Christchurch Pettys have a quiet September

The C17 Globemaster up close during the Open Day - The main link to the Antarctic from Christchurch 

After our exciting time in Melbourne in August, September was pretty quiet.

I am Primary President, so the Primary Sacrament Presentation had been looming large, especially as I was away for the first practice. However I'd done a lot of preparation beforehand, and it went very smoothly, with minimal adult input on the day. I've learned that when you have church in the afternoon, if you want the children to be at their best, you need to feed them. So for the practice I took crackers, apples and fruit loaf. It worked.

Shane and I worked on a new look for our website. You can see it here: www.statslc.com. The app sales are ticking over, so that we have about $100 a week coming in, which is better than nothing. I am enjoying the lifestyle of being self-employed, so it would be so nice for it to be possible to continue.

On the second anniversary of the first earthquake we have a pretty amazing electrical storm, with large hail.

Hammond Peak, William and the real thing.

William had an "End of course ceremony" similar to a graduation but with less pomp. Hammond Peak was there, with his Oscar for everyone to touch and take photos with. (He won it for sound on Lord of the Rings - the third one I think) We were really proud as William was one of three students out of about 60 who got a special award for 100% on-time attendance. He is now doing the second course, which specialises in film, whereas last year's one was film and animation. The year beings and ends in September because of the earthquakes.

The main event was helping my mother to move house. Her previous place was untouched by the earthquakes, but was in the Red Zone as the land is dodgy, being close to the river. Her new place is part of a complex with independent apartments, a rest home, a hospital and a dementia unit. My sister and I spent the day helping her, and she was all settled in by the end of the day. My main contribution was to try to get the Sky television etc working. It took me a couple of tries, but I got there in the end. Driving around the city is a big pain in the neck these days, as you never know which streets or lanes of streets are going to be closed. I can see why my mother isn't keen to drive.

Harper Gardens - Nicola's mum's unit is on the bottom right near the photo edge.

Jonathan has been preparing for his audition for Jazz School at CPIT. he even did some practice, and we had to try to find him a drummer and his teacher, Todd, from Hagley played Bass guitar. The audition was in October so you will need to wait to hear how it went.

I had my birthday, and it was really lovely as Jessica made sushi for dinner, and she and William played charades with us. Earlier in the day I took Jonathan swimming, and then went out to lunch with my mother. There was a small earthquake that I didn't notice.

At the end of the month I planted the garden. So far I have planted lettuce, carrots, radish, fennel, mesclun mix, beetroot, butterbeans, courgettes, cucumber and snow peas. The boysenberry plant from last year seems to be thriving. I think I need to break in some more lawn into garden. We have a way to go to be like 130 Arapuni St though!

Jonathan went to the recording studio with his ensemble to record a couple of tracks for the class CD. Mark went to see some Antarctic planes at the airport, but was disappointed as they didn't see much.

And that is it!
Much love,
Nicola, Mark and Jonathan.