reporting in from the zone.

I'm leaving my car where it is till the weekend, hope it's still there. Cleaning up the house and keeping in touch with family as my oldest brother is missing, last seen in town centre yesterday, but we are trying to stay calm becos if he was it's like him to help, so just waiting for some contact. Haven't had a proper sleep but will go soon probably not sleep though, brain is in overdrive..............love Barbara

Message from the earthquake zone.

It's 3.49am I must have slept, becos I'm up and going to make a cuppa, the aftershocks have kept on coming. I can't believe this has happened, yesterday I got up and went for my usual walk, went to work and while sitting at the lunch table playing scattergories our world turned upside down. My boss is amazing and I know we will get back into a work place at sometime but our clients( who did really well under the circumstances) may never recover. I haven't watched too much TV, but I did hear we are going to this time accept help and Thank God for that, so that's it I off to have a cuppa. Love to you all Aunt Bee............real name Barbara.

the earthquake

Quick post to say we are ok, Basil and Aj were at home, tom at Uni, got out and walked home, me at work. Unusually for  me I have no words, so terrible our workplace is destroyed...........it is wrecked no jobs for us, no place for our clients to go..........outside in the cold for hours waiting for our clients to be picked up took the vans up to 4 hours to get to us, we are in the city. Left my car at work, Linds gave me a lift home via the rest of the city. I am exhausted...........I'm very emotional I love my city and this is a disaster of untold magnitude, yet as we drove home so areas look untouched and had power, its just come on here. Basil has gone to work he is an essential industry (a prison officer) of course he is out of the city and I know he'll worry. Sorry to be a pain, there is too much to tell, so many dead.........thank God we are ok, it is of course raining just what we need but not right now. Aunt Bee

When $40.00 means $80.00

Haven't had time to look at it yet

another quilt for Ava, more for everyday use

start of quilt for Ava

Trusty old machine with wonderful mat a chrissy swap present from Jeni

Stripy blanket a la Lucy at Attic 24

Miss Marple only No.1 to get now

This is a long story so I'll to be quick. Whitcoulls a large national book shop chain is going down the gurgler so to speak it's in receivership since Thursday and the news said if you have any vouchers to get in quick and use them . They also mentioned some shops will only honour them if you match them dollar for dollar. Of course Baz had $40.00 worth, I gave him as a Chrissy present, so we went to the mall on Saturday, as so did many other people to spend them, and yes we did have to spend another $40.00, I find this morally wrong akin to theft as I told the girl behind the counter, which I said I realised wasn't her fault, but I felt I had to say something. They the Aussie owners are in the poo in Aussie and have blamed electronic books and the internet book shops for this situation but truthfully they have been putting up there prices continually for years and of course you are going to go for the best deal, but a shop is always more appealing to people than the internet, no worries about internet security, instant gratification not having to wait for a book and the price shouldn't be a problem in NZ, we buy more books per head of population by far than any country in the world, but being a captive market, book shops have always charged through the nose. A few metaphors and colloquial sayings in there, but you get my meaning, it is criminal to hold vouchers for ransom in this way. But of  course we paid up, as did the older couple with a $100.00 voucher. So we got 2 DVD's one for Baz after all it was his voucher, Dad's Army, one for me, Miss Marple, the Country Living mag and a Veggy cookbook.
I spent Sunday sewing, two quilts for Ava a "good" one and one to put down on the floor when she's having a stretch or in her buggy. I'm quite pleased, had to work on them, then have a cuppa, do some more work and then another cuppa as it was so hot and windy.
The "men" are off to Uni today, TG am over having to large brutes lying about the house, bring on the assignments and study I say, that'll keep them out of trouble............sure that will work they are students. Love Aunt Bee. Stripy blanket coming along nicely.

What idiot gives way to a pedestrian crossing that isn't one ?

A full moon, so beautiful but bringer of oddness.
What a day, first I gave way to a pedestrian crossing, when it was no longer a pedestrian crossing and it had now  got traffic lights. Did this cause problems Aunt Bee ? Only an inconvenience to the cars behind me waiting for me to move as the lights were green. Then I went to a local craft shop to buy thread for work and they didn't have any, passed me form pillar to post, I maintained that we had always bought it there, but they couldn't find and when I returned to work, haha, wouldn't you know it, we had orderedfrom our usual suppliers from up north. We have never ever bought our thread from Spotlight, no always bought it from from a wholesaler in Wellington.  I will say the noise level at work was manic and we had tears and the odd yelling and swearing outbursts and that was only the staff..........no, no joking it was our clients we do that stuff behing closed doors. Managed to drop the ham I had bought for Basil's  dinner as I went up the deck to the door. Dave just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and probably doesn't need his seafood delight tonight for his dinner. I think I'll have an early night, found two books at the library, by a author unknown to me Rebecca Tope, they look good. 

