the continuing saga...

of piiiiiigs innnnn spaaaace.

Do you remember that?

It's from the Muppets back in the 70s.

I loved the Muppets,

but Pigs in Space was a weird but

it's title sticks in my head.

Funny that.

Boy Mags hates the Muppets.

Actually she seemed to hate anything that attempted humour.

I wonder why that was?

Anyway, being redundant is getting tiresome.

Well it is and it isn't.

I decided to give myself until the end of February 

before I started applying for jobs.

So I've done that and even got any 'extra' day in the form of leap day.

Though I did apply for a job yesterday that is a good fit for me

but is back in Canterbury.

Which would be fine if the earthquakes had stopped stopped.

It kind of raises the stakes in the desirability of moving back to Canty.

It's not an unpopular choice in the famdamly

but living is not cheap there.

However, living is cheap in Southland.

Yes, I said Southland.

Southland.

Southland.

It's not really a place anyone thinks about 

When I saw a cool community development role there, I 

took a look at housing opportunities 

- renting and buying -

and soon enough found myself looking at houses in Otago.

Southland is not a big place,

at all.

Like it's a bonus that it's a couple of hours drive to Queenstown,

or to Dunedin and you could always go visit Stewart Island.

Not that I've had any desire to do so,

simply because getting across Foveaux Strait sounds horrific,

traumatic and scary, really scary. 

There are a few jobs in Hamilton and 

I'm applying like for many of them to see what happens.

Maybe we'll stay here,

maybe we will be elsewhere.

Maybe I should just apply for jobs where we want to live.

Hmmm.....

San Andreas earthquakes

Yesterday I had a day at home with a wicked bad sinus headache.  You know the kind that comes with a low pressure weather front, that makes you want to peel off your skull at about cheekbone level just to get a little relief. 

I wasn’t tired, just very sore so Homeboy put on a movie – “San Andreas” with the Rock.  Ironically it’s the fifth anniversary of the Sept 2010 7.1 earthquake on the 4^th. 

I thought surely after five years I must be fine to watch a movie about giant and unlikely earthquakes.

I found myself just a little tense and sitting in weird poses. 

Like the first movie earthquake hit, it decimated Los Angles.

It was a 7.1 and I was on the edge of seat with my arm outstretched and my eyes were very watchful. I have no idea what I thought was going on but my fight or flight senses were on, super on.

And it didn’t get better as the pretend earthquakes heading north up the San Andreas fault line towards and into San Francisco.

I lived in the South Bay to the south of San Francisco.   I spent heaps of time walking the streets of that hilly city overlooking the bay.   Every street in the movie looked like somewhere I had been, probably wasn’t though, I wasn’t that energetic. 

So seeing another place I ‘knew’ crumbling wasn’t that enjoyable.  Thankfully it started getting ridiculously outlandish and I found my equilibrium again. 

Although it could also have been because I moved to the couch and snuggled up to Homeboy. 

Earthquakes are easier when there are two of you.

Even fake earthquakes.

break brake

I heard the other day that

here in Central Canterbury

we are running out of adrenaline.

Rather we have been existing on earthquake adrenaline

and is finally running out.

I'm sure we have other kinds of adrenaline going on.

It's lasted two years so

that's not a bad run.

For those of you new to reading my blog,

those of us in the Christchurch area

have endured 11,000 and something earthquakes

since a whopping big 7.1 at 4.35am on Sept 4th 2010.

Of course some of the earthquakes are littleish and

since we have had so many we have become immune

from feeling them.

Most of the time.

The thing about our earthquakes,

yes we are possessive of them,

is that they are shallow.

When you hear of earthquakes in New Zealand

most of them are deep,

like 100kms deep.

Ours have averaging about 5kms deep.

Anyway this is very long winded way of saying

I am freaking tired.

So instead of blogging I've been sleeping.

A lot.
Unnaturally a lot.
I blame the adrenaline pendulum,
it's swung too far to the exhausted and got stuck.

But I think I'm back now.
It's summer (most days) so I'm back.

September snow

It's September, which means it's spring,

which means surprise snow

that isn't really that much of a surprise.

In the case of today it wasn't really snow either.
Methven was bothered by light dry snow
that failed to stay even for a second on the ground.

Maybe tomorrow we will wake up to a snowy vista.

Two years ago on September 3rd,

it was a Friday and I was driving back from

Oxford to Methven

through the mountains and the Rakaia Gorge,

when I drove from warm sunny sunness

straight into an almost whiteout blizzard.

I was surprised.

Then my windscreen cracked.
I was annoyed.

Not much but enough.
I watched the crack slowly travel

up from the bottom and across the screen

to the registration sticker where it stopped.

