Just another brief entry, waiting, waiting to go off on my trip. I wish i could go now, because I'm practically ready. I've got my suitcase open in the spare room, and as I think of things I throw them in there. I'm trying to pack light, hate toting large bags around strange cities, mainly because the locals all go "oh, there's some poor sap of a tourist schlepping around, what a dork" or words similar to, and I feel embarrassed.
Not trying to sharpen up my italian, because I'm bound to forget everything the first time someone speaks to me. I have Lonely Planet's phrase book, which has proved very handy in the past. "Scusi, che stazione questa?" came in useful on my last trip, or I might still be lost in Syracuse.
Looking forward to my first encounter with Venetian art. I've never been all that fond of Tintoretto et al. but perhaps they are best viewed in situ. I never relly liked the Siennese School either, until I saw lots of it in the gallery of religious art in Siena.
Not liking the idea of flying for so long, but at least the anxiety of that will take my mind off other stuff going on here, bad weather, wobbly earth. Coming to work on Wednesday, I had my first experience of being in the car during a quake. I was in a queue on the Moorhouse Avenue overbridge, which has one side propped up with bracing, when I thought I felt the car stall or that sort of chunking that happens when the automatic transmission is changing gear. Then I realized I was feeling an earthquake, hope to God the bridge is safe! Very scary, I hate that hollow legged, knockkneed feeling after the adrenaline surges through. Wanted to get out of the car and vomit, but held it together like the mistress of self-control I am. Perhaps one day soon I will lose it in a major way, hopefully not in a public place.
Want to go away NOW!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Big titties (Well, well)
I've noticed my stats have gone sky-high since I titled my last blog "Quickie". So in the spirit of experimentation I have called this one "Big titties" to see what happens with my stats. Cummon, big boy, push my stats up! How horrified they will be to connect to the maunderings of a middle-aged librarian. Will I be prosecuted for false advertizing?
I am now getting my drinking water from the water site over the road from me. Some lovely people who have an artesian well on their property piped it out to the street so that all could use the water. It was a godsend in the days when we didn't have any water reticulation at all. The water comes from 87 feet down and pumps 130,000 litres a day so theres plenty of it,
and all unchlorinated. We're supposed to boil it, but a colleague of mine has been drinking it and is OK. When I first used the water it was just coming out of a pipe, but the owners have refined it and now there are taps. Good old Kiwi ingenuity and Kiwi generosity. Long may they reign.
I am now getting my drinking water from the water site over the road from me. Some lovely people who have an artesian well on their property piped it out to the street so that all could use the water. It was a godsend in the days when we didn't have any water reticulation at all. The water comes from 87 feet down and pumps 130,000 litres a day so theres plenty of it,
and all unchlorinated. We're supposed to boil it, but a colleague of mine has been drinking it and is OK. When I first used the water it was just coming out of a pipe, but the owners have refined it and now there are taps. Good old Kiwi ingenuity and Kiwi generosity. Long may they reign.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Quickie
Just a little quickie post today, as I'm doing this in my tea break.
uuurgh! The Powers that be (just misspelt that "posers that be" - there's a Fruedian for you) have decided to chlorinate our water so we don't all get tummy bugs, owing to the ammount of free-flowing sewage that might be in the water. Such a pity - one of our great treasures was our wonderful drinking water, all artesian and one of the cleanest supplies in the world. We're going to have to buy bottled water now for tea and cooking (coffee hides the taste better) or just drink a lot of wine and beer.
Also been told not to have baths or do lots of washing, as the infrastructure is poorly. So we'll all be drunk, stinky and wearing dirty clothes from now on.
I've stayed home in my suburb mainly since the quake. I don't want to see what has happened to the city centre or Lyttelton or Sumner. I'll just put my head in the sand and pretend it hasn't happened as much as I can. Every day there is some new bad news so I'm avoiding newspapers, TV. internet sites as well.
Still going to Italy, although Singapore Airlines have cancelled my flights in and out of ChCH. Now I have to go via Auckland, which is a bit of a pain, as the more changes one has to make, the more can go wrong. Posso non cambio? Ma, no. I don't care if I can't get back on time, but going there needs to be smooth and as stress-free as possible.
