Visiting: Christchurch

The place where I live.  Shaky ol' Christchurch.

Yes we had another couple of shakes yesterday which crumbled our positive stride and made us remember that they are not over.

BUT we will survive.  Its been one hellava year.

Our christmas eve day was spent helping our friends and fellow cantabrians shoveling liqufaction.  The stuff that just keeps on coming after any major shake - and believe me folks there has been many.

The kids sung "Everyday we're shoveling do do do do do do do"
That pile took 2 hours to make - 7 adults and 5 kids.

This stuff is ruthless - it's sticky, heavy and when it dries it's dusty as an ol' boot.  You can not imagine.

We turned up to people's home where this stuff was knee-deep and it's not the first, second or even third time.  We heard over and over again that they just can't be bothered cleaning it up and I don't blame them.

That's where we come in.  And we did - on mass!  With shovels, spades, wheel barrows and man-power.  We only helped a few people but we hope we made a difference.

There was Al the 81 year old who was house and garden proud.  Again he was out with the shovel and barrow cleaning up his property.  We turned up and he may have had a tear in the eye.  His lovely wife baked scones, biscuits and tea.  

That turned out to be a common occurrence - home-made goodies to help our tiny army shovel and shovel.

I'm knackered but I'm grateful for what we have.  Onwards and upwards please.


Merry Christmas to you and thank you for reading and making this all worth it.