The next day was Sept 4th.

We got hit by a 7.1 earthquake in the dark of morn.

It took me three weeks to get the windscreen fixed

but it held.

September 4th was blissfully sunny.

Crazy weather in September.

Yesterday I travelled the reverse journey

from Methven towards Oxford.

I only went as far as Hororata and

then towards town to Yaldhurst

to meet a group of  our TeenAg girls from
Christchurch Girls' High
who were keen to visit with

Dan the Rhymestone Cowboy and horse whisperer.

At Dan's we were smacked around by a howling Nor'wester,

sandblasted by dust,

and deafened by low flying 737s

as we were right next to the airport.

The horses weren't concerned.

Just us humans.

I did my usual thing of forgetting that I would be

tramping over dirty, uneven ground

and wore heeled boots.

I did my even more usual thing

and put lipblam on right before I got out of the car.

As I walked around the shelterbelt

I got a face full of fine Canterbury topsoil.

From then on I was trying to get dust off my lips while

keeping enough lipbalm that my lips wouldn't dry up

and fall off my face.

It could happen.

On my way to see Dan, the girls and

Duncy Monkey our Extension Manager

who had organised the outing,

I had received a phone call so pulled over to talk.

As I talked I noticed the mountain snow wisping away

in the Nor'wester wind.

After a bit I realised that there was an avalanche sliding down the mountain,

prompted by the fierce sun.

The wispy cloud was the puffs of snow as it raced along.

I suspect it would have been a whole different story

if you had been on the mountain.

I try to avoid being on mountains.

 The avalanche is in the snowy gully in the centre of the photo.

I'd never seen an avalanche before

so I was late to Yaldhurst

in favour of watching nature.

A good choice I think.

Now it's snowing pretty hard and I live at sea level so you know that's got to be cold.  Tomorrow I drive to Dunedin to meet with Young Farmer leadership so I hope the snow washes away overnight.

and another earthquake

On TV there is a new ad

all about promoting what to do in an earthquake.

There are a bunch of cute little kids

who talk about how they think earthquakes happen.
Excessively cute and very smart.
Little kids teaching us what to do in an earthquake
or a thousand depending if you live where I do or not.

Watch the ad and see if you notice what I notice.


Did you?
Did you notice the sound of the earthquake?
Did you hear it rumbling  in the distance?

In my world that's not in the distance.
That's coming towards you,
in a hurry with some fury.

 This is the sound I have woken up to in pitch black,
waking up sweaty and bothered,
confused and disoriented,
realising it was 'just' an earthquake,
nothing fell, nothing broken and
it's dark anyway so who cares about the power or the water.

This is the sound I've heard coming
as I've been in the shower slippery with soap.
This is the sound that I've eaten meals through,
watched TV through,
read a book, cooked dinner, gardened, lived through.

What I have never done is talked through it
because it's hard to talk while you hold your breath
hoping that the earthquake comes to nothing more
than a solid shake and a broken plate.

Tonight I actually watched the ad
rather then hearing it from another room.
I watched it knowing that there would be the rumble of the earthquake near the end
and even knowing it would come
my stomach still clinched,
I held my breath,
I stilled til it passed.

It's not even real.

And then without the rumble there was a real earthquake.
A long, low, shakey earthquake.
A 7.0, 230 kms deep and a very long way north of here.
A very big earthquake only it was buried deep
so even though it was in the Tasman Sea
and nearer to Taranaki
it was felt all over New Zealand.

Just as I posted on facebook that I disliked the ad
the real but silent earthquake arrived
and reminded me
that as much as the rumble makes me feel ill
there are plenty of surprises.

But it's ok to feel stressed by the earthquake rumbles.
Yes it reminds of how unsafe and unpredicatable our earth is,
 but it also reminds me that there is danger lurking
but I can handle it.

I just need to take a moment to breath through it.



storms from all directions

Sunday night, we had a rainy storm blow in from the west.

This resulted in a blackout in the middle of the 60 Minutes 

interview with the Victoria Cross winning Aussie digger

and just before the seasonal tornado hunters article.

Ah issues and dramas.

Punky Pete making the most of the hot water left in the kettle,

with a luke warm coffee (no he is not Mormon)

and a bit of light from one of my handy dandy lanterns.

You'd think that after 1000 earthquakes

(That's 1000 actual earthquakes not figuratively)

and living out on the Canterbury Plains

I'd be a little better prepared and less than surprised

when the first winter storm blows up and

the lights go out.

I know exact where candles are,

in the fridge/freezer, cause you can always find the fridge in the dark

and candles last longer if they've been frozen.

