Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Rokocoko loves me I think

This morning I was too asleep to give Roko his usual morning cuddle and then had to rush to get ready. He did however come hang out with me in the bathroom while I was in the shower (a little creepy) and then cleaning my teeth. I picked him up and he purred so hard and cuddled into me and put his head on my shoulder and I'm pretty sure I could hear him singing Snow Patrols Chasing Cars:
"If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lay with me
And just forget the world"
He was so cute I decided I didn't care if I was late to work!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

If I were to win lotto...

There is one thing that was important about my childhood that I think has shaped a big part of who I am. And I'd say all my siblings would agree with me on this one. We didn't have a TV. Because of this my parents didn't have the luxury of being able to send us off to watch a movie or whatever if they'd had enough. They had to find things for us to do and then teach us how to find things ourselves as we got older. And so we did. We baked, gardened, played games, were read to and then read when we learnt how to, sewed, played cricket as a family, you name it we did it. And I only remember it being great. There was always something to do. And because of this, now that I'm an adult, I don't get bored. If I say I'm bored what it actually means is there's something I'd rather be doing.

And so it actually makes me really annoyed when people say they wouldn't quit their jobs if they won lotto. Or if they have a couple of days off they start moaning about how they've got cabin fever and they're so bored rah rah rah. Seriously? You can't think of millions of things you'd rather be doing than working? You can't think of better ways to fill your time? I can promise you, if I won lotto and quit my job, I would not get bored! There are so many places to visit, things to see and do, people to see, books to read, movies to watch, food to be baked, places to volunteer, sleep to be slept and I'm not even halfway through the list here! I could build a house, I could travel to everywhere I want to go, I could shop till my hearts content, read all the books on my shelf (plus a few more that I'd probably buy during my shopping sprees), watch all those movies I have on my harddrive, bake for everyone and anyone (and me), cook dinners that are more exciting, have babies, do a photography course, run, bike, walk, visit my friends and family that I never have time to see, stitch all the cross stitch I could want to, learn to sew. And if I really did use up all my ideas then I'd start a cafe that wasn't really for profit, just a cool place where I could make the food I love and bake amazing cakes and make people happy that way. Ok I'm getting depressed here cos I just can't do all that stuff! There's not enough hours in my day!

My mum was right when she said "only boring people get bored". Because we never had the option of just sitting and watching whatever was on, we developed this important skill of being able to entertain ourselves! Of always being able to find things to do. And when people get all amazed that I never watched Sesame Street or Care Bears or all those movies like ET that came out when we were little, it doesn't bother me because I know that I have something way more important then a love of hand puppets!! And that's just one of the many things I have to thank my parents for.


Friday, September 09, 2011

Sleeping rough

Rokocoko has decided that sleeping on the folded washing in the washing basket is the best.


Well second best actually. Cos sleeping underneath the unfolded washing seems to be pretty great too.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

One year ago today

It amazes me that it's a year. And I know I've said thatloads of time but it just does. Sometimes it feels like this is all new. Othertimes I struggle to remember what life is like without earthquakes. Was allthat just a dream? And so this moment seems like a special moment. It's thelast few moments before our lives changed. And so it seems a good moment tothink about what exactly has changed and I think the best way to list thatwould be in the things I've learnt this year.

In no particular order, I have learnt:

- That earthquakes sometimes have a sound, a low rumble, ora loud roar
- Sometimes earthquakes don’t have a rumble; sometimes theyjust hit your house (and make you have to go change your knickers!)
- That the sound earthquakes have can sound just like manyother sounds we never noticed, like trucks, wind, trains, sliding doors, catdoors swinging...you name it, I can mistake it for an earthquake
- The word liquefaction and what it means
- What the Mercallli scale is
- That telling me the Richter scale measurement of anearthquake is not enough; I need to know depth and proximity to civilisationbefore I make a judgement.
- The pure panic you can feel when you realise you don’thave your cellphone with you
- The generosity that humans have the capacity for in timesof disaster
- The complete lack of empathy and sympathy andunderstanding that disasters can highlight in some people!
- That the feeling of the moments sometimes simply can’t beexplained: trying to find my niece and nephew after Feb 22ndearthquake is one but also the moment at the memorial service when the usar andother volunteers arrived and everyone spontaneously stood applauding them. Orthe moment I realised our September earthquake had be stronger than the Haitiearthquake.
- The pure panic when you realise you don’t have any bottledwater left
- That even a 7.1 earthquake and a state of civil emergencycan’t get you a day off work sometimes!
- That some people are idiots. There’s no other explanation.You can’t predict earthquakes. The earthquakes are not caused by some randomexperiment in Australia. The earthquakes are not caused by drilling for oilsand minerals. Oh that list could go on.
- That Earthquake Brain is real and valid
- That the ability for the human brain to shut down and notlet you understand or comprehend is actually an absolute blessing sometimes. Ithink about that Tuesday as I stood in front of the CTV building trying to workout what I was looking at and seeing that massive fire etc and I am so relievedI didn’t understand. That I didn’t know over 100 people were dying right infront of me in varied and cruel ways. And that I can’t remember some thingsfrom that day.
- That miracles happen. I have no other words for my findingChrissy among the thousands of people that day. No other explanation. And thenthat the first time I tried to call James when he wasn’t replying to my textsthat I got through to him. It wasn’t me,it wasn’t fate, it wasn’t luck, it was a miracle.
- That we adapt. Well our sleeping does. I thought sleepingthrough a 4 was impressive, this week we almost slept through a 5! Well we wokeup but only enough to go wow that was big and go back to sleep!
- That how far you are from the epicentre greatly affectshow strong it feels to you
- That you can get really good at guessing location andmagnitude of earthquakes. For example, if there’s no rumble then chances are it’sreally close to you. Or if there is swaying afterwards then it’s probably quitea way from you.
- That the Rumble to Earthquake and Epicentre relationshipis like the Lightning to Thunder and Storm relationship. The bigger the gap betweenlightning and thunder the further away the storm is. The more of the rumble youhear before you feel the quake, the further away the epicentre is.

Ok I really could keep going with this one but I think it’stime to stop! I think I’ve got my point across: this year has been truly eventfuland we have learnt so much. Some of it funny, some of it painful, some of ituseful, some of it downright useless.

This is not a year we will ever forget. I hope it is also ayear that we never repeat!

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Who are these people???

Who reads my blog?? Sometimes I go to the stats section and it shows all these countries where people have been viewing my blog from. I would LOVE to know some of my readers. Write me a comment! Tell me your name, location and how you found me. (Oh God please let someone read this and comment)

To give you an idea, here are my stats for countries for this last week only:

 If I could add a background song you'd be hearing "Whooooo are you...who who who who" (think CSI).