Thomas the Tabster

The new kitten is now Thomas aka The Tabster. Oh boy, is he smart. He's running rings around me, and when he's awake, demands heaps of attention. But that's good - my role in life, as he sees it, is to provide fun and food for him. He hates the computer and hates me reading books, has already climbed up two trees and is just generally gung-ho. Perhaps I should have called him Gung-ho, but he's not Chinese and neither am I.
Just had another small earthquake, a rolling one, like being in a rowboat on a gentle sea. The last one was a jolting one, a sudden bang- it's interesting how different they are. I'm not quite so scared now, but always at the back of my mind I'm waiting for another Big One. Talking to other people, different earthquakes have been differently perceived. It often depends where you were when you experienced them. The initial earthquake in September 2010 was the biggest, but because it was early on Saturday morning most people were home with their families. The February quake was more distressing, not just because it did more damage, but because family members were separated from each other because it was a week day. Personally, I found the second one on December 2011 the most alarming, as I was in the wine aisle at the Supermarket. We were having our end-of-year barbeque when the first one struck; what I remember most vividly is the look of disbelief on everyone's faces.
    I guess the most profound effect on me is that I no longer go out much, a sort of earthquake-induced agoraphobia. I only go shopping if I really have too - the idea of shopping in a mall is not pleasant, the potential for being trapped. I used to go for walks around the Sumner area and on the Port Hills, but the damage has closed most of the tracks, and driving is no longer a pleasure - the roads are bumpy, the traffic is mad and so are the drivers. I hope to win Lotto, then I can buy a place in the country and rusticate well away from the mad ugly city.
  Oh well. Live and dream.

Christchurch earthquake rebuild, or lack of same

Welcome to readers in Brazil (first from S. America), Slovenia, Serbia, Hong Kong and Italy. Still nothing from Canada, eh.
      To those in Finland, please accept my apologies on behalf of New Zealand for the ignorant comments made about your nation by NZ Member of Parliament Gerry Brownlee. He is a deeply stupid man who our deeply stupid Prime Minister will probably make Minister of Foreign Affairs. At present, Mr Brownlee is overseeing the rebuild of Christchurch following the earthquake. God help us.
      Yesterday I was talking to my neighbour who lives at the end of my street. He is an elderly man, in poor health, with a wife who is also frail and ailing. Their house was badly damaged during the September earthquake, (18 months ago) and has continued to deconstruct with our numerous aftershocks. He has had no help from the authorities in rebuilding or repairing his house, and is now looking at spending a second cold, miserable winter there. I have a house that has escaped major damage and only has a few cracks and cosmetic damage. I need a door fixed and two light fittings refitted. So EQC are going to redecorate my house inside and out, to cover said cracks. I don't really need them to do this, as I spent a lot of time painting the interior myself and painted a lot more carefully than they will. They are also going to pull the ceiling down in one room and reline the bathroom, none of which work I think needs to be done. Two blokes came and did an inspection and found some things, then two more blokes came and found quite different things. ?? I'm quite comfortable with just a few minor fixings, and would rather they rebuilt my neighbours house so he and his wife could have a warm winter. Where is the logic in this?

The new kitten still has no name. Nothing seems to fit. I've tried Morris and William89999999 and now bad keyboard kitten. I'm going to try Malizio, Italian for Badly Intentioned One.

My new kitten

Went to the SPCA yesterday and bought a new puss. Emma and I have been missing Eddie, so I decided it was time to get a bit more male energy into the menage. First I went into the older cats to see if there was a male ginge who might fit the bill, but they were all pretty cranky and made no real connection with me. Then I went into the kitten house, and guess who I found. He was the oldest kitten there, on his own, and he looked at me with such friendliness and intelligence that I was hooked at once. I aked him if he wanted to come home with me and he purred and purred.  I still don't know what to call him, Tomas, Tobit, Tobias, maybe, or Iggy or Ziggy or The Tabster. Or Kwinn for Kitten With No Name. He was picked up on a rural property at Leeston, probably dumped there, since there were no other houses around. Emma's not sure about him and he's scared of her, but this afternoon they both had a sleep on my chest together so I'm hoping this bodes well. He's not quite a kitten, but still has a kitteny way of behaving. He's house trained and fixed and microchipped and lovely, lovely.

Any suggestions for a name? Nothing obscene please.