A mish, mash and a motorway.

 A few things I found, well bought , the felt, fabric and pattern I picked up when I went to the bank and popped into the fabric shop which was having a sale, only to look, haha. It was a 25% off everything sale and it would have been rude to leave empty handed. The market had some new stallholders there and when I saw the Cadbury funnel measure I was sure I couldn't afford it as I was down to my last $5.00, when he said $1 and then $2 for the lemon squeezer I was was delighted, but felt a bit mean because he could have sold them for a lot more. He had an old baby's bath which I thought look good with plants in and an old mixing bowl/jug thingy which of course I had to look lovingly at and leave behind, with my luck he'll never be seen at the that market again. Dinner out last night pot luck BBQ out in the country, I got lost, but it was a good night, very warm, the kids (not mine) were in the pool till 9.30pm and then I made the long trip home, well it took me 1 hour to get there and 35mins to get home, the roads were very quiet, it made me realise I would like to live in the country again, but the fuel bill for coming into work would be huge. Basil actually works further out than MM,s place and its so expensive each week just to run his car. You probably tell I'm over summer, it has been a long hot summer and it would be nice if the weather started to get cooler, I love Autumn and Winter and I am ready for the change of seasons, even if no-one else is..........I am a little worried not just for us but for all those with damage to their homes what the approaching bad weather  will do, we can't do anything like thousands of others because someone else control's the timetable for repairs and in some cases complete rebuilding. Life is always interesting isn't it, and that makes it never dull............Love Aunt Bee.........and I haven't told  you yet about the motorway........yes let's build a motorway when the city needs billions of dollars worth of repairs. The motorway that'll will mean we will be hemmed in by two motorways and unable to turn right into our feeder road oh bliss...........I shall be going to the public meeting, God help them if I get the microphone.

Now get away from the computer and feed me.

I have coveted these from afar, nearly died when he said it was S1.00.

glass lemon squeezer, old $2.00

market shopping 

Oh God I am turning into my mum, but I love the EWW, and GF is  the best.

Latest mag, remember it takes time to get to NZ, when I was young mags took 6 months by boat.

when I impulsively bought the felts I also bought this, cute for  winter I think.

gorgeous felt squares and pretty fabric, impulse buy

Tartan throw on couch ready for the inclement weather, ok it's 31c today

It hasn't all been a walk in the Park.

This is one of the nicest places in Christchurch.

Our prevailing summer wind the norwester at work

Basil surveying the duck pond, it had been drained and cleaned.

Sorry I haven't been around the "dear computer" would not let me write anything let alone publish and so much has happened. First Aj's hand, is out of plaster and unwired, swollen and puffy it is at least attached to his arm, the day he got that done a letter from Canterbury Uni arrived offering him a place there which would be in his preferred degree and is the same Uni as his brother. It would mean he could bus and be with his friends, of course he had accepted a place at Lincoln..........aargh! set in motion his loan application and all the tedious enrollment stuff. I tried to jolly him along with Lincoln is a good fit for you etc but I know he wanted UC, so he has changed everything over to UC and said sorry to Lincoln, what a parlavar but it's done. He also starts back at work on the 19th Feb, in the shop, so his hand doesn't get hurt or overused. So that is all fixed, throw in the quake we had just 30 minutes ago, my  health issues, yes I to am on a low fat diet due to my cholesterol which oddly enough is lower than 3 years ago but the Dr. has made me go on a low fat diet now..........he must have missed the higher reading in 2008, I'm on a waiting list (semi urgent ) for a specialist, so that's a 4 month wait, not that I care as it's one of those things I would prefer to put off .I blame Aj he was a massive baby.........which explains the baby weight I am still carrying. Ha, he's 19 in May, but that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Have done some market shopping , some nice skirts, it's so hot here Sunday was 36c, hell's teeth that's hot and so hot at night no one is sleeping well and I actually wore one of the skirts which made me look like a large hippy with a attitude, no peace, love and beads for me when it's hot, I just get grumpy. I had a load of young men here, 15 of them watching TV, in the heat in one room, oh the aroma, they stayed for 3 1/2 hours and I has strict instructions to make myself invisible so I went for a haircut in the mall, very cool and not busy and then a iced chocolate in a cafe, still to early so I sat in the garage reading the paper............I must have been out of my mind.

Hagley Park, a beautiful day for a walk.