Made some strawberry jam the other day. It didn't set, so now I have lots of strawberry syrup, which I can still use, but it's just not jam. I asked the Madonna if she would miraculously turn my syrup into jam, but I guess she has more important prayers to attend to at the moment. She told me I was frivolous and to stop being silly, and that she wil get around to it sometime when she's not so busy.
One of the churches in Venice is called Santa Maria Formosa. Formosa means curvy, womanly, and it results from a vision a man had of the Virgin on that spot - she was a sexy, curvy real woman. And why shouldn't she be?
Ave Maria, piena di gratia, santa formosa.
uuurgh! The Powers that be (just misspelt that "posers that be" - there's a Fruedian for you) have decided to chlorinate our water so we don't all get tummy bugs, owing to the ammount of free-flowing sewage that might be in the water. Such a pity - one of our great treasures was our wonderful drinking water, all artesian and one of the cleanest supplies in the world. We're going to have to buy bottled water now for tea and cooking (coffee hides the taste better) or just drink a lot of wine and beer.
Also been told not to have baths or do lots of washing, as the infrastructure is poorly. So we'll all be drunk, stinky and wearing dirty clothes from now on.
I've stayed home in my suburb mainly since the quake. I don't want to see what has happened to the city centre or Lyttelton or Sumner. I'll just put my head in the sand and pretend it hasn't happened as much as I can. Every day there is some new bad news so I'm avoiding newspapers, TV. internet sites as well.
Still going to Italy, although Singapore Airlines have cancelled my flights in and out of ChCH. Now I have to go via Auckland, which is a bit of a pain, as the more changes one has to make, the more can go wrong. Posso non cambio? Ma, no. I don't care if I can't get back on time, but going there needs to be smooth and as stress-free as possible.
Made some strawberry jam the other day. It didn't set, so now I have lots of strawberry syrup, which I can still use, but it's just not jam. I asked the Madonna if she would miraculously turn my syrup into jam, but I guess she has more important prayers to attend to at the moment. She told me I was frivolous and to stop being silly, and that she wil get around to it sometime when she's not so busy.
One of the churches in Venice is called Santa Maria Formosa. Formosa means curvy, womanly, and it results from a vision a man had of the Virgin on that spot - she was a sexy, curvy real woman. And why shouldn't she be?
Ave Maria, piena di gratia, santa formosa.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Aftershocks
Still getting regular aftershocks here. Don't feel them much in the day, but at night. I have to say that I'm now able to sleep through them, shows how a body can get used to anything, even the cats don't bother waking unless its a real wobbler.
Didn't go away as the weather has not been great, except for the day of the memorial service. Thankfully it was a fine day, or everyone would have been in tears all the time. Still can't get my head around the surreal situation, of people being killed by an earthquake in my home town. It's like seeing Godzilla or the Second Coming, just too weird.
And what about Gorgeous Gaddafi? He has such terrible taste in clothes. What's with the shit-coloured wrap-around? Doesn't he know that all self-respecting dictators get suits from Armani?
Spent yesterday replanning and clearing the piece of garden that will be the new expanded vege garden. It's goin to be more than a vege garden though, more of an edible garden, including herbs and fruit. One sleepless night I realised that the sunniest most sheltered part of the garden is only growing agapanthus - it could be growing tomatoes. My tomatoes have been poor this year, probaly because there is too much shade where they are. I also need to get plants started earlier in the season as our growing season seems to have shortened in recent years, with rainy damp autumns rather than sunny dry ones.
Now at the library, it's the almost the only one open, so its busy, busy. I'm going home to spend my afternoon with Rufus (Whoar) Sewell in Middlemarch. Nothing like a costume drama in times of stress.
Didn't go away as the weather has not been great, except for the day of the memorial service. Thankfully it was a fine day, or everyone would have been in tears all the time. Still can't get my head around the surreal situation, of people being killed by an earthquake in my home town. It's like seeing Godzilla or the Second Coming, just too weird.
And what about Gorgeous Gaddafi? He has such terrible taste in clothes. What's with the shit-coloured wrap-around? Doesn't he know that all self-respecting dictators get suits from Armani?
