Everyday is a little bit weird.

I went looking at show homes today. Is it okay to get excited about building a new home after an earthquake? Is it time to start thinking about a new start?

It seems so strange to plan after what has happened. And then.... I'm in a show home, my head is turned to the material, of that there is no doubt. Can I get a better kitchen, but still have this lay-out. Is it possible to squeeze in one more room into this design?

We start to chat with the salesman. What do we do? We do what we always do in Christchurch, we exchange earthquake stories. He, too, is from the broken Eastern Suburbs. He, too, is waiting to hear if his land will be repaired or abandoned. His wife is struggling to cope with the aftershocks.

It's the story we hear over and over. Hey, it's the story I tell over and over. Once again. But then he says he is forever grateful his family was spared, because his mate's daughter, a young woman, has had both her legs amputated from her earthquake injuries.

Suddenly a damaged house and contents gone is nothing. And kitchen designs and ensuite bathrooms are trival. All I want to do is go home and see my kids.

Location, Location, Location. OR I now live in the Guilt Suburbs.

I'd heard that old expression Location, Location, Location before but I didn't know they meant for natural disasters. My location for this latest earthquake meant my experience was completely different from the other two events.

I'm from the eastern suburbs, one of the older spots in the city, close to the lovely Avon River. If you've been to Christchurch and driven the scenic drive through the city, you have past the home I own there. Location wise it is beautiful. It isn't one of the most expensive parts of the city, exactly opposite in fact. I've never understood why the western part of the city, the area closest to the airport, has always been the higher dollar property. Makes sense since September, but not before.

The first house we rented after the September fourth earthquake was close to the city center. This one was also sitting beside the lovely Avon River. Location wise, this house seemed a dream. It was the sort of location we could never afford to buy. Out the back door, through the back gate, across a walking bridge, straight into the huge Hagley Park and soon into the city. Every amendity a city dweller could wish for was in walking distance from that house.

The house I'm in now is west, close to the airport. Across the street is a Residental home for the elderly. There are early morning deliveries every day of the week. The house is big, plain and solid as a rock. The street is ordinary and I can no longer walk out and throw my left-over bread to the ducks and geese. No lovely river and it is not beautiful a location.

If you've followed my blog you know what happened to my houses during the first two earthquakes. The land moved to the river. The houses crumbled.

On June thirteen at around 1 pm, we had an earthquake, it was big. At 2:20pm we had a really big one. It was scary, and my little Maddee and my older daughter and I ran to stand in the door-way (as you do during an earthquake). We shivered with fear, and Maddee cried. This house swayed as the land trembled. When the earthquake was done, and the house stopped shaking, there wasn't even a crack to be seen.

Location, location, location. I guess what you want from location changes if you are having earthquakes.

It's Been A While...

It's been a while since I've posted on the blog. Weariness with everything to do with earthquakes has overcome me. The waiting for land information dominates my thoughts, worrying about insurance payouts consumes every free moment. It becomes hard to talk about it all and impossible to write it out. Besides, I figure, everyone must be bored with hearing about our problems.

Then, boom, we are hit by two more earthquakes. Everything on the television, everything in the news, is once again focused on Christchurch and our awful plight. It is awful. Our city is discouraged.

So adding to what you see in the news, here's some strange Christchurch earthquake thoughts.

1. Every major earthquake has come on a stunningly beautiful day. September 4th, the earthquake struck us at 4:30, the day dawned to the most beautiful spring day to that date.
Feburary 22nd was a lovely summer day, and yesterday was a gloriously sunny winter day.

2. Schools are out. The added stress level to families should not be underestimated. School provides outlet for stressed kids, it gives them a chance to mingle with their friends and talk about their experience.

3. If you want to make someone from the eastern suburbs unhappy, talk about the earthquake as if it started in Februrary. There are many of us who have been either out of our house, or living in broken houses since September.

4. The new director of CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) started his job yesterday. What a day to start that job!