Matches remain in the same place they got put after the last big shake.

Both easy to find.

The lanterns are always on the top shelf of the cupboard next to the stove

(another appliance easy to find in the dark).

Batteries remain in the lanterns with the lids unscrewed

so not to waste the energy.

Last June, not long after the fourth really big earthquake
I was at National Fieldays.
For those who aren't in the know,
Fieldays are four days of agricultural exhibitionism with stands from
ag companies displaying their wares from tractors to tasselled alpaca fleece scarfs,
spades to sausages sizzles, gumboots to gumtrees and everything in between.
There are brilliant sales of all sorts of things.
I tackled the camping gear suppliers and got extra discounts
because of all the earthquakes disasters we'd been having.
Yay cheap lanterns that work like expensive ones,
because they are them!

When there's a blackout, even with lanterns
the only thing to do is go to bed and sleep through it
with hopes it will be over when you wake up.
And it was.

Monday evening arrived and brought this Southerly front with it.

Taken as I left Methven, buffeted by really strong winds,

enough to push my one tonne ute around the road,

yes I drive one handed in all weathers

'cause I drive a ute, brah!

After a night without power I figured

Orion, the lines company would be on top of things

so when the freezing cold Southerly front came through

on Monday evening all utilities remained on.

Shame the neighbours rickety old shed rattled and shook all night.

P.S. I love instagram



PSD

I know I have Post Traumatic Stress.

I know this from watching a

video clip in a coaching course today.

Great course.

I now have a good set of coaching skills.

I now know I have PSD for sure.

There is a scene in the Legend of Bagger Vance

where Matt Damon is playing golf

and is in the wood.

As he stops to figure out how to hit his golf ball

out of the wood,

he suddenly has a rush of scary, real memories

from his experiences as a WWI soldier.

He body reacted just as he was back there.

I know this feeling.

The stilling of my breath,

clunching of my muscles,

poised for flight but knowing I'll fight.

Tense, waiting for everything and nothing.

We, in Canterbury are all feeling this way

one way or another.

It's tiggered by specfic things

and alerting of the senses,

sounds, feeling, seeing.

Today, a year on from the worst earthquake

it's better.

For the last three weeks I've had

a painful shoulder.

It's like a sharp pain in my shoulder

but also an aching pain in the muscle of my upper arm.

It's sore and keeping me awake at night.

I've had a couple of things that have made a difference

a glorious relaxing massage

thanks for Jolly Jo,

I had a blessing last Sunday

and that really helped.

But it's back and hurting my neck.

I think today's anniversary maybe the problem.

I hope it is

and this is the last of the earthquake stress leaving my body.

But there is no way to measure it

when trauma is our new normal.

I understand a little of all those people

so far away living in war zones,

famine areas,

natural disaster places.

It's hard and I had no idea until it happened here.

Ah breaking New Year's resolutions everyday.

Documentaries

The channels are filling with documentaries about the 10000 earthquakes we've had.

Mostly about 22 Feb's earthquakes.

Two days out from the 1st anniversary

it's like the air is tense with expectation and

commemoration.

Earthquakes are random

but on Wednesday we will all be on edge,

just in case.

And when 12.51pm comes

we will be still and remember.

Remember how we didn't know what was to come.

Remember how we thought we had had the worst

earthquakes after Sept 4th's 7.1 earthquake.

Remember how we thought the pre-Feb aftershocks were bad.

Remember our own experience of the 22 Feb earthquakes,

running from buildings, confusion and understanding.

Remember how the earthquakes haven't stopped.

Remember the aching checking on loved ones that Tuesday.

Remember the waiting and wondering

not imaging that hope was needed more.

Remember hearing about the buildings collapsed and burning.

Remember realising that Jo is in the CTV.

That her office was flattened,

worse... pulverised.

Remembering the slow horror of knowing there was no hope.

I'd never felt horror before

or lose of hope.

Remembering driving into Christchurch to rescue friends

and picking up strangers,

driving them home through no longer familiar streets

as they filled with slushy, murky liquefaction

not realising that the roads would open up and swallow cars.

Once there, their homes were leaning but stable,

their street filling with human waste and water,

as the neighbours stood, dazed watching

and I carried away my friend to my safe house.

But we will remember good things too

Celebratory, if premature funerals.

Laugh at the typically glorious exit that only someone like Jo can make.

She worked on TV, presenting curious programmes

and her death-trap building was filmed too.

Her funeral was captured on camera.

Her beautiful young adult children laughing and

sharing their crazy memories on current affairs TV.

Helping us all breathe deep and get past the darkest days.

Isn’t this overdramatic?

It is and it was.

All this remembering makes me tired and tense.

