The Christmas drama
Christmas Eve - last day of holiday program. Organized over thirty kids and a team of 11 teenagers. Packed. Shifted outdoor pot plants under tree and watered. Prepared family Christmas Eve service, ran the service and went to bed, leaving Chris and the girls wrapping presents.
On Christmas Day I made waffles for breakfast, took the Christmas Day service, packed up the rest of the stuff and watered the garden before leaving for Christchurch, a mere two hour drive away, and only half an hour behind schedule. This is somewhat of a miracle. We also managed to open presents which included roller blades for Hannah.
We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day late lunch with my sister and brother and their families, and my mum and dad, opened some presents, but not the ones I had organized which were mysteriously left behind. We rang our session clerk to pop over and turn the water off at the manse in Timaru - I worry about flooding as I've left a hose running. Hannah fell off her roller blades - much discussion about whether it was broken or not, gave her a panadol and sent everyone to bed.
Boxing Day - take Hannah to the after hours clinic which also does X rays. Central Christchurch is a challenge to navigate as many streets are still closed after the September earthquake. We are sitting in the van in Hereford Street when a magnitude 4.9 rolls through, centered two streets away. It feels like going over speed bumps. The kids say it is the best road trip ever. Street lights go out, streets fill up with nervous shoppers and worshipers from inner city churches, there is glass and bricks on the streets, and the clinic is madness with sick people. Things quiet down as the sick people stop coming, but the clinic keeps shaking with several further decent aftershocks.
It isn't clear at this stage whether Hannah's arm is broken but in the end they decide to x-ray and put a cast on, and we have to go back the next day to check it. Greenstick fractures are notoriously difficult to diagnose, and as it turns out, the specialist thinks it isn't, but the cast helps with the pain.
Katarina and Janine were keen to go to the Art Gallery - we enjoy several further aftershocks there. I am keen to support local businesses and buy a decent coffee but they are mostly closed as the earthquake made a mess with broken glass. One of the exhibitions is also closed as it is over 1 000 small canvases and they fell over. Someone has to put them all back up again. The Art Gallery is a huge metal and glass structure, so it is very, very noisy in an earthquake. Staff assure us it is the safest place in Christchurch, and Civil Defense moved in after the big one. I ask why the exhibition is closed if it is so safe. Staff member blushes charmingly.
Coming home on Tuesday is straightforward but we later learn that the road was closed at Rakaia about half an hour after we came through due to flooding. Someone left a hose running in the high country...
On Christmas Day I made waffles for breakfast, took the Christmas Day service, packed up the rest of the stuff and watered the garden before leaving for Christchurch, a mere two hour drive away, and only half an hour behind schedule. This is somewhat of a miracle. We also managed to open presents which included roller blades for Hannah.
We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day late lunch with my sister and brother and their families, and my mum and dad, opened some presents, but not the ones I had organized which were mysteriously left behind. We rang our session clerk to pop over and turn the water off at the manse in Timaru - I worry about flooding as I've left a hose running. Hannah fell off her roller blades - much discussion about whether it was broken or not, gave her a panadol and sent everyone to bed.
Boxing Day - take Hannah to the after hours clinic which also does X rays. Central Christchurch is a challenge to navigate as many streets are still closed after the September earthquake. We are sitting in the van in Hereford Street when a magnitude 4.9 rolls through, centered two streets away. It feels like going over speed bumps. The kids say it is the best road trip ever. Street lights go out, streets fill up with nervous shoppers and worshipers from inner city churches, there is glass and bricks on the streets, and the clinic is madness with sick people. Things quiet down as the sick people stop coming, but the clinic keeps shaking with several further decent aftershocks.
It isn't clear at this stage whether Hannah's arm is broken but in the end they decide to x-ray and put a cast on, and we have to go back the next day to check it. Greenstick fractures are notoriously difficult to diagnose, and as it turns out, the specialist thinks it isn't, but the cast helps with the pain.
Katarina and Janine were keen to go to the Art Gallery - we enjoy several further aftershocks there. I am keen to support local businesses and buy a decent coffee but they are mostly closed as the earthquake made a mess with broken glass. One of the exhibitions is also closed as it is over 1 000 small canvases and they fell over. Someone has to put them all back up again. The Art Gallery is a huge metal and glass structure, so it is very, very noisy in an earthquake. Staff assure us it is the safest place in Christchurch, and Civil Defense moved in after the big one. I ask why the exhibition is closed if it is so safe. Staff member blushes charmingly.
Coming home on Tuesday is straightforward but we later learn that the road was closed at Rakaia about half an hour after we came through due to flooding. Someone left a hose running in the high country...
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