On a brighter note....

I made socks!

So, how is Christchurch?

Heaps of people keep asking us about the earthquake - and in particular how Christchurch is doing.

There are so many aspects of the city that are broken. It's really sad. All of the photos in this post have been taken in the past fortnight.

 

So many buildings still have the search and rescue spray-paint all over the windows.

 Footpaths are now snaking onto the roads (which are often now one-way), to avoid any dangers lurking overhead.

And containers prop up facades, which owners are hoping to retain, albeit with new buildings behind them.

The before-and-after photos have become ridiculous:

 (those ones are from this blog, which has a bunch of photos of the city).

And that's just the CBD. The suburbs are fucked.  Red cones, piles of dirt, and road closures. The following photos were all taken on different streets, within 500m of my house, on the same day:
 

Admittedly, this is a step forward, as these roads are being fixed, but getting from A to B changes every day. Seriously.  It is exhausting. I am exhausted. We are all exhausted.

And sad. The broken houses and empty sections are constantly there as we walk round the 'burbs. Our suburb wasn't particularly badly affected, but sights like these are common:

 Since reading this article in the paper last year,  I keep thinking about the plants...the poor plants!!

Everyone you talk to is affected in a different way.  Where I work, at least 2-3 clients tell me their 'earthquake story' each day. Unprompted. I am just there to look after their dog or cat, but it constantly comes up.  Two days ago a woman just started talking about The Day, how the first thing she did was take all the food from her pantry and fridge and laid it on a tarpaulin on the lawn, and rallied her neighbours, and made sure they had enough food and water for a week in case the pipes and roads weren't fixed by then....etc etc etc.

If we go to see an art exhibition at a small temporary gallery, we are reminded that the Christchurch Art Gallery is still closed (and won't be open until my son is at school!). If we go to a shit bar or cafe and get an overpriced shitty pizza we are reminded that the Bicycle Thief is gone (and it was SO good). 

It sucks, but it's not all bad. There are still some great things here. We still have Hagley Park, the Port Hills and C1. We still have our friends. The Art Gallery managed to put on this amazing exhibition (and now this and this). Things can only get better really.

Superman at the playground in the autumn light.

 

Lazy Anzac day

Tooday is a public holiday - Anzac day.  It is lovely and wamr, so we spent the morning in the garden, admiring my new shoots:

I think they are peas - hopefully ready in spring.

I made a corn and zucchini loaf for lunch, and now we are just drinking tea and napping (and blogging).

Boring, but nice. Happy sunny Anzac day everyone.

I did it!

Turns out that at some point, if you have a kid, you actually have to start having birthday parties for them - we put it off a few years,  but this year he invited everyone he knew, so if we hadn't had one, I'm sure it would have left life-long emotional scars.

I hated it. But, the cake was yummy, the cheerios and sausage rolls all got eaten, and the birthday boy had a lot of fun.

I'm just glad we only have to do it once a year.

Meringue mission...part one.

Making a decent meringue (and a decent pavlova) is something I have aspired to for quite some time... I have always had to beat my egg whites by hand, which is hard work, and it has put me off going near meringues.

So last week I bit the bullet and bought an electric egg beater thingy off TradeMe. $15.  That, and the meringue cookbook I was given for my last birthday, meant I had no more excuses.

I made meringues....used a 'classic' recipe, stuffed up the temperature, but attempted a rescue and it all turned out ok.

They were thin-shelled, with quite a chewy meringue in the middle (and I know heaps of people like the chewy bit in the middle, but it doesn't really represent a killer meringue in my opinion).

I'd give them a 5/10.  Could try harder.

The new Studio magazine.

Matt picked up a copy of the new Studio magazine...the best bit:

Boo! In print!

The things we do...

Having a toddler means socialising with other people with toddlers..and this is not something I ever did before our kid came along.

Now I find myself playing with giant parachutes:

Surrounded by children in a gymnasium:

Listening to children's stories and songs (and singing along!):

 And going to events packed with overexcited, screaming (with glee and exhaustion) kids.

 

But by far the strangest thing we have done, is spend a Sunday afternoon riding around a subdivision of Christchurch on a miniature train:

 

Happy Easter

We spent the best 16 hours in Waipara this Easter - an amazing evening, followed by a relaxing morning of chocolate eggs, hot cross buns, and ironing.

Yes, ironing. I haven't ironed in ages, but happily ironed dozens of linen napkins during the morning. It was so relaxing, and cathartic. The highlight of the long weekend!