That's how we roll in Canterbury,

we roll with the earthquakes

cause they are coming anyway.

I know

that my  2012 resolution is to not talk about earthquakes,

but the darn things just keep happening.

Some hideously early hour this morning

there was a jolty something, a 5 I think,

that woke me and half the region up.

Then in Sacrament this morning there was

one that felt like the earth gave it's self a shake.

A little bit like when a dog shakes water of it's back.

Then we are packing, packing, packing up the house

to make room for the repair subbies.

They arrive tomorrow morning.

In the morning.

It feels early and tiring just to write that.

All I seem to do is see things that need repairs.

Floors that are sloped,

doors don't hang properly,

windows have gaps around them.

Makes me tired thinking about it.

Meanwhile Jess is off to Melbourne as soon as

her new job is confirmed.

Pippapotamus and LoD are in Melbourne.

Everyone seems to be in Melbourne.

Instead I'm off to Methven.

At least it starts with a 'M'.

issssues and dramas

The week before Christmas,

I got the call I wanted to have.

Fletchers who are the contractors to the

Earthquake Commission (EQC)

called to say they would be at our house on the 16th January

to fix all the earthquake damage.

Fantastic!

Sweet!

Great!

Shaka brah!

Chur bro!

My house will be all better before the winter.

I do feel slightly guilty that we are getting our marginally damaged house

fixed ahead of people whose houses are worse

but our subbies are based in the different town.

Anyway last Wednesday,

three working days before the subbies arrive

they phoned to say it would be better if we weren't in the house.

I'm sorry, what now?

Where do you go for two weeks when you have to

continue your normal life?

I live in the country.

Our options are not expansive.

Oh that's right....

there is no accommodation for rent, lease or

borrowing in Leeston.

Only people we know well enough to stay at your house

are allowed to visit Leestonians.

I have a big Fireside Church meeting on Tuesday,

very important people are coming to tell us our Ward boundaries are changing.

Peter is flying to Hamilton on Wednesday morning.

I have meetings in Christchurch all day Wednesday.

I have a mean meeting with the bank on Wednesday afternoon in Leeston.

I AM BUSY!

I NEED TO BE NEAR LEESTON!

I NEED SOMEONE ELSE TO PAY FOR THIS!

Luckily our insurance pays for accommodation

so Mags and I will decamp to Methven.

Mags goes on Tuesday.

Me on Wednesday after all the meetings.

We'll be away for two weeks.

I wonder if the builders will feed the cats?

I am a little bit excited cause I cause I get to walk to work.

I get 40 extra minutes each day that I won't be driving.

I get to be near work.

I get to hang out with my lovely workmates.

I am little bit concerned at leaving strangers in my house.

I am not looking forward moving most of the furniture

out of the house tomorrow.

Or moving it all back in either.

I am looking forward fresh paint,

new ceilings and

a house that doesn't shake at the slightest breeze

because the piles are shonky and

I swear all the nails are wiggling loose.

I keep expecting the walls to collectively fall outwards.

I hope, hope, hope that everything goes to plan.

I lie

I do have a resolution and

 that is to not talk about earthquakes anymore!

7 overnight makes for poor sleep

and I feel as if I'm back to the exhustion

I had two weeks ago at the start of my holiday.

That's it no more (unless it's really bad).

Stupid earthquake brain.

and more earthquakes

Beautiful day today.

Sunny, blue skies.

Hot sun and a cool breeze.

I tried to get a sneaky nap in at 1pm

only to be woken up at 1.58pm

with the 5.9 earthquake 20 seconds long.

I had enough time to leap out of bed,

throw my door open and stand under the door frame.

That quick thinking let me watch the ornaments fall over

and the house shudder and shake.

It's been awhile since we've had a decent sized earthquake.

By decent I mean bigger than a 5

So when this one hit I couldn't decide if it was huge

or if my memory was rusty and it just seemed so.

Turns out it was big.

Then we had another but only a 4

then another a bit bigger at 4.2,

and a 5.3

and then we had the 6.

All in an hour.

Funtimes.

Exhausting.

But the day goes on and

Visiting Teaching was on the cards

so Liz and I went and visited our church sisters.

They are all fine.

Liquifaciton is back with a vengeance in the Eastern Suburbs.

Nobody was badly hurt.

A couple of buildings collapsed but they were red stickered anyway.

Every one's nerves are fraught all over again.
When will it end?

Farmy Army part bajillion

It's cold, it's wet and it's time for service.

I'm a firm believer that when
feeling blah go help others.

Mem arrived safe and sound,

just in time spend all Friday

packing food hampers with the Farmy Army.

