k o s m o k r a t o r

for those interested, here's pics of the house taken a year ago

http://www.kosmokrator.net/images/house/

i travelled back out to hororata today to help mum and basically sort their lives out for them. my sister was already there pretending she knew what she was doing, so i tricked her into clearing out the pantry and putting things back into cupboards.

power had fortunately come back on, which kept dad out of our hair while he pretended to watch tv, but once we discussed the water situation, he tried to be his old self but quite frankly, we didn't have the time energy or skill to do things as he would have done them. dad did everything as if he was making it for the queen and had to be perfect. unfortunately, when you‘re trying to undo water pipes that have sheared off the hot water cylinder, and make temporary repairs so you can actually stay in the house, then looks and skill and artistic flair take a back seat. in my book anyway. but basically, after yesterday and today and my own household dramas, i was a bit testy with dad and told him to fu*k off out of it and just let me do it. mum said not to swear (interestingly didn’t tell me not to tell dad off) but i said i was a grown adult and could say fu*k to whomever i wanted.

the water drama, in a nutshell is, there isn't any.

the quake caused the council th shut off water to repair damage etc, but our local drama was the coal range, which also has a wet back water heater shifted sideways several inches (it weighs 2.2 tonnes) and sheared off the pipes leading to the cylinder. so naturally 40 gallons of water ended up on the kitchen floor. one of the first things mum did was turn off the water tower water so that the 250 gallons in there didn't start to refill the cylinder and then empty out into the house.
as i left tonight, the water was still not back on, but thats irrelevant as no water can get from the cylinder to any tap. i called a friend from rugby whos dad is a retired plumber and he's coming out tomorrow to make propper temporary repairs and/or re-fix the pipes. so currently they have plenty of bottled water for drinking. i bought containers for washing and cleaning, and a neighbour gave them containers for flushing the toilet.

saw hide nor hair of my brother, who i was told has house falling down problems of his own, so i‘ll contact him tomorrow to ask if he needs help.

stopped off at my aunty and uncles on the way back home to check and give them all the skinny and arrived home to find, as expected, simon in his room drunk and watching tv and also as expected, everything left exactly where nature deposited it two days earlier.
i didn’t cry or get angry, but just got on my hands and very sore knees and started picking things up and throwing things into the rubbish bin. thank god it's a 30 gallon container.
books are now sitting on my desk in huge piles in the office and the two remaining pieces of glass shelving are sitting outside looking rather forlorn. i'm just thankful that my main wooden bookshelf had the forsight to tell me to screw it to the mantlepiece when i first mooved in. one of the many earthquake survival lessons i remember from my childhood. i picked up as much of the larger pieces of glass, then vacuumed, the vacuumed again, the shon lights and looked at various angles to catch the glare of reflected light and vacuumed again.
i want to ask the landlord to replace the carpet as its a hazzard for my bare feet, the dog and my nephew when he crawls around. we‘ll see what happens.
the kitchen, oh joy, the kitchen. luckily, no crockery or glassware came flying out of any cupboard, but the main food cupboard flew open as stacked tins came down and broke anything that was on the bench. nothing major. what was the mess was the flour, sugar, salt, the broken decorative preserved chillies and other foods and fruits in those fancy bottles with wax on the top and olive oile made a big gelatinous gunky mess over the floortablechairsfridgeandanythingwithinreach. i piled it all onto the ruined rug and dragged it outside to deal with tomorrow.
the office was ok. a few things fell out of my cylinder cupboard but nothing broke.
my bedroom suffered only some papers sliding off the desk to the floor and the mirror falling from atop my tallboy dresser, but not breaking. also, the two huge mirrors in the lounge fell but remain unbroken, the smaller mirror i had behind pot plants on top of the organ broke and the mirror in simons room broke. so only 14 years more bad luck for me.

as it stands right now at 10:45 PM the lounge is relatively clean and clear and safe, the kitchen bench is still a mess and the floor is filthy dirty but safe to walk on. the bathroom suffered only a fern falling and spreading potting mix all over and into the toilet., so basically, i’m better than i thought except emotionally.

going to go to bed and read for a while soon, and try and get some sleep. but these fu*king aftershocks are getting on my fu*king nerves!!

oh, and now the predicted gales and storm has arrived and i can hear things falling and crashing outside from the neighbours.

