Sometimes I have the strongest feeling someone upstairs is laughing at me. They’re hanging about, devising crisis after crisis to throw at me, just for kicks. Then they watch me doing my headless chicken routine. Their latest idea: let’s make her shift house with only a week’s notice. What, she’s coping? Hmm. Let’s throw in a sick kid as well. And work that is critical and can’t be delegated or put off. Mwah-ah-ah. Cackle. Snort.
Thanks, cosmos. Thanks a blinkin’ lot.
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Down here in Christchurch, New Zealand (aka QuakeZone), 2011 has been unforgettable – and not in a good way.
Admittedly, that first big quake – the one that set off all the others – was in 2010. But this year we’ve had literally thousands of aftershocks (some, incredibly, more violent than the original earthquake). We’ve shovelled silt and patched up our homes and grieved for lives lost and kept going because, really, what else could we do?
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Snow, glorious snow! The weatherman got it right, for once! We woke to that unmistakable Snow Silence and raced each other to the window because, although Christchurch gets chilly in winter, we don’t often get snow settling.
There it was. The largest snowfall Christchurch has experienced in 15 years. Beautiful. But deadly cold for those poor folk who, post-quake, haven’t yet had their heating replaced. My heart goes out to them. I just hope everyone has been able to keep warm with friends and family.
We’re lucky. Our logburner’s in, so we’ve been able to enjoy the snow the way it should be enjoyed. A snowman, snowball fights, snowflake-catching, and witnessing Little Miss Two’s sense of wonder. Magic.
We’ve just had a swanky new logburner installed to replace the chimney/logburner we lost in the Quake/s. We’re now well and truly into the winter season, and after being without heating for so long it’s an amazing feeling to finally be warm in the evenings again. Hallelujah! And double-Hallelujah, because my hairdresser, who went AWOL to Auckland post-Quake and seemed unlikely to return – she’s back! My hair rejoices!
Yes, there’s much to be thankful for. For example, Master Seven is very happy with the new “hills” in our driveway (caused by liquefaction) because he now has somewhere cool to play with his cars!
Meanwhile, the rejections keep rolling in. “Womens fiction and chick lit are very hard sells at the moment.” Sigh . . .
Hi! Yep, I’m still here. I’ve been off-line a while – a loooong while – three months, in fact – and yes, I do have the odd excuse (including, on 22nd February, another horrific earthquake, so destructive it pretty much flattened what remained of our already-shaken inner city). Still, I’m sorry I haven’t been more in touch.
So much has happened in such a short time! One summer holiday spent in sunny Auckland. Two competition results for my WIP – third and fifth. Three extra weeks up in Auckland when, post-quake, our house was deemed unsafe until the chimneys were demolished. The incredible generosity and empathy of people all over the country – hell, the world – has been humbling, reducing me to tears so many times I’ve lost count. It’s taken a long time to get my mojo back, but finally I can say I’m writing again.