I did a week or so helping to organise the Farmy Army 

back in Febuary after the Feb 22 earthquake.

That was a marathon of desperation.

Personally I was in the keep moving forward mode of mental survival

and I think I still might be.

But yesterday was Farmy Army feed the Eastern Suburbs day.

We met in the PGG Wrightson Woolstore

I love the smell of raw wool and

even better the bales make very comfy seats

and make even better safety walls.

The row on the left were to be our tables

already piled with grapefruit.

Then the truck arrived filled with fruit and veges

donated by farmers.

Donated by the pallet load.
That's a lot of fruit and veges
about $20,000 worth.

Both TV newses were there filming our goings on

and having a wee battle between over who got what shot.

Only to be cut because the Nelson floods are worse

oh and by Richie McCaw turning down a knighthood.

Mem was on kumara handing out.

We thought this was all there was

but there was a whole other pallet about to arrive.

Yes she is playing with a knife.

The volunteers were chaffing at the bit.

Hurricane Helen Heddell,

the rural woman whose heart is huge,

whose energy is endless,

whose will is steel

got us all organised and the filling began.

See what I mean about the pallets of veges!

Each bag got...

1.5 kgs onions

1.5 kgs carrots

2x kumara

1x cabbage

1x broccolini
1x lettuce
and 5kg of potatoes.

We worked it.

I was so busy clearing baskets as they emptied

and making sure veges were where they needed to be for easy access.

We filled 700 bags of veges

They were big bags all captured and enclosed by wool bales.

Then we had a little break and got into the fruit...

bananas

kiwifruit

mandarins

pears

avocados

tomatoes

red peppers

yellow peppers

cucumbers

and

1.5 kgs apples

This was just the beginning of the fruit bags.

 This was the end.

Just tomatoes and red and yellow peppers left.

Hey! Where did Santa come from????

Sneaky Santa.

Then because there is always work to be done

and it's usually done by people like these lovely Rural Women

who are tying up the emergency fruit bags.

We ran out of the lovely green bags.

 Mem and I stayed to help some more.

To be honest I didn't even notice that people had left.

By this stage our kind of shy Mem

was in the swing of things

and nek minnute

she is up on the ute loading the heavy veges bags

ready to be delivered off to one of the Eastern Suburbs foodbanks.

Sarah in the hi-vis vest

totally got the importance of giving teenage girls jobs.

The food hampers were given to the families groups

like the Maori Wardens have collected along the way.

Keeping in mind the three Maori Wardens

who came for the pick up

all are living in over crowded, Red Stickered houses themselves,

so they got a bag too.

Oh! I forgot each bag came with a roast lamb.

All of this food was donated or

bought with donated money

via Federated Farmers.

We were given two boxes of lamb roasts that were left over.

So I called my Bishop and got as list of 24 families in need

who live in our ward boundaries

who could do with a treat

(and lamb is so expensive it is a treat).

When Mem and I got to Bishop and Mel's house

I looked at the list and must have looked

extremely dismayed

because Mel volunteered to deliver half of them.

This would normally have cheered me but

I'm supa tired and can't quite shake the feeling.

I was very relieved she did this for me

cause I don't know Christchurch that well.

Mem and I set out with google maps

and had only one double back.

I hope the gift of lamb roasts helps my ward members

feel some Christmas love.

And I very much hope that the families who got

Farmy Army food bags and bags and bags

feel better for the season.

feel not forgotten.

feel life is a little bit easier for a little while.

And just so you know cabbages are really heavy.

I am still digging out pear and lettuce from under my nails.

pleasant dreams

I woke up at 2.44am,

it was probably earlier than that

cause I don't have a clock

just my phone and it seems to take me full minutes

to roll over and pull the phone off the charger,

find the alert button to see the time.

Anyway I woke up from a very pleasant dream.

One of those well-being dreams

where everything is sunny and warm,

the people in it are people you like very much,

you are doing something that makes sense

even though it's not a normal thing

and you are enjoying yourself.

But when I woke

I really woke up.

Like really awake and alert

the I am so not going back to sleep kind of awake.

Though usually I have three or so books

on the go at any given time

(more common a habit than you may think...

I am not a nerd.)

none were middle of the night type reads.

So I thought I'd answer my work email.

(Ok I'm a nerd

but I'm a nerd who is about an hour ahead on my day).

One was from Mel who I 'work' with in Stake Public Affairs

or, rather she is Multi-Stake PA Director and

I am Stake PA Director.

I feel like I should wear hi-vis and have a stop/go sign.

Mel had sent an update email saying a bunch of things.

One of the things she talked about was a women of faith project

and something about the earthquakes.