EDIT: up until 7:10pm tonight, there have been 74 aftershocks over 3 on the richter scale

4.35 this morning, i was actually still awake after watching series two of deadwood, and the bed started rocking and the walls started shaking and the house started sliding, and as i love earthquakes, my first thought was alrighty sweet earthquake.

but that changed very quickly when the shaking and sliding didn't stop. of course the noise of breaking glass and falling tvs brought me to the realisation that it was a very big one indeed.
i seriously thought the house was going to slide off it's foundations as i live in a sandy and liquifaction prone zone.

as simon was dead drunk i checked on him and his tv and mirror had fallen on him. he was unhurt but shaken as he'd never experienced an earthquake before.

i checked the lounge and kitchen to find total devastation. glass and glass and more glass shared the floor with books, but a quick glance in other rooms told me the house was still intact.

i then rang mum as i knew such a large quake would be felt at hororata. i eventually got connected to find her crying and semi hysterical as she was outside trying to turn off the water mains as all the water from the property comes from a pump and tower tank.

after establishing that her or dad wasn't hurt i asked her if there was any damage.
after she told me what had happened i immediately set off for the farm [ 43º 32' 6.74“ S - 171º 56' 45.69” E ].
the trip out there was dangerous as with power out, there were no street lights to show where buildings had fallen into the street. i narrowly avoided missing the top floor of the old crown hotel. i did think that the middle of the road was a strange place for a roof.

getting there showed a lot of damage. the chimney and whole fire brest had fallen into the house, the ceiling in the spare room was now on the floor and every cupboard and cabinet had thrown it's contents onto the floor. the water tower had shifted and was leaning, and a cursury look once daylight came showed the entire eastern side of the house had shifted off it's foundations.
i had great difficulty in opening several doors, but after a big aftershock at about 8am, the house seemed to return to it's propper level and all doors opened perfectly.

mum had dressed dad, but he was still sitting on the bed as vases holding water and flowers had fallen onto his electric wheelchair and charger so mum didn't want to use them. i rang my brother and he came out and we got dad into his spare chair right as the fire brigade arrived to assist knowing that dad was in a wheelchair and he and mum lived alone.

at this stage no one knew any details of the location/magnitude/etc as there was no power. but i got out the radio and found out that the epicentre was just 7km from the farm [ 43º 32' 6.74“ S - 171º 56' 45.69” E ] and at a depth of only 10km with a magnitude of 7.4

slowly we cleared the mess, which left mum with 3 cups and 4 plates, but curiously, 11 saucers and 0 glasses.
a walk to the neighbours who weren't there showed their chimney gone, as was the next neighbour and the pubs. the garages petrol pumps were askew and unusable.
so i made the gaping hole in the wall semi weather tight with some plywood sheets and tarpaulins.
by this stage it was 3pm and i was hungry and thirsty and very sore and tired.
mum had contacted the earthquake damages commission and because dad was disabled, they will get somewhere for them to stay as a priority. my brother offered to host them, but his place is even worse off.

throughtout the day and even right this minute, aftershocks are still occurring with a total of over 30 being felt and probably many more recorded by instruments.

mum wanted to stay in the house for tonight as dad wasn't feeling very well at all, and i was going to stay the night, but they said i should go home to look after my own place and come out tomorrow.
i stopped off at my sisters place to find the house fine, but the usual absence of crockery etc. the kids were scared, but as kids do, turn things into an adventure and just simply accept things.

on the way home i had hoped that simon would have at least started the clean up, but i didn't expect to find him dead drunk again after having a dance party in the middle of the carnage.
i'm so fu*king angry at him right now. but i think it would be unwise to confront him tonight.
a walk around the outside of the house in daylight showed no damage that i could see, but looking up showed me the totally fu*ked chimney. no more fireside chats from me i'm afraid.

thankfully, no one was killed and very few injured, but the city which has a proud heritage and constantly tries to reuse and restore it's old buildings built between 1850 and 1880. the cbd bears token to the beauty of the buildings, but now many lie in the streets.
the council have put a curfew from 7pm to 7am and denied access to the cbd unless you live there and can get personal belongings to find somewhere else to stay.

so it's 7pm nearly, and i‘ve cleared a space and made some inroads into the broken shards, but i shall cook something soon and sit and rest my weary bones then re-commence the clean up.

i’m not bothered by the damage as they‘re just things, but i am bothered that i’m not going to see some of my beautiful wee things again.

in the few minutes it's taken to right this, there's been three very sizable aftershocks and the news is predicting a mag. 6+ in the next 48 hours.

got a telephone call late last night from my sister to ‘remind’ me about mums birthday today. let's just say, it didn't end well after i wouldn't tell her what present i'd gotten for her. i‘ve never heard a grown woman swear so much. the kids were probably in bed, so she must have felt free to abuse me.
anyways, i popped into see mum, delivered her present, wished her happy birthday and went and had lunch with the worst waiters in christendom. i was the only customer (for a meal) and yet they weren’t interested in a) taking my order b) giving me eating utensils when the meal arrived c) making condiments available d) asking me if i was enjoying the meal e) asking if i needed dessert or anything else.
never mind, the food itself was slightly better eating than the service so that made up for it.

i‘ve decided to make a luxury picnic set for myself for my birthday. i discovered i have already got a lot of the items i would need still unused in storage, including knives, boards, containers, glassware and other utensils. just need a small cutlery set and crockery. then i shall make a suitable carrying thingy. maybe out of some nice mahogany i know dad has lying about at the farm [ 43º 32’ 6.74“ S - 171º 56' 45.69” E ], or marcrocarpa. or maybe from something else. whatever i choose, i want it to look unusal.