Photos of a destruction, excuses, excuses, and the sewing machine from Hell.

Nice shops in an old wool store building, still standing by the skin of their teeth. Not that they are open.

Many years ago as a department store it had the best cafe in town

This once was a fabulous Country style store.

I've been in here hundreds of times.

This is the Catholic Cathedral, they will be removing the dome in a few weeks .

To be honest I've been a bit tardy with posting, as for last 2 weeks I've had, a hard to shake bout of asthma. But I think it's under control, I don't have it often but since the "you know what" so many have people been having asthma attacks, it's all the dirt, silt and dust. Every little shake brings dust down to coat everything at work.A funny thing happened on Tuesday,  while 2 co-workers were telling one of our darling men, who has returned from a 9 week holiday in the North Island, while their house was being repaired, not to worry if a aftershock happens to go under the table, know matter how small it is, and low and behold we got a 4.1 kindly sent from down the road at Aj's (the son's) workplace before the words had left their mouths. So that joins the long list of things not to do to avoid bringing down another quake upon us, like don't buy clocks of Trademe, don't take Paul E. out for dinner, don't say "we haven't had one for awhile",and most definitely say " gosh it's really calm and still, perfect earthquake weather".
I was going to tell about my sewing machine , I bought it from a Aussie company with many shops in NZ, it was the most expensive machine I have owned but not expensive in the way of things. It wouldn't let me machine quilt anything,( I'm useless at machine quilting anyway) all though it's called a Quiltmaster. So I took it in to ******* shop (insert) name of popular brand of machine, and said it wasn't sewing well. The lady who served me looked vaguely familiar, said " Dear, when I sold these at ********* we had many returned because they had  the wrong walking foot with them, they aren't a good make". Yes is that's right lady I thought it was you who sold it to me. She was very disparging about the machine and said they are no longer sold by ********* as the were so bad..............lovely. Tried to get me to buy a second ex school machine for $1,300 or a $3,000 machine with all the bells and whistles. I smiled through my teeth, but silently made the decision never to buy one of their machines because if she sold me a machine which she knew to be **** once, I'm ****** sure I wont be trusting her again with even more of my money.
I know I'm sorry it's Mother's Day and  I'm moaning, and I did  get some shoes and gorgeous socks, of course I'm cooking dinner while the men watch the boxing, at least I'm at the kitchen table sewing without interruption. Now that's a real present. Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's, those who have children whether they are human, feline or canine.Love to all Aunt Bee.

Didn't need my glasses after all.

Didn't need my glasses to see what a truly gracious wedding it was, the dress beautiful and it's bride stunning, the Prince good and caring, and the guests looking fabulous. I loved the fact it felt like a private wedding not just a State occasion, lovely, lovely day or in our case, night, and well done the police in particular for the moving of people down the Mall. In fact the  whole thing was wonderful, but please let's not have repeats for the next 6 months.

A short sighted view of the wedding and such.

I went all artistic here, but ran back to the car as it was cold

25c Easter Sunday , freezing Wednesday

Styx River swamp or as they call it, recreational area

Jeni from With Needle and Thread,  no Aj neither of us were sex slave recruiters

Sticky Orange Sponge from BBC Good Food, delicious

So happy to find these as I couldn't find any Persophone Books here in NZ.

I found 5 John Buchan's, the book God was happy with me.

found Tom some light reading

Quick posting as the "wedding" is about to begin, I went to the Book Fair today, but got these books from  the market last Saturday. I have lost my glasses today, I am wearing an old pair, which is a trial as  they are no longer my prescription so I'll be peering at the screen to-night. I'll do this while watching the Breakers vs Taipans, the Warriors vs some Aussie team  and the Highlanders vs the Blues, I only care about the dress anyway. Ok, all the dresses, but Kate's is the only important one really, as it's not as if Elton will be wearing a dress today..........or will he. Love Aunt Bee.

A lost weekend planned.

yes please

I hope he remembers me

autumn is here in force, time to be indoors by the fire

I will be busy this weekend, so I won't be posting , will I be out and about.....no, will I be gardening.......no, will I be cooking and baking, possibly, will I be sitting on the couch......YES. UK TV is having a murder and mystery weekend  ..............bliss if it's an emergency I'll be eating chocolate on the couch watching Inspector Lynley and or Miss Marple, knitting or crocheting, disturb at your peril. Love Aunt Bee.

Hiding in plain sight and a walk in the Botanical Gardens

there are 3 trees captured here I think they look amazing

We grow all sorts of plants in Christchurch,  reminds me of a Triffid

Outside the rose garden the hedge is ringed by hundreds of Dahlias

the Rose garden, just about finished for the summer

this is where Heavenly Creatures was filmed, Kate Winslet's first film

a very appropriate sculpture

from the bridge

so peaceful, except for a really noisy duck

one of many ponds

I love Dahlias

Please note new header, it's" the mens" Easter bunnies, old family tradition which recognizes no age, that's to say they aren't too old to have a chocolate bunny. But I thought can't be bothered to hide them so there they are hiding in plain sight and no one has noticed. Have just returned from "drinks" at work tonight, I was home at 7.30pm. as I couldn't drink as I was driving, pizza and cookie and cream cheesecake, lovely. I went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday, driving through the city which bought a tear to my eyes, it is so munted or as the Mayor said mega munted, but the gardens have stood firm. Planned and planted by the early settlers they are  the biggest and most beautiful public gardens in the Southern Hemisphere,  so gorgeous with all their Autumn finery. I should add this is but a tiny part of the Gardens they encompass cricket, rugby, croquet, soccer and netball fields and courts, a helicopter landing pad for the hospital, a pond for sailing boats (small) and the Avon River, plus a nine hour golf course and numerous walking and cycling tracks. It's a large area bisected by a road, many years ago when I was younger I used to run around the two parks, are sweet mystery of youth why can't I do that now..........crook knees, sciatica, bad ears and appalling eyesight shall I go on. No thank-you self ,I think you were enjoying that too much. Happy and Holy Easter to you all. Love Aunt Bee.