I had suggested she catch up with one of the women

from my ward who

had been out with the building inspectors in the days

after the February earthquake.

Mel asked for me to tell her more

and I ended up doing this massive, middle of the night brain dump

about all sorts of earthquake related memories.

So when I finished I was pondering why I did that,

other than perhaps I needed to.

And I realised in my dream I had been the Canterbury A&P Show

which started yesterday

and it's held at the Canterbury Ag Park

where we were based for the Farmy Army.

So there you go.

earthquakes

all over the place.

I am turning so cynical and unsympathetic

about earthquakes.

I mean ones in places like Oklahoma and Virginia.

I do want to be sympathetic

because to some people earthquakes

are traumatic experiences

but I also want yell suck it up!

A 5.8 and a handful of aftershocks

is a walk in the park

and the earthquakes aren't actually too bad.

Most people around here freak out because

they know what comes after the earthquake

not because of the actual shaking and rumbling....

that doesn't last long and will end.

I do feel enormous empathy for those

in Japan or third world countries who have natural disasters.

The millions and millions displaced by floods in Pakistan et al.

It's not just the water that's the problem.

It's that the bulk of the arable land is now destroyed

and for the foreseeable future

so no crops this year or next

means famine.

It's not like here where we went without

chocolate, coffee and cheese

(and a few other things like bread)

for six or so weeks.

We knew food would be there at some point

plus we had our gardens and food storage,

even if it was all over the floor.

Yes we have had 8500 earthquakes and aftershocks

Yes we have 1200 buildings that are being or will be demolished,

everyday is a snapshot of history in

Christchurch as people's past is erased.

Yes at least 5000 families will lose their homes and land.

Yes we are losing 1000 workers a month

just when we need them most.

Yes there are 250,000 shaky people who all

know someone who was killed on Feb 22nd.

(Christchurch is really small)

It's our new normal.

So if you happen to have a earthquake

with a couple of decent aftershocks

good on you.

It's a rude surprise

not the end of the world.

Will return to normal broadcasting shortly,

just having a get off my chest day today.

4.35am

By this time on Sept 4th last year

we had had 25 decent sized earthquakes

from the Greendale Faultline.

At 4.35am I had no idea what hit my house.

I have a terrible memory but this is what I remember.

It was dark.

The noise was huge.

The violence of movement.

My lamp fell on my head

and I remember sitting up with my lamp in my hand

waiting for my bed to stop shuddering.

The house slowed to a tremble after 30 seconds,

I got out of bed

not thinking to check for broken glass or my stuff scattered on the floor,

Went to my bedroom door hoping it would open

(since then I've learned that my bedroom door is a great seismograph)

and stood in the hallway urgently talking* to Mags.

Somehow I had my phone in my hand

and txted Pippapotamus** saying

we had had a freaken huge earthquake but that we were ok

when an aftershock hit.

They say that what we now know of as the 7.1 earthquake was

actually three earthquakes as the faultline gave way creating a five metre movement.

But to most people it felt like a massive long earthquake

followed by a sharp 6.9 aftershock

and that's how it was reported.

During that aftershock I remember clutching onto my door frame.

I am blessed with an old wooden house

with lots of very solid timber and nice wide wooden door frames

but I've only ever once hugged a door frame,

 it was then.

After that Mags came towards for a hug....

I thought...

but no she was checking her china on the table behind me.

There was no power, the world was completely dark and silent

except for the beeping of incoming txts.

Not from Pippapotamous.

No she ignored the first txt and the second I sent after the first aftershock

saying that the earthquakes were continuing and it might not be ok after all.

It wasn't until four hours later when she got to work that a Kiwi workmate

asked her if she had family in Christchurch, knowing she did,

and told her there had been a massive earthquake and it was bad.

That'll learn her for ignoring txts.

(I know you are reading this Pippapotamus!)

What can you do? 

We went back to bed.

It was two hours until dawn

and there wasn't anything you could do until then.

Never even occurred to me to listen to a radio

which would have required going outside to the ute,

never occurred to me that anybody might need help

it just seemed like a really weird event that had randomly happened.

It turned out that less than 100 people went to hospital for quake related injuries

and only one man was extremely injured.

But most importantly I knew dawn was coming

and it would be ok once the sun came up.

 We would get our bearings.

Little did I know that there was so much more to come

and how personal and close the earthquakes would affect us all.

We have had 8521 earthquakes in the year since Sept 4th 2010.

One while I've typing this.

Nope, didnt feel a thing.

I hardly notice them for many reasons

but there are people who feel them all.

So here's what I've learned from the Sept 4th earthquake.

Your experience and response to the earthquake is in direct proportion to those around you.

