Willowbank

There are often silver linings to be found when you live in an earthquake zone and you are often looking for them during the drudgery of getting about.  Yesterday I had one of those linings.  Being able to work flexibility meant that I got to go to Willowbank Wildlife Park with Nicholas.  At the age of eight, this was the first time we had done this together.  He has been several times but not with me.  Aside from that lovely mother son bonding moment I got to escape earthquake stuff for a couple of hours as well as see some very cool NZ natives. I almost shed a tear when I got a hand space away from a gorgeous little kiwi with not a pane of glass in site.  Loved it

 Come to think of it there were lots of introduced species there too which are a bit more approachable and cute

 Soft wallaby

 Scruffy and nosey Llamas

 Nat and Nic trying to get the kea to take the bait

Autumn

I composed this post in my head yesterday and it was going to go something like...'when did Autumn arrive?  Where did March disappear to?' and so on.  It came to me as I drove along the western boarder of Hagley Park (my new oasis in the broken city)  as glowing orange leaves fluttered down on the road, rugby children played off in the distant foggy sports grounds and I was heading for Hornby (yes Hornby) to buy some much needed clothing supplies.  It was a bit of a dreamy post about life going on and how the seasons still roll on and how lovely that all is. 

Well, two things shattered my reverie - the first being shopping at DressMart on a wet (it had started raining by the time I got there) grey day with a bunch of glum looking bored people, driving home in a traffic jam on a Saturday in the pouring rain and knowing I wasn't coming home to a cosy house.  The second was sitting in Hollywood Movie Theatre eating my delicious Kapiti ice cream at 5.54pm when the fucking 5.3 earthquake hit.  The look of terror in Alex's eyes and my cowering on the floor of the theatre was enough for us to get the hell out of there.   However, after some calls home and abit of shaking and some brave talk we re-entered the theatre to watch our movie (ice cream intact).

'Sarah's Key' has accolades and good press but in my dogged fashion, I don't read reviews before I go to films as I like my own path of discovery to be pure, so sitting in post quake terror watching the horrors of parents being ripped from their children, guilt, and other Holocaust bits and bobs added another layer of terror to my thumping heart.  I would have to say the film was awesome and I love Kristei Scott Thomas in everything so it really is worth seeing.  Here is someone elses review of the movie which I think is pretty right if you want to read it.

As Alex dropped me off in my bumpy, puddled street I glanced at the car clock - it was only 8.20pm.  It felt like 2 o'clock in the morning and I felt exhausted and bashed about.  However, I snuggled down on the sofa under the winter white fluffy blanket and drifted off into la la land in peace.  A bit of an up and down day I would have to say.

Still here

Hi there.'.yes I am still here.   I am finding getting the words to blog is pretty hard when you live in a natural disaster Civil Defence emergency zone.  It seems like you just have enough energy to get the basics done but anything else is just beyond our reach.  However, I am starting to get it together and today was another step along the path.  Biking to work, albeit a different place, was massive.  Finally I have a place to work from and a rare day where I didn't have to drive from place to place for meetings.  The weather was most stunning as was the river.  I had a cycle lane to help me stay out of everyone's way.  There was even a little bit of urban mountain biking to enjoy courtesy of massive liquefaction and extreme earthquake damage.  When I got home the garden looked a stylish autumn shabby and there was no sign of my boys.  So on top of a great ride and a productive day I had 15 minutes of peace.  This was shattered in the most exciting way by a phone call from Stacey at Placemakers to say Phil or Roger will be phoning us within a week to organise coming round to FIX OUR LOG BURNER!!  This means winter warmth.  That is all we have been hoping for.  Thanks EQC, I have always had faith and you have not let us down yet.  This is all very energizing.