Note To Future Self

Here we go again. We’re all okay. Still have power and I presume water and sewer – no tell-tale ponds in the back garden at any rate.

However, I am very much looking forward to getting on a plane in the wee hours. Hopefully the airport is open by then.

After a couple of weeks of wet weather, we joined the Swede’s family for a weekend escape to the West Coast, with promises of fun in the sun. Of course, usually it’s the other way around, but the weather gods have apparently parked a high just downstream from us, causing all the ook to stall out over Christchurch.

After a wet drive over the pass, the weather obliged with lovely hotness for two days, and enough sand flies to go around.

Besides lots of scampering in the surf, we enjoyed the Pororari River track.

Predictably, the weather worsened as we approach home, but ’twas nice to get out of the house for a bit.

I/Aaron have been sick for a couple of weeks (hooray for summer colds!), which has soaked up all the extra time for blogging, enjoying summer, fun, etc.

But things finally seem to be on the mend.

(OK, this is actually a pre-sickness photo. This strawberry is looong gone.)

On the weekend, we ventured down the the Christchurch ReStart, a big event where the old high street was re-opened and re-imagined as if constructed from old shipping containers. Ballantynes, the properly old-school flagship department store for downtown was also reopening and it promised to be a bit of a zoo.

It was, as they say, a cracker of a day, and the ReStart lived up to its promise. Mostly we noted how the new urban mall accurately reflected the composition of the old high street — a few gift shops, our independent bookstore, and rows upon rows of expensive boutiques. Actually, the old downtown also had stores that sold the edible items we call “food.” The ReStart has two cafes, which were swamped. Hey, Christchurch city fathers, how about some food trucks?

On plus side, the bathrooms, which were also built from shipping containers, were (a) clean, (b) like, totally industrial chic inside, (c) not swamped, and (d) included both a family room and a handicapped facility.

As Anna mentioned previously, we’ve greatly enjoyed watching the RWC on Maori TV. They have the best commentators, bar none. And we get to enjoy a bit of te reo Maori on the side.

Tonight, for example, we learned that “France” or “French” is “wīwī”. No, really.

Maori Televison is our preferred Rugby world cup broadcaster (mostly because they’re free, but also because the commentators are awesome – abandoning all pretense of objectivity in the waning minutes of a two point Australian victory over south africa). However, they have one failing, and that is that they have very few advertisements in rotation. Thus before every game, they run a PSA from the NZ Fire Dept entitled “Don’t Drink and Fry” It features drunks about town extolling the virtues of their favorite post-libation eatery and ends with flames rolling up a wall and the ominous tag line. ‘Don’t drink and fry’.

It’s a good thing our citizenship test is a ways off, because there’s clearly still a lot we have to learn.

On the weekend, we went to have a little farewell to Mr. Yarra, who’s going back to his ancestral homeland of Mel-bun with his parentis. We’ve enjoyed having them around … they arrived just pre-earthquake and don’t act too bored when we regale them of total and complete fabrications about the bustling metropolis that was downtown Christchurch.

Sorry if the photo seems a bit cropped. Yarra doesn’t have any pants on…

Oh, and thanks for the uke, we’ve started jamming already!

… the footy is on.

We will regale you with outragous tales of our foreign adventures soon, but first the baby needs some rest.

As if we don’t have enough troubles, yesterday we were hit by the worst snows in 15 years.

It’s easy to get sniffy about 6 inches of snow and temps in the mid 20s, but in a city of broken homes, collapsed chimneys, and chemical toilets it just makes everything that much worse.

It was wonderful snowball and snowman snow, though. Today it’s just icy.