Mindful of the real estate mantra ‘location, location, location’, our friends chose the site for their brand-spanking-new home carefully.
The views are truly superb. It’s small wonder that Angus would literally puff with pride as he stood on the deck gazing across the valley. As for Claudia, that girl gave a whole new meaning to the term nesting.
The young couple not unreasonably believed their home, being sturdy mudbrick, would withstand anything.
Imagine, then, to everyone’s utter surprise and their horror when they returned one day to find their home had gone – summarily demolished, leaving behind only foundations.
To say Claudia was distraught was an understatement.
Yes, it’s true they had not sought all the necessary building approvals from the local council, but to level the place seemed extraordinarily heavy-handed.
My husband, who witnessed the whole thing, tried several times to intervene. Bravely he put himself between Angus and Claudia’s property and the determined home-wrecker.
But eventually he had to leave his post and go to the bathroom. He returned just as the magpie made its assault.
Angus and Claudia’s home crashed to the deck, sheared off by the force of that vicious beak.
At first our friends were in total denial with Angus actually finding a way under the eaves and into our lounge room in his frantic search for the lost property.
But, 24 hours on, construction began again — this time on a beam less accessible to marauders.
They say one swallow does not a summer make, but it seems when you are in love, it takes more than one magpie to wreck a spring.