Dahlias in my garden

Addictive

Just looked up "Internet addiction" on Wikipedia. "Dr. Maressa Hecht-Orzack noted that primarily depression and bi-polar disorder in its depressive swing were co-morbid features of pathological Internet use". Love that phrase "co-morbid features of pathological Internet use". It should be repeated over and over like a mantra, whenever you fire up your computer. Or construct the phrase on your screen-saver.
      I read once that human beings were hard-wired for addictive behaviour. If it feels good, go on doing it - sounds logical. Eating fish and chips for example. Went to the fish and chip man last night and realized I had been a regular customer for 10 years, ever since I moved in to the neighbourhood! In fact, my first meal in this house was fish and chips, as I was too exhausted to cook after moving-day. I've been there so often, that now the guy knows what I'm going to order.

Three things that will become obsolete

Read an interesting article the other day about things that are becoming obsolete because of new technology. I was dismayed to see point-and-shoot cameras on the list. Apparently people are using cellphones to take snapshots, rather than a camera. I love my little Canon Powershot, and get some really good pics with it. So I guess when these are obsolete I'll have to upgrade to a digital SLR.
   Another thing on the endangered list is snail-mail. For obvious reasons. People are using couriers more for actual things, and email for messages.
   And also on the way out are circular clock faces, including wristwatches. The use of digital timepieces is becoming universal, again the cellphone is to blame. No longer do children have to learn to tell the time on a circular clock. The cellphone will probably morph into some kind of wrist watch device I guess, and you will be able to be beamed aboard the mothership, with a flick of your wristcell.

On the sheer desperation front, news reports this morning warn Kiwis to ration Marmite.
Marmite stocks are critically low; "the cupboard is bare", say the manufacturers. The powers that be suggest that we only use it on hot toast, as it spreads further when warmed. We may even have to import some from Australia! Things are in a bad way when we have to outsource Marmite. I think the question should be raised in Parliament. How could the Government let this happen? It wouldn't have happened under a Labour government.

And welcome to my new readers in Slovenia and Italy. My audience map on the stats in filling in nicely. No one yet on the African continent, and only one in South America. Canada is also surprisingly missing, there's a big gap in North America. Come on guys, don't let the US of A beat you.

How to get more people to read your blog

Title your post "How to get more people to read your blog".

Should have saved this for April 1st. Fool!

Here's a thought or two

Ever noticed that when an author wants to get rid of a character, they get him/her to emigrate to New Zealand?
    Ever noticed that there's no religion in Lord of the Rings? There's no gods, God or suchlike, just the Elves being holier than thou. (Prigs) Which is strange considering that Tolkien was a Catholic, and that the Icelandic sagas that inspired him were full of gods.
    Ever noticed also in Lord of the Rings that there's no cross-cultural marriage, apart from Aragorn and Arwen? Could a  dwarf get it on with a hobbit, or a hobbit with an elf? They're all humanoid aren't they? Perhaps they could have sex but not children? or the offspring are infertile, like mules. Dwobbits and helfs, harves and elfits.
     Anyone want to comment on this?

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga - The Lady Is A Tramp

Gaga can sing! And I love her dress (although her hair is annoying at the end)

Spring things

Went and squandered $85.00 on bulbs on Friday. I can't resist bulbs, they just seem so full of promise and hope; all winter they flower in the imagination and then you see the real thing. My father-in-law once said that firewood warms you three times; once when you're cutting the tree down, again when you split the dried wood, and then when you burn it. Bulbs are a bit like that. They cheer when you buy them, they provide fun and exercise when you plant them, and the flowers in spring are lovely.
        This year I think I'll plant a lot of my bulbs in pots set into the vegetable garden, so that they can be easily removed when I plant the spring veges. I'll team them up with winter vegetables like coloured kale and leafy stuff, and plant in and around the herb plants at the front of the border. As the vegetable garden is the warmest spot in the whole section, and can be seen from the conservatory, I hope the flowers will make a lovely show in an area that can look a little sparse at springtime.

       I've bought lots of Dutch iris, nice and easy in a dryish place, and will have a go at anemones and ranunculus, which I haven't grown for years. Anemones were one of the first things I grew as a kid. They were supposed to be Iceland poppies, but mislabbelled (must get some of those too) but surprized me. I've planted them and ranunculus other years, but not with much success - they need a nice fertile damp soil to do well, so the vegetable garden should suit them.

Before the passata

These are the Oxheart tomatoes I bought at the market a couple of weeks ago. They really need to be grounded a bit more, so I'll flick a little watercolour shadow around them. Probably not quite finished, but fun to do. Baroque tomatoes, overblown and curvy.
They're in passata now. (Sing to the tune of He's in the jailhouse now)

The Muppets: Ode To Joy

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Poor old Beaker.

