Hello guys it seems like an age since i was last able to get on here and this is not the first post i wanted to make after all this time but could do with talking and getting this out and maybe some advice.
well i guess ill start from the start which was Sunday 8th of September 2019 early evening when myself and my dog were in the garden, she was enjoying the last of the sun and i was in my shed/workshop fixing a friends bumper when there was two loud bangs from the house over the back and a load of noise which sounded like stones being thrown at the back/left hand side of the shed/workshop but straight after that the dog comes running in to the shed/workshop shaking so i took her back inside to calm her down thinking that the people over the back were messing around in their garden again. after about 10 to 15 mins we came back outside to carry on as normal when i now saw some smoke from the garden behind us but again thinking nothing of it because they would normally have fires that created a lot of smoke but 30 seconds after getting back in the shed the whole garden was full of smoke, i then left to go and have a word with them about the smoke and soon worked out this was no bonfire as there was flames above the trees on the boarder of the gardens. i then put the dog in doors and went back outside grabbed my phone called the fire service and as soon as i was off the phone to them started taking the flammable items out of the shed/workshop (things like the 25 litre drum of thinners, gas cylinder for welder and paints) before they went off making it a hell of a lot worse but by the time id done that i had no time to save anything really of mine like tools, project van parts or anything worth any money as it went up so fast and our garden is not that long but after a min or two the heat was so much you could not get past the side of the house and there was metal fuel cans and god knows what else flying from their garden into our garden and all over the place, it really was like something from a movie and at this point i had to give up and go out the front and just wait for the fire service to turn up, when i got out the front i was pretty shocked by the amount of people out there (must have been the whole estate) asking questions as to what was going on etc
Monday morning 9th of Sep the 6am police turned up to search both gardens and stayed till 6pm that night. found handgun ammo, shotgun ammo, 6 cannabis plants. speaking to my neighbour that live on the left hand side of use i was told that the two loud bangs i heard before the fire were the bloke behind us shooting the shotgun at myself and the dog in the garden which was a bit scary, they also said that the police were there when he got the gun out and fired it twice. the neighbours to right hand side of us were told when they called the fire service to stay indoors and now i guess its because he had a gun.
i was not allowed back in our garden until Wednesday 11th of Sep to see if any of my stuff was still usable/worth saving. on going outside i was greeted with this sight
at first i was not sure what to think or feel, then i was like well i guess i wont need to think about starting work on the garden this autumn as its now gonna be a big job.
when going threw my stuff i found that pretty much all the project van parts that were in the workshop at the time were melted and burnt, all the tools i had apart from a few hand tools were gone, welder was water damaged, compressor was burnt and water damaged, workshop was a goner to as the rear wall was burnt out, the roof supports were also burnt away, the garden was now covered with metal, screws and all sorts stuff so it was not going to be safe for the dog to go out there at all not even just to go to the toilet. the windows and french door at the back of the house were all damaged with the heat of the fire, glass was smashed, frames were all out of shape and would not close, the french door was luckily shut and still just about works although its hard to lock and unlock now and you have to lift it to get it to close. on totalling up all that i lost in them few hours sunday night it worked out id lost just over £47,600.00 in tools, materials, windows, garden damaged, van parts, etc.
the worst part about losing the workshop was it was a place i could go to away from everything, forget about things for a while, while doing something i loved doing or was interested in. which has helped me loads along with the dog as in 2009 i was diagnosed with ME/CFS which in short leaves me feeling unrefreshed after sleeping, even after a 15 hour sleep or sometimes more id battle with being tired and having a lack of energy but that summer id promised myself that i was going to start making an effort to get myself back on my feet carry on building a business and maybe even look at starting to make some youtube videos and getting my work out there (the project van i was going to use a show piece to show what i could i do work wise with painting, carbon fibre etc) but sadly that wont be now and everyone that i had done stuff for in the past has now gone else where as im unable to do anything.
