Packing

No... nothing as dire or dramatic as shifting. Well, not yet anyway. Tonight I'm packing a suitcase 'cos tomorrow me & my darling are off for a break. 10 days rest from Shakeytown and all its broken bits.

I never used to be this happy about leaving my hometown. Now that I think about it, that's a pretty sad development but one that is perhaps unavoidable - certainly understandable - given the circumstances.

Before I abandon this town (& this blog) all so briefly, I have a few things to share.



First, an article about Coralie Winn of Gapfinder. She's a very talented & capable person whom I first met when we were both working on a World Buskers Festival event a few years ago. It's been quite wonderful watching her bring some creativity & fun into otherwise empty spaces around C-city. You can also watch her TEDxEQChch presentation on Gapfinder here. Some of the other TEDxEQChch vids are up too - I encourage you to watch them in order to vicariously share some of the wonderful/hilarious/thought-provoking moments that we experienced that day. I highly recommend Grant Schofield on modern parenting & healthy cities and Grant Ryan on the economic cost of being boring. Funnily enough, the city he picks as an excellent example of boring - Hamilton - is where I'll be this time next week :)

Here's the most well-choreographed & edited CCTV footage I've seen of any earthquake round here. Nicely compiled and, as with all good movies, even the credits are worth watching. Excellent work by the team at Dyers Rd ITM - quite close to the epicentre of the June 13 6.3 shake.

David Haywood, whose blog post was mentioned a few days ago, was interviewed recently on National Radio... you can listen here. I hope there's a resolution to this issue but I'm predicting a rough ride for all concerned. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems these days, especially not round here.

As we prepare to leave... so do others.
Red zone exodus
Hair salon on the move again
Who pays out the small businesses?
and meanwhile, repairs go on hold til the shaking stops.
Same shit, different day. It's gonna be nice to be elsewhere for a few days... apparently, in other cities around NZ, there are conversations about things other than earthquakes. Not every chat includes the obligatory "How's your house, are you red or green?"

Join me tomorrow night, in a city far away (physically, virtually, or imaginarily) as I drink a toast to good friends, good times and stable ground.