It has been a horrible week watching images of Christchurch's destruction. What a misnomer the name is. Proof that there is no God? Awaiting news from friends and family has put us on tenterhooks. It seems, with luck, that our people are OK. The Canterbury side of our family have never gone far, spending their lives in Ashburton, Hinds, Rakaia and Christchurch with only a couple straying. My mother to Wellington. An aunt to Malta and another two to Australia. The older generation have mostly passed on and it is the cousins who are flying the family flag now. Three different lots of them live in Christchurch in risky areas. There have been losses but this is in property. Alison, Tony's wife is safe and well and was one of the first helping out at the rescue centres. Houses have fallen down, property has slipped and liquefaction has made streets impassable. At the Old Girl's Christchurch workplace most of the staff have lost houses. We will have a few refugees coming our way soon.
We lived in Christchurch between 1995 and 2000. The house we owned we retained until a couple of years ago. It was such a nice property that I didn't want to let it go. The depressing sight of how tenants let the gardens run to rack and ruin and how they kept the house in an untidy state was the deciding factor in us selling it. The photographs here were taken just before we sold it and the grounds are in a sorry state. It was a lovely house with an acre of established garden with protected trees (registered with the council). Lynn kept lots of gardens including three different rose ones with individually names roses. One she called the cocktail lounge with roses with official names of Barossa Valley, Tequila Sunset, Chardonnay, Gewurtztraminer (it had an aroma of Gewurtztraminer), White Cloud, Whisky etc.
My memories of Christchurch are well ingrained and generally involve images of parks, gardens, brickwork, 2-storey houses, chimneys, smoke, mist, snow, frost and the echoes of sports on chilly sports grounds. The thwack of a cricket bat on a leather ball, the cheer of a crowd or the excited screams of children are somehow magnified through chill air and mist. Lovely.
The Old Girl's mother (now safely living back in Aberdeen), when living in Christchurch (her house was in Avonside) used to work at the Cathedral. She was based in the gift-shop by the cafe which is now under tonnes of rubble. She does not know the fate of her previous colleagues.
'Our' house lost its chimneys in the September earthquake. I don't know yet how it fared in this latest one. Being West of the city (Russley/Masham area at the back of Riccarton racecourse) means that it might have got through relatively unscathed. It may sound selfish of me talking like this but it is too painful thinking of the destruction and the unimaginable living conditions of thousands of residents there that I want to imagine Christchurch as I knew it. If we hadn't sold our property when we did we probably wouldn't be able to now. Survivor guilt? Yes. I think so.
4 comments:
I think we all feel for the poor sods in Christchurch, but your story somehow makes it more personal.We have no relatives down there, but we do know a few families via some of our local friends, and like yours, they're all OK, just property damage.
I say just property damage, but even though no one was injured or killed, severe damage to your home is increadibly traumatic. It's the safe haven, the little space you control, and to have that haven breached feels like a betrayal.
I'm a notoriously mean Scot, but even I am contributing to the relief fund (through the Red Cross).
Just as a bit of light relief, we had a little quake last night. It was only 4.5 according to GeoNet, but it was unusually short and sharp. My beloved let out a little squeak and needed a cuddle afterwards. My son was in the shower when the jolt hit, and when he came out, he said he had almost sh*t himself, imagining being caught naked, covered in soap, in a glass-enclosed cabinet. I think he had images of himself being dragged naked, covered in blood,out of the rubble.
TSB (of RBB), was it earthquake weather in Pinehaven last night?
Ungrateful Comeinyourpants, nice story.
Nice to hear from you again.
Nice to have you back.
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