In case there has been doubt - I am an Idiot.

the mornings have been very foggy

Here is a story which unfortunately proves that I am an idiot
Two weeks ago I ran out of one of my drugs, I have two tablets every morning. Drug A and drug B we will call them, and I ran out of drug B, a little unusual as they usually they are exactly the same amount and run out together, in fact I had copious amounts of drug A left. But I thought nothing of it and delayed getting a refill because it would been a $33.00 trip to the Doctor, plus the inconvenience of going to a doctor just  2 minutes down the road. So last week after talking it over with my colleague Mare I decide to ring the Drs. and get a prescription only if I could. Spoke to the nurse who said " Do you need more drug A as well"?  I should have lied, but I was honest and said no I have heaps of them. Silence at end of line, "mmmmmm well that shouldn't happen " she said. " I know" I replied "I thought it was odd myself". " How many tablets are you taking a day."
Oh bugger as soon as she said that I got the giggles as I knew what I had done , drug A had been increased last visit and for some strange reason I thought the tablet it self was increased not me upping the number of times a day I took it. By then Mare is in hysterics as she has picked up on what has happened and I can't stop laughing, result one Drs. appointment with the threat of a memory test thrown in. When I saw the Doc I put it down to earthquake brain.........any excuse will do.
Last night we did have a big shake 5.3, had us contemplating the table as it rolling on for at least 30 seconds, yesterday was my birthday and we had numerous little shakes all day, isn't that a nice present.
I did get spoilt, 2 large boxes of Guylain chocolates which are my favourites,  and money for my September trip to the Craft fair that comes over from Oz. Next week will be more exciting becos Jeni from  With Needle and Tread is coming over to spend Easter with her family and we are meeting up Easter Monday. This is the first time I have met a fellow blogger, I am so excited, of course Aj warned me about the dangers of meeting people off the internet, cheeky monkey.

click to enlarge , a pukeho baby, it's mum must have been confused ,it's Autumn

The pukeho pronounced pookekho, oddly enough photographed  in a very marshy paddock next to the sewage works, well it made me laugh. They make a strange whistle noise and love the marshy swampy land, they are cute but not very nice as they eat anything. And of course this is NZ so they can't fly.That's it for now, it's a cold wet day and I'm pulling out the sewing machine, the old one ( will tell the story of the new one next time) to do some sewing. Love Bee

Dogs drool and Cats rule. and other things, I'm rambling again.

nice old purse, quite roomy considering it's got all my cards and a small amount of money in it.

I love it and have promised not to paint it...........yet

bag for work

bought it because it was cheap, not sure what to do with it

And this is a good part of the road

there is always a Portaloo if your caught short on the way home

Church further back the road, it's just holding on since September

On the way home from work, these shops have almost gone today

I have in my own defence been busy, sort of, so I haven't blogged for over a week. The photos above are my buys and some I took going home from work, a little Tiki tour down Stanmore Rd and beyond. The shops above and the ones you can't see around the corner (funny that not been able to see around corners) were almost gone this afternoon when I went passed.These are the shops we use for things required for work, and my special PO shop with the  best mags in town. He is still there and operating, people died in this group of shops, how terrible is that to be working in the fish shop and being a customer and then a earthquake happens.  We had two decent ones on Tuesday and one of the staff said ( this was at lunchtime and it went on for a few seconds) "Jim ( the boss) Jim should we get up under the tables. Jim we should get everyone under the tables now", and we all said " Hell no, it's not a bad one, and we wont be asking  Jim whether we should go under the bloody tables we'll all be there", we were all laughing at this because she lives in the country and doesn't feel  the numerous aftershocks out there.

this will remain a mystery till I finish it, it's for the car ????? can't say more

As you can see picked up some things, the bag is a decent size and holds everything that I need in my daily life, I won a prize at a quiz night for having the most things in my bag, which I was proud of because you have to be prepared, don't you. The cute purse has two compartments and I love it, have put my stuff in it as I sat in the car after buying it, the magazine rack came from the same store which I'll post about at a later date when I get some good photos. I think I'll paint it, but not yet, when "the men" have forgotten about it, they like it how it looks now, but I think a little white paint would look good. The wool came from the cats shop and cost $2.00 for 5 balls so I had to give a cat a better life by buying it, what a wonderful person I am..............Actually I do love cat's and I see Britain has become a nation of dog lovers over the dear old mogs, what's wrong with them,( the British, I mean not the cats), I would love a dog but only if Dave was happy with the arrangement.  The boys favourite movie when they were young used to say "dogs drool and cats rule", it had Sally Field as the cat and Michael J Fox as the young dog, can't remember the old dog .............(.thinking time there) it was called The Incredible Journey, what a brilliant movie, we all loved it. Dave isn't as agile as he was, poor old man, hope this winter isn't too tough for him or us, it has been cold and wet the last few days, I'm wearing 2 layers so that should tell you something. Have to go and do something vaguely useful..........yes I mean housework.......Love Aunt Bee.