Earthquake

It's difficult to post about anything in my mundane life without first acknowledging the awful events going on in NZ with the big earthquake that hit Christchurch yesterday. In fact, I can't much think of anything else, and I'm glad I have a light work week. From CNN to the computers, live news streaming on one, web updates on another, and tracking down friends on facebook, it's all I've been thinking about.

I'm sure I don't have to provide a report, it's all there, google it. TV One and TV Three in NZ, the Stuff.co.nz website and you can trawl through the reams of trivial updates on twitter if that's your thing.

I've avoided the Japanese news because I know I'll want to throw something at the screen if they go on and on about the Japanese people there, as if no-one else mattered. I know it's not just Japan who does this - it first bugged me when I lived in New Zealand, really started to annoy me when I lived in Australia, as it seemed so much worse then (probably mainly because I am not Australian). I remember being incensed at how they kept going on about finding updates about the ONE Australian who died in Kobe, and ignoring the other 4999 Japanese and others who died. It's not as if Australians ONLY know other Australians. Or Japanese ONLY know, or care about, other Japanese. So I just don't want to go there, I'll stick to international sources that acknowledge that it's no longer a simple case of people only knowing, or caring about, people from their own country.

So, stuck to the TV yesterday, and felt teary a few times, and sickened by the horrific war-zone-like devastation, even though I've never even been to Christchurch.

With the glass repairman coming to fix the glass. Yes, I chose yesterday to get that corner of the kitchen cleaned up so he could come and fix the cracked panes on the kitchen doors, and had started that job when I turned off the computer and turned on CNN for some 'background noise' while I cleaned, as my little side-kick Erica was away at kindy for the day. Seemed a little surreal somehow getting my glass fixed, and the hours before he returned with my doors with the cool winter air rushing into the kitchen.

Still have my fingers crossed for people trapped, and watching vigilantly to see some saved. I've seen this before, but it seems so much more real, when I can imagine the people, the places; imagine it happening in places and to people I know. Good luck Christchurch!