Wanna hear a story about an awesome Melbourne building inspector who made me give pause as to what my life is all about? It may mean something or not, but read on.
This story begins as I was about to go to a client to show him an apartment unit he was interested in purchasing. I decided to walk that day since the building was just a few blocks away and I needed the exercise. As I neared the site, I caw a man intently talking down below a sewer grate. I naturally walked closer to see what was up, but as I did so, the man turned and looked at me, threw something down the grate and ran away. My curiosity was of course stoked and I immediately went to the sewer grate to see what was the matter. What I saw then was something that was truly amazing.
What I saw through the sewer grate was the most remarkable thing you’d ever see in your life. Down below was the most luxurious living quarters, at least with regards to underground dwellings. The man who occupied the space looked like he was living the life of a king. He had a bald spot and wore purple robes and fuzzy slippers, which gave him an aura of importance. It was a jarring sight of course, and I tried to get the man’s attention. But as the man was watching a news program on a flat screen TV with the volume way up high, plus the din of the day’s traffic, my cries were unheeded. I then left puzzled and amused.
This is where things start to get much weirder. As I arrived at the apartment building, I met with the certified building inspector to talk over about the building inspection, and as I did, he seemed strangely familiar to me. I shrugged it off, thinking it was just deja vu, but as the course of the day moved along, it all became more apparent to me as to who the inspector was. As the day ended and we were saying our goodbyes, it struck me like a bolt of lightning, he was the man talking through the grate that day. I invited him for coffee and he accepted. As I recounted the weird things I saw that day, here is what he told me.
The man who living under the grate turned out to be the inspector’s dad. You see, they once lived in a luxurious condominium in the heart of the city when it suddenly was marked as condemned. What happened was that the building’s owners never bothered to have the building inspected. Which was the reason why the inspector decided to become a certified building inspector himself. The reason then why his dad chose to live underground was because ever since the unfortunate incident with their previous dwellings, he decided to just live underground. They bought the that part of the sewer and converted it into luxury living quarters. For ten years he lived there. And the stuff the son threw down that day? It was dirt to remind the dad where he was supposed to live.
