Christchurch Pettys in May

William and Jessica arrive, have a party, live in the caravan and William gets a job

At the beginning of May Jessica and William arrived from America. They arrived on Monday 2nd May, having missed out on Sunday altogether. It sounds as if they had a very interesting time in Chicago and were well looked-after in California. They are currently staying in the caravan in the front of our yard, and using the outside bathroom. This means that Mark and I use the inside bathroom which has an inferior shower, but it is nice not to have to go outside to use it. They are pretty much independent except when they beg for the car or we invite them for dinner.
We decided we needed to have some kind of welcome event for them. The night after they arrived we went to the Quiz Night with Nick at Chats bar. That was nice to have us and Nick together. Then on a Friday we had a soup and rolls evening, to which we invited people from my work, from church and friends and family. They got some lovely presents, and it was nice for so many people to come and meet Jessica. We invited about twice as many people as was really sensible, as usually people don’t come when we invite them. However this time just about everyone came, and it was packed. The food went down well – various soups (made by me, Des, Alison and Cheryl) bread rolls, home-made ice cream, chocolate cream cornets (made by Jessica) and citrus slice (made by my mother).
William and Jessica worked very hard on getting him a job, and he was able to start work on the 31st May at Foodstuffs. He is driving a mini forklift called a “Jiffy” I think, and filling up pallets with orders and wrapping them in plastic, at the command of a voice synthesised computer program. He seems to be enjoying it okay. And it is money coming in, which is great.


Stake Conference and a new calling
There was nowhere available in Christhchurch suitable for Stake Conference that would hold the requisite 800-900 people. The September earthquake broke our Fendalton Chapel (Stake Centre) so we had Stake Conference last December in the Christchurch Town Hall. Then the February quake has put the Town Hall out of action as well. There are not many venues big enough that aren’t way too big. So we only had a Saturday evening session for the adults. It was poorly attended. Jonathan played the organ and did a good job as usual.

I finally got a calling at church after more than six months since Seminary ended. I am Activity Day leader. There are about nine children, aged between 8 and 11, and I pretty much get to do what I like with them so long as it is safe and suitable. For our first activity we made and decorated chocolate chip cookies at my place. I plan to do some map and compass work next Saturday. I'm pretty excited about it, as they are great kids and really need something fun in our rather dire earthquaked city. I have been a cub leader before, so that will be useful for games and ideas. We have the boys and girls together as there is no church Scouting programme in New Zealand.

Bits and pieces

On Mothers’ Day I overdid using my hand on the iPad at church for Louise, the deaf woman. My thumb was so sore I couldn’t do anything, and had to put it in a splint and take nurofen. My sister, Linda was able to tell me what to do as she is a specialist in hands. Mark had gone to Ashburton for the day, so it was a bit sad. William and Jessica cooked for us though. It was so nice to have it done for me.

Jonathan is happy to be back at Hagley for his Jazz course. His teachers are so enthusiastic and nice, and he is valued by the other class members. They play every second Wednesday night at a jazz Bar. Pre September quake it was at the Blues Bar. Then it was at Fat Eddies, which was a great place. But it got badly hit in the February quake, so now they go to a little place on Lincoln Road. I guess they are lucky to have anywhere!

My work is very different. I spent a lot of my first term rescheduling my tutors to the new time slots I was given from week to week. Very tiresome. We got there in the end, though, thanks to some very good tutors.

We had a short (3 hour) Rogaine at Living Springs, and had a good time clambering through bush and up and down hills.

Before the rogaine we went to the community consultation called “Share an Idea”. This is talking about what to do with the Christchurch centre city. There may be up to half the buildings in the CBD demolished as a result of the earthquake. Some don’t look too badly damaged, but will cost too much to get them safe again. At the event there were many opportunities to suggest aspects we would and would not like to see. There was a very positive atmosphere. It is worth realising that very few cities get a chance to reinvent themselves so thoroughly

Tennis, Family, Double Down
Mark and I have paid for a membership at a tennis club which has the courts next to my mother’s place. They were beautiful courts before the earthquake, but now of the four courts, three have large cracks and one has lumps. With winter the light has been a bit of a problem. However, despite all that we still like playing there. Mark always wins, but I feel happy if I can get him running a bit and get the occasional point. Our usual score is 6-0 6-1 or something like that.

I met my mother’s first cousin, Ray McLauchlan, who is in his nineties, and a very nice person. He had to move out of his house for a while as he lives in Redcliffs where rocks were falling out of cliffs. He is back home again now.

KFC have invented a new menu item. It is called a “Double Down” and is made up of two pieces of chicken breast with two slices of bacon and cheese in-between. There was an outcry from nutritionists, which provided major advertising for KFC. So of course we had to try one. Mark and Jonathan and I went one night and found it yummy and very filling. I think one in a lifetime is probably enough though. My tummy wasn’t enormously happy afterwards.

Wanaka Trip
We had our annual trip to Wanaka for the rogaine there. We stayed in a cottage at Tarras. Before that we bought me some more gaiters to protect my legs from thorns and wet. I also got some other gear- leggings and a scarf thing. It is not a cheap sport, but it makes it much more pleasant when you have the proper gear.

We decided to make a real holiday of it and left on Thursday and came home on Monday. The drive down was lovely as usual. We stopped in Geraldine and bought me some replacement sheepskin slippers and a waterproof hat. We had dinner at the Omarama Hotel, which was a step back in time about 40 years to patterned carpet, sweet salad dressing and over-cooked frozen vegetables. The meal was good enough though. The house where we stayed was a cottage on a farm near Tarras. It was brilliant for location as the start of the rogaine was less than ten minutes drive away. On the Friday we had a drive to Cromwell for supplies and lunch, and other than that we just mooched around.

Then on Saturday was the rogaine itself. We arrived about 11:30 to register, and the maps were given out at 12, for a 1pm start. We found 13 marks out of the 16 planned and got home just in time at 7pm. The scariest bit was a downhill part through scrub just before nightfall. I think my favourite part was walking up a dry river bed in the sunshine with not a soul in sight. Mark was pretty impressed at how easily he got up the steep part of the hill. He was prepared to go back down and look for a mark we didn’t find on the way up, but I declined and sat at the top and made encouraging noises. Then I had a hard look at the map and realised we were one valley over from where the mark was. So we found it after all.

Sunday was a lovely quiet day at the cottage. I worked on a talk for church and we didn’t even leave the cottage all day. I cooked on the coal range, which was a first for me. The smell of coal, bacon and eggs was reminiscent of my grandfather’s house.

Coming home on Monday we decided to have some adventures and turned off the main road to travel down beside the Pukaki River to the top of Lake Benmore. That road was seriously dodgy in places, and I was relieved that Mark was used to driving off-road, albeit in a four-wheel drive work vehicle, not a V3000 sedan. A couple of times he had to just go fast and slide and fishtail over river rocks so we wouldn’t get stuck. We did make it through in one piece, and were happy to find a well-graded metalled road on the other side to drive up beside the Tekapo River. We ate our lunch in the middle of the MacKenzie Basin. Magic! I love the immensity of the space surrounded by the immensity of the mountains. I can see why so many painters like to paint the Mackenzie country. That and Lindis Pass. We live in such a beautiful country.

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We did get home safely, after eating dinner at Yummy in upper Riccarton. The others were just having dinner as Jonathan had school until about 6pm. Altogether it was a wonderful time away.