me, afraid some tiles may have blown away or at least moved.

Around 1PM the wind was gone and it seemed we had had the worst so I dared to step outside, meeting my neigbour. We did not even need to look at the roof to see something nasty happened, but upon a brief inspection it was really clear: a huge, half metal, half plastice pipe from my mechanical ventilation system got blown off my roof. It had landed on my neighbours car, on the bonnet – leaving a nasty dent. Then it must have bounced off and landed on his wifes car, leaving a scratch and more dents. It came to stop near my car, which was not hit. Ahem. Of course, why hit ONE car, when you can damage TWO?! Meh.

So my afternoon was a busy one, phonecalls with insurance and with a guy to have my ‘chimney’ fixed. And I got some flowers for the neighbour, because even if it is not my fault (in fact according to the insurance it is ‘an Act of God’) I felt responsible. Tomorrow the pipe will be replaced, so I am done with all this pretty easy. My neighbour has some more stuff to deal with..:(. Anyway, we are happy enough nobody got hurt….it is all material damage and all will be fixed.

When I came home from fitness today I found a lovely surprise in inbox of Caitlin’s Facebook Page!:

Second Life (the official FB Page) has chosen one of my pictures as their profile picture for this week! I haz a proud!