Parents:  I have friends with kids who are frightened rabbits and those who register the quakes and carry on.

What I have observed is it's the parents who create the response in their kids.

One friend was away for the first time in her kid's life.

In Auckland and stranded, unable to get home.

She was pleased with her pragmatic husband's response to their two wee ones hunger that morning.

They came out to their kitchen pantry across the floor.

He saw about the only thing that hadn't broken or spilled was the lollie jar.

It sat cradled on the top of the mess of vinegar, flour, spices, glass, coffee, golden syrup.

He grabbed it and gave his kids lollies for breakfast

Now they have fond memories of the day they got sweets first thing in the morning.

Now when ever there's a decent earthquake they want candy.

I am thankful that Sept 4th 2010 was sunny, warm spring day,

just like today.

I am thankful nobody died that day***.

I am thankful that we didn't know what was to come.

I am thankful that I have people,

even though it got super crowded that night as friends and strangers came.

I am thankful I had experienced earthquakes before

and that my parents were calm.

I am thankful I experienced something so extreme and surprising

because I learned so much about who I am and how I need to be.

I was surprised at the food shortages, the damage, the stress

and so, so never want quake brain again.

For something that took 30 seconds

it changed everything.

* Talking makes it sound conversational but it was that "Are you alright???"  type thing, a bit disjointed and obvious - cause you say things like "That was an earthquake!", "It was big!".

** I txted Dae and Ali von der Barr too, and Emma... actually quite a few people so my phone was going off beeping away all morning until the cellphone towers were over loaded.

*** There was a considerable spike in heart attacks on the Friday night following of which the majority died.  Earthquake stress was the culprit.

LATER: After feeling like there should be an earthquake there finally was.  Well there were about four smallish ones.  To give you an idea at 4.52am there was a 2.2 which releases about 33kgs of energy.  At 7.41pm this evening we had a 4.4 earthquake which is 53 tonnes of energy.  That one felt like the house was pushed a few metres eastward and then it bounced back. 

Im on my hols

but that doesn't stop a 5.1 earthquake

at 5.40am about 20 kms north-west of us waking  me up.

Man those things make me very awake.

Plus it is really cold today.

I have a week off

and it's going to go like this...

today, my plans have changed a little

but there will be baking, visiting and napping

oh and cleaning.

Saturday will be similar

but on the stroke of midnight

Pippapotamus and CLoD arrive from Brisbane

so they can enjoy freezing their butts off

and if they are lucky we will find some snow somewhere.

Nasty stuff that it is.

Sunday is Stake Conference at 10am

and we will have a new Stake Presidency.

All our leadership have been exhausted by caring for us all

during the 10 months of earthquakes.

Apparently this number of aftershocks is unprecedented

 in the history of all earthquakes.

Funtimes.

Monday, I think we will head up into the mountains

and visit the snow and maybe go up to Arthur's Pass

to see the cheeky kea.

Tuesday, Wednesday will be in Hanmer

specifically in the hot pools.

Pippapotamus has organised it all so it'll be nice to be taken care of.

Thursday will find me helping to organise a fireside for Sheri L Dew.
Super Mel has organised it all,
all I have to do is trouble shoot on the night.
But that meeting starts the little Sheri L Dew fest
that will be going on for me and Dae.

On Friday I go to Auckland mostly to meet up with Dae
and go to Time out for Women
but also to raise a fair bit of money for NZYF.
Making the most of my time...
ok getting work to fund flights for my social life.
But as a birthday present for Dae
I thought I'd see if we could meet Sister Dew
for a minute and it turns out we can
and will on Saturday morning.
Nice.

That's my coming week.
What are you up to?

I'm a word geek

This will surprise those who read this blog regularly,

 I got to bed late last night

after going out to dinner with TL

(that's a new name for a previously posted person

but circumstances have changed so their previous name

is no longer appropriate.)

Great dinner, great conversation, awesome connecting again.

Weird to dine in a restaurant surrounded by collapsed buildings

but that's the new normal round here.

Anyway I am assuming* that CERA

will take it's sweet time to sort our city out

so dinners amongst ruins will be the usual

I think I'll pretend it's Rome.

So I got bed after getting home

and watching the tail end of battle for something

which was being screened on our new local movie theatre,

my lounge wall.

I brought home the work projector for some reason

and now things like Graham Norton have been on my wall like

a piece of art that hasn't quite receached it's potential.

Battling aliens for Los Angeles is a big concept to get your head around

when your lounge is not that big.

So I finally got to bed

(a bit like this post)

and lay there thinking how silly the word

disappointed is.

See usually a prefix of dis- would mean the negative

but apppointed means an entirely different thing.

