Gingerbread Then and Now

Six months ago, while Australia was crowing about how it was avoiding the global financial crisis, I was in the kitchen baking my first gingerbread house. It was a roaring success,even getting some editorial coverage (RedBalloon July 09 Newsletter and Flickr).
Now, six months on, I've gone back into the kitchen and done it all again with my brilliant co-chef Elliot... The results are somewhat different :)

Could it be that my baking is influenced by the economic outlook, or maybe a prediction on the months to follow. I certainly hope its not the latter, else there's rough times ahead. Bushfires sweeping through the neighborhoods
causing cement to melt, roofs to cave in, walls to collapse... not a pretty picture... and not so tasty.