Gah...
I've started and deleted this post so many times that I think I've lost all sense of writing. Or something like that anyway.
Most of you know that I live in Christchurch, New Zealand and most of you know what has been happening there.
On September 4th last year we had a 7.1 earthquake rattle our shores. Thankfully, there was not a lot of damage and no loss of life. Then February 22nd came along and threw that to shit. 182 people died and approximately 900+ buildings in our central business district have been scheduled to be deconstructed (that's the nice way of saying that they're going to be demolished) and threw our lives into a constant roller coaster of emotions. February 23rd came and I went straight back to work. Save for three days I hadn't stopped working until just over a couple of weeks ago when I went to Auckland for 8 days. To get away from it all.
While I was there, Christchuch was struck by another 5.5 aftershock which luckily caused no loss of life but rattled a few more buildings to their foundations.
Now yesterday. It was a normal Monday. Went to work at 4am, even though I was sick and left a little after ten. That was my bosses way of saying I could go home early. Yeah, she still got shitty I hadn't finished everything.
I came home, quickly spoke to
snowflakie06 and then napped. I was in a blissfull dream state until 1pm. That's when we had another aftershock. At first, they thought it was just a 5.5 but that was later upgraded to a 5.7. Oh well, we say, life goes on. We'll pull through, just like we have through all the other 6,000+ aftershocks. 2.10 comes along and you hear the bang first. Then the house starts shaking again, things start falling and the dog claws at your chest a little tighter. We have a 6.3 aftershock this time. Same magnitude as February. Now we're back to square one. Liquifaction is so bad in suburbs that they are back to where they were in february. Power cuts and very little water means candles, bottled water and chemical toilets again. There is a photo around of a car stuck in the street, where the liquifaction got it. From all reports, there has only been one death this time around. An elderly gentlemen fell out of bed and died a little while later.
So, that's my life at the moment. Shaking, rattling and rolling. My bedroom now has acquired the "it's on the floor" method and I've never used so much blue tak in my life.
Schools are shut until engineers can guarantee their safety, more lives are disrupted and more residents are leaving the city. Who knows what's going to happen to our little city. The iconic symbol of Christchurch, the heart of the centre is no longer going to be there. The window that survived through 6500+ aftershocks shattered yesterday and now engineers are saying that is has to be demolished.
I consider myself lucky in a sense that I live where I live. We still have power, running water and all that. But I feel so disjointed at the same time. We don't really live in "one" Christchurch anymore, we joke that there is the good side and the bad side of christchurch. The "good" side is the one with toilets, showers and running water. The little luxuries.
Okay, I can't write anymore. I'm sick, cold and I think I'll just go back to sleep.
Hopefully, the next entry won't suck so much.
happy