rachel.blog

I nearly didn’t take Daniel to his swimming class today and deliberated about it right up until the last moment. What if there’s an earthquake while we’re there? The changing rooms are tiny cubicles surrounded by ceiling-high besser block walls and it’s easy to feel vulnerable when you’re naked and it’s freezing outside. But I […]

I’ve just realised that the amount of money we’ve spent on caravan rental this past year could’ve bought me an ipad. Dammit! Daniel’s anxiety has lessened the past few days and he’s happy to play inside the house again. Whenever we drive around Christchurch now he provides a back-seat commentary on which buildings have damage. […]

People have different earthquake-coping strategies. I like a glass of wine at dinner time. The difficulty is getting the right balance between being relaxed enough to not freak out for smallish aftershocks whilst maintaining enough coordination to cope with big ones. There was just a small Mag. 4.2 as I was cooking dinner tonight. This […]

People in Australia have often asked me what an earthquake feels like. Most Australians have never felt one before. It feels a little like being on a roller-coaster ride but without a seat belt on. If you’re inside a house the furniture rocks, slides, or tips and you can hear things fall and smash. If […]

I took this photo of a house not far from ours in St Albans. For those who know Christchurch, the house is on Springfield Road.   And people wonder why I don’t feel safe at home. Timber houses collapse too. New Zealanders are very stoic but this is not a philosophy I adhere to. If […]

We drove back to Christchurch yesterday afternoon and received a nice welcome in the form of a Mag. 5.3 earthquake just after 10.30pm last night. Thank you, Christchurch. Fortunately we were all in our newly rented caravan and the kids slept through it. The caravan is my earthquake bunker. I feel safer in there and […]

We are now cosily ensconced in a dog-friendly holiday house on the Dunedin Peninsula. It’s a magnificent part of the world with lovely harbour views and lush steep hills (hope there are no landslides). The kids are very happy as the house has an outdoor spa. We had been here less than hour when Daniel […]

Earthquakes are an unusual traumatic event from which to recover because they go on and on and on. This makes it really difficult for life to feel normal again. But I know that whenever I go for a significant period of time without feeling earthquakes I do start to feel normal. The past few days […]

We are all in Dunedin today. This was not supposed to happen; we are supposed to be in Auckland. I woke up on Sunday morning very excited about our impending trip to Auckland early Monday morning. We spent the day packing and took the dogs to the kennel late in the afternoon. As the day […]

Just found this very funny clip on YouTube.  Definitely worth watching.

I should have added to my post yesterday when quoting Seneca’s thoughts on dealing with earthquakes, that the Pompeii earthquake he referred to preceded the famous volcanic eruption of 79AD by about 17 years. Little did they know. I have read that prior to the eruption, they would have had several warning signs and so […]

It is necessary to find solace for distressed people and to remove their great fear. Yet can anything seem adequately safe to anyone if the world itself is shaken, and its most solid parts collapse? Where will our fears finally be at rest if the one thing which is immovable in the universe and fixed, […]

It’s official. Ben got a promotion and we’re moving to Auckland! We’ll be swapping earthquakes for volcanoes, but unlike earthquakes, you usually get some warning before a volcanic eruption. The warning signs are: 1) smoke2) steam3) swelling of the ground surface4) earthquakes5) lava flows (can out-run these)6) pyroclastic flows (can’t out-run these) Why on earth […]

I’m feeling a little less anxious this evening because we had our 5M+ earthquake for the month this morning. A 5.5 struck this morning just after 9am. After the initial excitement I went to Twitter and someone wrote “Quaky von shaky in the house” which I liked so much I thought I’d name this post […]

Daniel’s kindy is having a dance party day this week and he is encouraged to come in his dancing clothes. What on earth can I dress a 4-year-old boy in for a kindy dance day? Things like this are much easier for girls. Yesterday I had a brain wave and took Daniel off to a […]

I just found these amazing photos taken from within the red zone: https://picasaweb.google.com/RossBeckerNZ/2011April27IntoTheChristchurchRedZoneSo sad to see. So hard to believe.

There’s an amazing photo in The Press this morning of grass growing inside a Christchurch woman’s house. And she has been paying full rates to the city council since February! I took some photos of a couple of houses in Christchurch this week. We were fortunate enough to get rid of the plastic on our […]

The front page of our newspaper yesterday read: “Big quake risk put at 23%”. It created a bit of reserved panic around Christchurch with the Mayor and geologists from around the world coming out to reassure us.  I heard one Aussie geologist state that it simply means there’s a 75% chance there won’t be a […]

Conversation with Daniel: Daniel: I want some ham.Me: There’s no ham left, I’m afraid.Daniel: You ate it all.Me: No I didn’t. I didn’t eat any of it because ham comes from pigs and I don’t eat pigs.10 seconds of silenceDaniel: Want to go to a farm and get some ham from a pig.