Since I last posted not much has happened but there was one particular event that took place in my village that was unlike any event we'd ever seen before here in the past few decades: 4 thatched houses caught fire and because the fire started in the roofs of the houses, the thatched houses couldn't be saved, so the roofs fell in and the residents of the houses had to move out. The fire was so bad that firefighters had to be called in from the neighbouring counties of Wiltshire and Hampshire and they had to stay there fore at least 36 hours and check on the houses for the next 2 days after that. It also meant that we had a power cut for 12 hours because the smoke from the fire was so bad that it took the electricians a long time before they could cut those houses off from the electricity supply.
Luckily because we're a small village of 200-250 residents, word of this incident could be spread easily and so we could get lots of help quite easily. Since the residents needed boxes in order to gather their things and take them elsewhere, I brought lots of boxes along in order for them to do just that. Admittedly I wasn't doing nearly as much as some people, who were actually helping to pack the resident's belongings into the boxes but it still was quite an important role.
One of the saddest things about these fires was that 3 out of the four houses were council houses and the residents of the other house had spent a lot of the last summer decorating the house. It was also rather sad on a historical note because these houses are houses that have been around since the late 1600s.
If there was anything that this fire taught me, it taught me that you should never buy a thatched house because originally the fire started in the roof of one of the houses but because they were terraced houses it spread to all four of the houses. Although I knew that there was a greater risk of a fire starting in a thatched house, I didn't realise that the insurance was also greater because once the fire starts in the roof, they can't stop the fire.
Because the electricity was still off at supper time, we had to go and have supper at the pub. When we got there, we met some other people from our village and so naturally we talked about the fire. One of the things that the mother/wife (who'd been helping the victims of the fire) said was that she was only able to help because she happened to be off work that day and when she said that I couldn't help thinking that it was just aswell I was having a gap year and I was there to help. So I couldn't help wondering if this was one of the reasons for which I was meant to take a gap year because it reminded me a lot of how there are much less people around than usual on a train/plane/bus, etc. or in a place than usual when accidents/tragedies take place, almost as if it were a premeditated order.
However, it's not just that incident that makes me think that I was meant to take a gap year. The other incident that makes me think I was meant to take a gap year, is something that happened at the Citizens Advice Bureau. Admittedly it was something small to begin with because it just involved me learning that at the moment because of the recession, a lot of employers will put their full time staff on part time hours/pay for 12 weeks and then make them redundant so that they have to pay them less redundancy money. But I happened to relay this fact to my family later on in the day, and it was just aswell I did because my mother is a public sector worker and so she's suffering the consequences of the budget cuts but coincidentally someone (who was ignorant about this fact regarding redundancy pay) had suggested that they all go part-time to save jobs, and the managers in her office very nearly did take the suggested action until my mother pointed this problem out. It's just aswell that she did point this fact out because the budget cuts are getting so bad that my mother has voluntarily made herself redundant and so if they'd made her part-time before hand, she would have been entitled to less redundancy money.
Admittedly taking a gap year has been beneficial to me in other respects but it's just so odd to think that there was a good reason for me doing badly on my maths exams in year 12!
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