Spent yesterday replanning and clearing the piece of garden that will be the new expanded vege garden. It's goin to be more than a vege garden though, more of an edible garden, including herbs and fruit. One sleepless night I realised that the sunniest most sheltered part of the garden is only growing agapanthus - it could be growing tomatoes. My tomatoes have been poor this year, probaly because there is too much shade where they are. I also need to get plants started earlier in the season as our growing season seems to have shortened in recent years, with rainy damp autumns rather than sunny dry ones.
Now at the library, it's the almost the only one open, so its busy, busy. I'm going home to spend my afternoon with Rufus (Whoar) Sewell in Middlemarch. Nothing like a costume drama in times of stress.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
What next?
I've decided to take a quick trip out of the city. It's too stressful here at the moment, we haven't had an aftershock for a while so I guess it's building up for another big one. After what has happened in Japan we are worried about a tsunami of our own now. If one comes it will be all over with for Christchurch. One bloody doonmsayer here has predicted another big one for around the 20th of this month, so I'm off to the shops to lay in stores and a gas cooker. I'm at the library now, its full of crying kids and I CAN'T STAND IT! So I'll sign off now. God bless.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
What can I say?
Yes, another earthquake. A worse one. A fatal one. This is the strangest thing I've ever been through, and I wish I could wake up and find that it's all a nightmare, but no. Today I'm back at work, some "normality" but not really. My house is fine, I am fine, the cats and my mother are fine, but my city is in ruins, and people are dead. What will become of us? Is it still safe to live here, or should we all be leaving? What does the future hold? No one can say. Someone has predicted another big earthquake on 20th March, but we don't need one. We've had enough.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Venice, Italy
Been thinking and googling heaps this week, planning and booking my trip to the Veneto. Managed to get a prenotazione to stay in a convent in Ponte della Guerra, right behing San Marco, in an old palazzo now turned into a school/ convent by the Suore Figlie de San Guiseppe Caburlotto. (If you want to see where I'm staying Google images "Istituto San Guiseppe Venice"). It's good to know I have a neighbourhood to go to when I get there.
Now I have to book the rest of my trip, although the middle section, a walk around the Euganean Hills is already booked and paid for. I'm not sure whether to stay in Padua for two days or go to a little place called Asolo, to see the Villa Barberigo, one of Palladio's masterpieces. It's a bit hard to get to by public transport, so... maybe maybe not.
Needless to say, I'm very excited. I want to go now!
Saw awful movie the other night. One of those insomniac sessions came over me, so I watched "Interview with a vampire", Brad Pitt and little Tom Cruise looking so daft in long hair and long teeth. Kirsten Dunst was great, but I think the movie should have been far more overtly homoerotic. Apparently though, Brad and Tommy despise each other so I guess that was out. Antonio Banderas was really hard to understand, not sure if it was his accent or his difficulty in speaking through false, sharp teeth. Glad I never paid good money to see this tomato.
Also watched "Vicky Christina Barcelona" again which I love. The menage'd trois are all so gorgeous, and I have a crush on all of them. Would I fly to Oviedo with Javier Bardem, oh yes.
Now I have to book the rest of my trip, although the middle section, a walk around the Euganean Hills is already booked and paid for. I'm not sure whether to stay in Padua for two days or go to a little place called Asolo, to see the Villa Barberigo, one of Palladio's masterpieces. It's a bit hard to get to by public transport, so... maybe maybe not.
Needless to say, I'm very excited. I want to go now!
Saw awful movie the other night. One of those insomniac sessions came over me, so I watched "Interview with a vampire", Brad Pitt and little Tom Cruise looking so daft in long hair and long teeth. Kirsten Dunst was great, but I think the movie should have been far more overtly homoerotic. Apparently though, Brad and Tommy despise each other so I guess that was out. Antonio Banderas was really hard to understand, not sure if it was his accent or his difficulty in speaking through false, sharp teeth. Glad I never paid good money to see this tomato.
Also watched "Vicky Christina Barcelona" again which I love. The menage'd trois are all so gorgeous, and I have a crush on all of them. Would I fly to Oviedo with Javier Bardem, oh yes.
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