Ive had to sell what was left of my project van just to get some money in order to pay for solicitors fees to try and get my money back but so far thats been a waste of time as he has done nothing to help so far and ive gave him £600 already and ive not even had a letter sent for that.
at the moment my health has taken a real dive and im struggling to motivation to even think about getting up, ive also been that stressed out ive not been sleeping since the fire (getting 2 or 3 hours a night) not eating or drinking very much just pretty much lost my positive out look on life and my way. ill be 35 years old in august this year and now without the fire i would have been in a good place with a good chance of having my own business as im unable to get a job with a company due to my health issues this was giving me a more positive look on life and i starting to leave the past behind and starting to see away back into an industry that i have really loved since i was a child at school, its all i ever wanted to do and although ive learnt how to spray paint, bodywork skills and other bits on my own i was wanting to also use that to help other young people out to. in 2014 i found myself bed bound because i did not have the energy to get out of bed and the outlook from the medical people was not very good, saying that the chance of recovery from this were pretty slim but in late 2015 early 2016 i managed to overcome and turn a corner where i was able to get up and get around the house at least, although things were still not perfect and are still not perfect it was progress and although i was tired and still feeling pretty broken and low there was signs i might be able to get back to doing what i love doing and then in June of 2016 my cousin and her boyfriend persuaded me to get a dog and that month i got my first dog and new best friend Molly, she is always happy, able to make me and other laugh when we or they are down so much so that we are now thing that maybe she could become a PAT dog and help others out as she has helped me out so much threw my troubled times, she gave me something extra to fight for, get up for in the morning and that i should stand by her side as she has done mine and not give up, Molly and my girlfriend have stopped me from taking my own life a good few times over this last few months, while the person that caused the fire got 8 years 2 months in prison and his girlfriend or wife has now got her insurance payout. got the inside of her house done up for no reason, her roof done for no reason and also had the cheek to setup a donations page on facebook and get all the paint and interior stuff for her house donated to her from local businesses which leaves her with a nice slice of money to go out drinking with and spending on her kids, while everyone gets nothing but a big loss.
im still not in a perfect place now as i still struggle with a bad memory, emotions and still have bad days where i have to rely on other for help although its got worse over the last 8 months or so with whats been going on.
Local people to me that know what is what have said i should try and do the go funding to try and get back on my feet tool wise and move forward but i feel as though ive had enough of taking things from people and even more so when its not their fault and there is only really one person that should be putting it right but even more so with whats going on in the world right now it just seems so unfair to ask that of people as there are people out there that are worse off than myself.
Anyways sorry about that im just really not sure how things are going to play out at the moment and what direction i should be taking. sorry about the bad english/spelling im not the best at that stuff at the best of times but everything is just a little bit harder now. im unsure if this is really a rant of just get stuff of my chest but thanks all for listening
Ross
well i guess ill start from the start which was Sunday 8th of September 2019 early evening when myself and my dog were in the garden, she was enjoying the last of the sun and i was in my shed/workshop fixing a friends bumper when there was two loud bangs from the house over the back and a load of noise which sounded like stones being thrown at the back/left hand side of the shed/workshop but straight after that the dog comes running in to the shed/workshop shaking so i took her back inside to calm her down thinking that the people over the back were messing around in their garden again. after about 10 to 15 mins we came back outside to carry on as normal when i now saw some smoke from the garden behind us but again thinking nothing of it because they would normally have fires that created a lot of smoke but 30 seconds after getting back in the shed the whole garden was full of smoke, i then left to go and have a word with them about the smoke and soon worked out this was no bonfire as there was flames above the trees on the boarder of the gardens. i then put the dog in doors and went back outside grabbed my phone called the fire service and as soon as i was off the phone to them started taking the flammable items out of the shed/workshop (things like the 25 litre drum of thinners, gas cylinder for welder and paints) before they went off making it a hell of a lot worse but by the time id done that i had no time to save anything really of mine like tools, project van parts or anything worth any money as it went up so fast and our garden is not that long but after a min or two the heat was so much you could not get past the side of the house and there was metal fuel cans and god knows what else flying from their garden into our garden and all over the place, it really was like something from a movie and at this point i had to give up and go out the front and just wait for the fire service to turn up, when i got out the front i was pretty shocked by the amount of people out there (must have been the whole estate) asking questions as to what was going on etc
Monday morning 9th of Sep the 6am police turned up to search both gardens and stayed till 6pm that night. found handgun ammo, shotgun ammo, 6 cannabis plants. speaking to my neighbour that live on the left hand side of use i was told that the two loud bangs i heard before the fire were the bloke behind us shooting the shotgun at myself and the dog in the garden which was a bit scary, they also said that the police were there when he got the gun out and fired it twice. the neighbours to right hand side of us were told when they called the fire service to stay indoors and now i guess its because he had a gun.