5. History was made yesterday. Christchurch had an earthquake and my house didn't explode around my ears. Is that a silver lining?

Waiting

I know that it has been awhile since I posted on this blog. I guess I've been weary of earthquakes on many levels, including thinking and writing about them. Later this week, I'm going begin introducing you to some of the people in my life. They will share how the earthquake has affected their their families.

Waiting. Maybe some of you were waiting for me to post, wondering what was taking me so long. (Okay, use your imagination that it was possible for someone to be out there waiting to read my blog!) Waiting is something you must understand to get a grasp of what life has been life in Christchurch.

I think this whole city has the feeling of 'breath holding' about it. We are waiting for so much, both collectively and as individuals. As a city we wait to hear what buildings are being destroyed, when streets in the CBD will open, and how the city planning is progressing. Some individuals are still waiting for sewage to work in their area, to see how electric outageous are going to affect them this winter, and for an assessment of their house.

My family and I are waiting, for content insurance payout (there are some things I could really stand to replace right now!), for non-rumour information about the future of our street, and for our insurance to finally come up with a sum for our rebuild.

I know that these things take time. I know that alot is being done in all these areas that we simple can't see...but the waiting takes its toll.

Oh, the not forgotten 'Waiting'...every day, we wait for an aftershock. We have been rather quiet for a few days...but that just means I feel I'm waiting for one that will be truly SHAKY!

5.3

Another 5.3! It woke us up, violent and scary at 3am this morning. It was too much like the very first. Across the city, once again, we were all talking earthquakes. They dominate us, worry us, and keep us from sleeping. Even the evening news was once again focused on Canterbury and the earthquake. Maybe there just wasn't enough news to go round.

I think we just have to get used to it, no not the shakes, we are already used to that, even if we hate them. The news. Everytime news is low, I have a feeling they are going to pull up our earthquake and dissect it. Today's news is that because of the natural disasters in Christchurch, Australia and Japan, our insurance is going to go up by 50 percent! But we've been told that we need to be pleased we can still get insurance for earthquakes. Okay, really pleased!

Hurray, I have earthquake insurance...I just hope I never need it again.

Silent Victims of the Earthquake

I went to a funeral yesterday. The man who had passed on was an old man, a man who had had a good life and a family who loved him. I've only known his since the earthquake. His daughter is the lady who was our hostess after the renter was destroyed. Her parents also came to stay at the same time. As our life settled into a new routine, this old man struggled on, never able to return to his home, not because his house was destroyed, but because his health was.

He suffered the first stroke in the first week following, like aftershocks, more strokes followed the first. It became clear that recovering from health and the earthquake was going to be a slow process, and as it turned out, impossible.

I wonder how many silent victims of the earthquake there are. People whose names we will never know, who would have lived a little longer if it hadn't occurred. The family and friends may know they were victims of the earthquake, but no one will acknowledge officially that they are.

A disaster of the magnitude we have had here in Christchurch produces a fair bit of unsung pain.

Life Goes On

It has been a while since I've written about life in Christchurch. That's probably because there is just not much more to talk about. I could write again about over crowded services, busy, broken roads and the stress of making lists of things lost, but it would bore me to write it again, as much as it would depress you to read again.

Life now goes on in Christchurch, and not having anything to update is actually rather depressing. It means that it feels that nothing is happening. We were told that some information about areas that would not be re-built would be out in mid-May, that was quickly changed to the end of May, hopefully. Our insurance assessor told us he would try to have some firm figures for the rebuilding of our home in a couple of weeks (coming up a month ago). I got a call from the company they used to assess our home, they said sometime in late June they would have more information for us. There are times that I think that, though life goes on, it will never get going.

We hope that something is happening under the surface. Maybe, behind the scenes, things are churning away, and one day it will seem that everything comes together all of the sudden. That's what we hope for, and today hope is all we have, because there is nothing else to report.