The morning after the hail in Broadbeach

I'm in Broadbeach, and I'll be honest: I put this off for far too long. The storm came through just after Christmas and took half of our neighbour's gum tree over our fence and into our yard.

Polycarbonate roofing sheets, broken guttering, a smashed outdoor table and mountains of leaves and twigs.

Broadbeach is a busy dining and resort precinct of towers, cafes and retail tenancies, and getting things out isn't always simple. We coordinate dock bookings and lift protection with building managers.

I half expected to be put on hold, but it was the bloke who'd actually be doing the job. He asked about stairs and parking, which made me think he'd done this a few times.

Two of them turned up right on time in a tipper truck. Before they lifted anything, they walked the route from the pile to the truck and pointed out a couple of spots where they'd put down protection.

Our insurer wanted photos before anything was moved. The crew waited while I took them and then took a few more themselves so I had a 'during' and 'after' set.

When they were done, they swept up and walked me around to check. I paid the price we'd agreed, and that was it. The whole thing took less time than I'd spent worrying about it.

My advice to anyone in the same situation is not to wait as long as I did. The relief was worth more than the cost.