More thoughts on the Cathedral

Still thinking about the Cathedral and reading some of the idiotic comments on the Press pages. Some people just have a trigger knee-jerk reflex, I guess. Or just don't listen to what's been said. Of course I had to wade in with my two cents worth too:

The idea of a prayer garden really appeals to me. Retain the foundations, pillar bases, and pavement, rebuild the spire in wood or steeel and replace some of the bells in it. Plant in and around the ruins. New growth symbolic of new life. Retain the huge tree to the south of the ruin as a memory tree, so that people can leave flowers and messages of comfort there. Have a bell at ground level that people could ring (along the lines of the Peace Bell in the Botanic Gardens). Have a small open air altar where the high altar was, just a simple block of stone from the old Cathedral, perhaps with the original foundation plaque. Somehow reconstruct the rose window at the west end and the apse windows at the east end. Erect a new cloister around a pool or fountain, to give warmth and shelter to visitors. So many beautiful and meaningful things can be done, the ruin can be our memorial and continue to play a part in the spiritual life of the city. This will ensure that at least a small part of the heart of the city stays green. Don't worry about the tourists; they will come to be inspired and see how we have remade our lives. Look at Coventry Cathedral; the ruins include and transcend the past. Don't go back - take the past, cherish it, but build it into something new.

 So I spent part of the day redesigning the site as a prayer garden, using the footprint of the Cathedral. The existing footprint is very strong and formal and would make a beautiful foundation for a garden.

It would be great if the Church set up a website so that we could see the deconstruction process. I'd like to know what is salvageable, for example, is the font still in one piece? It would make a wonderful fountain in the Living Waters Courtyard that I'm planning for the prayer garden.

Christchurch Cathedral

Christchurch Cathedral, a photo by Cheungy01273 on Flickr.

Rose window, now destroyed, but hopefully can be salvaged

Christchurch Cathedral

Christchurch has always been a city of argumentative, bolshie citizens. In the past, lengthy and vicious quarrels have raged about such public issues as a rail tunnel, a stadium and a road through the park. Today's news that the Anglican Diocese has decided not to rebuild Christchurch Cathedral will no doubt provoke much more debate and personal nastiness. The Bishop of Christchurch has already had to listen to slurs on her character, along the lines of such objective and reasoned thinking such as "go home, Canadian - you can't decide for us, it's not your Cathedral, you're not a Kiwi". Already we feel as if we must pick a team: do you agree to the desecration of a national icon or do you look forward to that which does not yet exist? Whichever side you take, you can bet that someone will want to punch your face in for expressing it. Which creates a wonderful warm atmosphere of co-operation here in this little city at the end of the world, where we all work together for the future...blah, blah, blah. Councillor Keown believes that we should "defy the earthquakes" and rebuild the Cathedral as a symbol of that defiance. I'm not sure it's possible to "defy" a natural event of such magnitude, any more that we could defy a hurricane or tsunami. (It was pointed out to him that perhaps a way to "defy" catastrophe is to move on and think again and rebuild anew.)
        It's terrible that the earthquakes had to happen, but something new and wonderful can arise from the ruins they left. The real challenge for us is to make sure that we do not end up living in the ugliest city in the world, full of car parks and anonymous blocks of concrete. 
        Perhaps we could leave the foundation of the Cathedral, the pavement and the pillar bases and plant a garden in and around the ruins. Build a garden monument for the Garden City; it will ensure that at least one spot in the CBD does not become a car park, and will contribute to the greening of the square. The idea of rebuilding the Cathedral as it was I think is unrealistic - I believe that those who are pushing for this do not realize how damaged the building and the land underneath it is. The basement is full of sewage, water and liquefaction; the soil is a wet sponge.
        I feel sorry too for Bishop Matthews. People forget that she has a whole diocese to look after, with many compromised buildings in it. Her job is daunting. And in liturgical terms the Cathedral as it stood was not an ideal place for modern worship practices; the old Victorian idea of the church service is now gone. It used to be that the celebrant performed the Eucharistic ritual in sacred isolation at the far end of the church, barely visible to the people, while the hoipolloi of the congregation were kept well away in the nave, so that they could not "pollute" the Sacrament. This has been replaced by a more inclusive ceremonial. The Cathedral incumbents acknowledged this in the nineteen-eighties when they moved the high altar down under the nave crossing, to be with the congregation not above or separate from them, to support a community of faith, not a hierarchy of the faithful. A new cathedral would reflect this.
   There is the question too of whether the Cathedral had become little more than a tourist attraction. My apologies to those members of the congregation who worshipped there, but some of the proponents of a replica rebuild cite the reason that we should rebuild "because it's the thing tourists come to see". Is the Cathedral a sacred site or a populist one? If the reason to rebuild is for the tourist dollar then all Christchurch people should pay for it, not just the Anglicans of the city.
A complex question, then, with no easy answers that will please everyone.