i was not allowed back in our garden until Wednesday 11th of Sep to see if any of my stuff was still usable/worth saving. on going outside i was greeted with this sight
at first i was not sure what to think or feel, then i was like well i guess i wont need to think about starting work on the garden this autumn as its now gonna be a big job.
when going threw my stuff i found that pretty much all the project van parts that were in the workshop at the time were melted and burnt, all the tools i had apart from a few hand tools were gone, welder was water damaged, compressor was burnt and water damaged, workshop was a goner to as the rear wall was burnt out, the roof supports were also burnt away, the garden was now covered with metal, screws and all sorts stuff so it was not going to be safe for the dog to go out there at all not even just to go to the toilet. the windows and french door at the back of the house were all damaged with the heat of the fire, glass was smashed, frames were all out of shape and would not close, the french door was luckily shut and still just about works although its hard to lock and unlock now and you have to lift it to get it to close. on totalling up all that i lost in them few hours sunday night it worked out id lost just over £47,600.00 in tools, materials, windows, garden damaged, van parts, etc.
the worst part about losing the workshop was it was a place i could go to away from everything, forget about things for a while, while doing something i loved doing or was interested in. which has helped me loads along with the dog as in 2009 i was diagnosed with ME/CFS which in short leaves me feeling unrefreshed after sleeping, even after a 15 hour sleep or sometimes more id battle with being tired and having a lack of energy but that summer id promised myself that i was going to start making an effort to get myself back on my feet carry on building a business and maybe even look at starting to make some youtube videos and getting my work out there (the project van i was going to use a show piece to show what i could i do work wise with painting, carbon fibre etc) but sadly that wont be now and everyone that i had done stuff for in the past has now gone else where as im unable to do anything.
Ive had to sell what was left of my project van just to get some money in order to pay for solicitors fees to try and get my money back but so far thats been a waste of time as he has done nothing to help so far and ive gave him £600 already and ive not even had a letter sent for that.
at the moment my health has taken a real dive and im struggling to motivation to even think about getting up, ive also been that stressed out ive not been sleeping since the fire (getting 2 or 3 hours a night) not eating or drinking very much just pretty much lost my positive out look on life and my way. ill be 35 years old in august this year and now without the fire i would have been in a good place with a good chance of having my own business as im unable to get a job with a company due to my health issues this was giving me a more positive look on life and i starting to leave the past behind and starting to see away back into an industry that i have really loved since i was a child at school, its all i ever wanted to do and although ive learnt how to spray paint, bodywork skills and other bits on my own i was wanting to also use that to help other young people out to. in 2014 i found myself bed bound because i did not have the energy to get out of bed and the outlook from the medical people was not very good, saying that the chance of recovery from this were pretty slim but in late 2015 early 2016 i managed to overcome and turn a corner where i was able to get up and get around the house at least, although things were still not perfect and are still not perfect it was progress and although i was tired and still feeling pretty broken and low there was signs i might be able to get back to doing what i love doing and then in June of 2016 my cousin and her boyfriend persuaded me to get a dog and that month i got my first dog and new best friend Molly, she is always happy, able to make me and other laugh when we or they are down so much so that we are now thing that maybe she could become a PAT dog and help others out as she has helped me out so much threw my troubled times, she gave me something extra to fight for, get up for in the morning and that i should stand by her side as she has done mine and not give up, Molly and my girlfriend have stopped me from taking my own life a good few times over this last few months, while the person that caused the fire got 8 years 2 months in prison and his girlfriend or wife has now got her insurance payout. got the inside of her house done up for no reason, her roof done for no reason and also had the cheek to setup a donations page on facebook and get all the paint and interior stuff for her house donated to her from local businesses which leaves her with a nice slice of money to go out drinking with and spending on her kids, while everyone gets nothing but a big loss.
im still not in a perfect place now as i still struggle with a bad memory, emotions and still have bad days where i have to rely on other for help although its got worse over the last 8 months or so with whats been going on.
Local people to me that know what is what have said i should try and do the go funding to try and get back on my feet tool wise and move forward but i feel as though ive had enough of taking things from people and even more so when its not their fault and there is only really one person that should be putting it right but even more so with whats going on in the world right now it just seems so unfair to ask that of people as there are people out there that are worse off than myself.
Anyways sorry about that im just really not sure how things are going to play out at the moment and what direction i should be taking. sorry about the bad english/spelling im not the best at that stuff at the best of times but everything is just a little bit harder now. im unsure if this is really a rant of just get stuff of my chest but thanks all for listening
Ross