Random acts of normality

At long last the boil water notice for Christchurch has been lifted, which means simple things like brushing teeth and getting a glass of water just got a whole lot easier. There was another important step towards some kind of normality yesterday too - our local supermarket is almost back in action. Having been on the other side of the city for the last six months, we had been looking forward to returning to our local shops as well as our home suburb... only to find that our closest (& cheapest) supermarket was out for the count, temporarily closed along with about half of C-city's shopping malls and supermarkets.



On our way down to the Gap last night, we noticed the sign outside our local supermarket no longer said 'closed until further notice'...

w00t! Slowly but surely parts of our lives are getting a little closer to normal.

Many of our shopping centres and supermarkets are out of action so all of us still here in Shakeytown tend to converge upon Hornby, Riccarton, and Northwood malls, and the 3 Moorhouse Ave supermarkets. Here's some photos and videos of Eastgate shopping centre, The Palms, Cashel Mall and a comprehensive (if lengthy!) photo compilation of the inner city shopping / business district, and other places... no wonder we're all ending up in the same damn shops!

By all accounts, farmers' markets in places like Lyttelton and Opawa are doing a roaring trade and those supermarkets currently open are packed at all hours. The Palms even held a sale today, not in the mall itself tho (that's still shut), but in the intermediate school grounds across the road.

Almost normal... almost... we're getting there slowly but everything is gonna take time.

Last night we took a break from the grind that is daily life in a disaster zone by heading down the road to watch Lindon Puffin perform in a vacant lot (complete with necessary audience facilities).

The crowd slowly built up in anticipation of the film festival favourite Draquila, which was due to play after Lindon's performance, when night had fallen and the dark sky replaced the standard cinema roof...

but we decided to leg it down to our local watering hole for food and drink instead of watching the movie, and invited the minstrel along to join us. We had a most enjoyable evening of nourishment - for the body and the soul - as we ate, chatted and cheered the Highlanders as they held on to win against the Cheetahs. Almost a regular night out, just like any other night before September of last year. Then we walked home, past our street... not to our 'home' but towards temporary home #2. Nope, still not normal.