Which leads me to a conversation I over heard on the radio

one morning this week which was followed up by a dinner conversation on Tuesday night.

On the radio they, being Si and Gary,

were discussing the word munted.

It's current and usage is to describe the degree of a buildings destruction from various earthquakes.

So one might say "My house got munted in the February earthquake but June 13th totally munted it."

and you would know that in Feb they probably had a number of cracks and a hot water tank that released it's contents through the roof and flooded the house but it was still habitable.

In June, they would have, maybe come off their piles, lost a wall, had liquefaction again

but basically had their house red stickered due to structural damage.

Keep in mind these days red stickered doesn't necessarily mean you don't keep living in your house,

it just means someone decided it was unsafe,

 but it's all good otherwise.

So Gary decided to investigate where the word munted came from.

Keep in mind for NZ this is the original Munter

So Gary's findings were that the word Munted

comes from the word munt which is a British colonialist

word for natives in Rhodesia

(used Rhodesia instead of Zimbabwe cause that was when it was a racist state,

y'know as apposed to now that it's a Marxist state with absolutely no racism at all, ever.)

Based on the location of it's use it can be assumed to have been a negative word for natives.

But it also means;

extremely drunk,

extremely ugly,

and extremely broken.

Now Gary, who is a bit of a confused Marxist,  

has decided to never use THAT word again.

More power to him.

His decision was based on the root of the word or original common use

and to ignore the evolution of the word to mean something different and is of common usage.

Now there are other words that have evolved from being a complimentary word used in poetry

to what is basically the worst, most insulting word in the world....

in my humble opinion.

Sorry had to find of a way of being clear

and how better than to use a picture of a Bush.

That's cracking me up....

So I emailed the radio station if Gary, based on his logic

would start using this original old Elizabethan English word

to compliment his wife?

Hmmmmmm......

Can't be a sanctimonious hypocrite in a public forum now can we?

*Thinking about words I'm kind of annoyed that assume has got a bad rap.  Every time I use it a little voice in my head that sounds like my 5th form English teacher, says "assume  makes an ASS out of U and ME"  emphasis hers.  That bothers me cause assume is a great word and it only is ass making if supporting information isn't collected, which any intelligent person would do before making an educated guess aka an assumption.  To be fair it was the public school system and catering to the lowest common denominator.

took a wander

through Christchurch yesterday

because I realised I was

being a bit of a sook

avoiding going into town

after I took the Hawaiian kids

around to take a look.

Becky and I had a chat about viewing

natural disasters.

I feel like a voyeur*

Becky, however reckons she would be taking a look

at the heart of things as soon as.

She lives on the Big Island in Hawaii

so chances are that she gets a front row seat for a tsunami

is likely.

Bet she doesn't go down to the heart of the disaster immediately.

We were on a schedule

so there was not stopping

but if we did this would have been the first stop.

The Catholic Basilica on Barbados Street.

Well except that Barbados Street is a one way street

and we were going in the opposite direction on Moorhouse.

Unlike old guy was driving in the wrong direction

on Barbados St today!

Hair raising!

Makes you want to cry really.

The building not the old guy driving.



This window makes me frown sadly.

I'm not Catholic but have had some very peaceful and

pleasant experiences when visiting with friends who are

and since it's me of course those friends are about as extreme Catholics as you can get.

Terri is a Carmalite nun,

the ones who take a vow of silence and

stay locked away from the world.

She is pretty chatty for a silent nun.

Just joking,

 it's not a 24/7 vow,

it's a away from the world vow

and lots of silent prayer and contemplation vow.

I always thought that would quite a good life

cause Terri certainly knew what the All Blacks were up to

and they were in her prayers often.

Anyway my point...

visiting her was always in rooms that this room would have been like.

Silent but humming with peace,

sparsely furnished but comfortable,

stark but decorated beautifully.

Now it isn't.

I'm not sure if retaining walls are getting creative or not

but I'm liking the usage of the hay bales

to soften any damage from the next round of earthquakes

cause you know they are coming**.

Sorry that's a wee bit blurry

but I got a new camera

since someone who shall remain nameless

took off with my batteries and didn't return them

before he went back to Hawaii.

Actually that's not the reason at all.

I've looking for ages.

So all this damage happened on Feb 22.

Yes four months ago

and they (may be CERA) have only

got around to pulling down/fixing up buildings.

To be fair there are 900 commercial buildings

that have to come down

Already there are huge gaps all over town.

Ah Christchurch, what is to become of you?



* I mean voyeur in a lazy English way not in it's true meaning!

** Have decided to embrace earthquakes using the theory of Murphy's Law.  You should see my emergency kit, very organised.