When I was down there, there was one of the bigger aftershocks, as I was about to finish work on a Saturday night. I was?

I hope you won't be offended if I say it was perhaps the only place that made me smile, with its ersatz columns all skew-whiff. The abandoned houses?

I cried when I saw pictues of the main Cathedral, but what really gutted me – and this doesn't make any sense, but there you go – was seeing a picture of Shades Arcade, off Cashel Mall, just?

Bikes rule.

And for the first time since the quake, it?s made me want to return to Christchurch. Not for earthquake tourism, but because despite the shit, it?s still a lovely city.

I felt less bothered by the earthquake tourism thing?

Oh yes. And I think the need to go and look is made stronger by feeling?

Thanks Robyn, I think so too. But as Russell observes, there?s a mind-boggling amount of work to be done. It may be decades before everything?s been put back together, rebuilt, replaced. I?ve struggled since the quake to even comprehend the scale of?

Celebrating those things are important. They're things that one can do, rather than feeling hopeless about the huge task ahead.

While I was writing this, my flatmate ran in, shouting with incoherent joy. We?ve just received the longed-for?

I have seen and heard more than I really wanted to. Because I feel like an outsider from Christchurch now (which as an issue?

Yes. I downloaded an overlay of part of the city taken on the Thursday after the quake, and looked at my stricken neighbourhood, wondering where I was when the shots were taken...and I?

Google being Google, I'm sure they keep everything. The question is whether we can access it. There is already historic imagery in Google Earth so they seem to have?

Unpredictablilty is hard too. We might be able?

I did enjoy your description of our house as "okay". The damage runs?

I grew up in Christchurch and can?t face going back yet, with so much of the city changed forever.

I?

My wife Josephine will be down in Christchurch all next week but is a little nervous about returning--not just?

Depends what you mean by progress. On the day of the earthquake we had a hole the whole width of our road,?

I'm very sorry to hear that, Islander. I fear that there's going to be a lot of financial stress in CHCH in?

I see that Lilith has beaten me to a response — to back her up: the work done so far has been massive; almost unbelievably so. We just have lots?

very good

Indeed. It goes to show that there is something to be said about living in a society that gives a damn. I fear that is getting eroded day by day all over the World.
Yes IMF, I am looking at you....

While the response has not always been perfect and I am an impatient soul who wants it all better now, a phenomenal amount of work has been done?

Quite. And the thing about suddenly losing infrastructure is it makes you realise how helpless we are without it. And without our reticulated services, how we can spend so much?

So good to hear. It's hard to accept that a lot of Christchurch is a ground-up rebuild, and to that end getting it done in only a few years would be an astonishing testament to its people. Kia kaha.

---

It's three months on, and in that time nothing has?

Only in a wryly empathetic way – and only about the congestion.

It's not. It's really, really not. But then, like Lilith, while I'm still frustrated, I see stuff change every day.

I'm not surprised. I honestly think she needs real help. She probably thinks she doesn't have the right to ask for help because others are having a harder time, but this sounds like someone who's on?

But this is the thing: there are tens of thousands of people?

I get that, but toughness, intelligence,?

Matt Taylor posted a useful summary of all presentations, and with a few pics at the top of the page. The third one is of the Cathedral, made from?

Needs to talk with someone about it, anyway. Which, in some way, she's done by proxy through Russell. It's not enough by a long shot, though. She says it clearly that the worst part is being?

Developed following Turkish earthquake. One of key points of model is that care can be delivered via mass media. Heard about it on BBC science/health podcast a few weeks ago. Do you think Council/CERA might be up?

Great idea. Contact them and suggest it. City won't be productive or liveable unless people's immediate emotional wellbeing is addressed.

And, speaking only for myself, I?

We kind of have to really, no other option. I suppose like Lilith and Emma I see things changing quite effectively day to day out in the suburban streets . On a personal level I?

No that isn't the point. One problem with depression is it sneaks up on you, it isn't obvious to the person feeling this way that it is something that anyone else can?

And today I got notice that I can flush my toilet (the first time since April 2nd)! It's a little thing in some ways but all those little things add?

I believe there is "a plan". Certainly it is being talked about.

I know my own counsellor was saying colleagues in Christchurch were asking for?

I know but what's different is that lots of people are feeling it at the same time and their reason for not wanting to talk about it is not entirely internal. It's because there is a very real external factor causing it,?

I left a perfectly well functioning City, London, in an attempt to ease my own depression.
As they say "You can never run from yourself" and so I brought?

Just went through to the link. Wow, that certainly got a lot of response! I'm quite chuffed to think you consider me "tough" btw :-)) Please reassure the poor chap(?) who thinks I'm clinically depressed and need counselling that I'm not that dire -?

I worry about the people who were already vulnerable, and who are over-represented in some of the worst-affected suburbs.?

Yes I agree Ben. It is an extraordinary event in that it affects so many at once.

But at the individual level?

Indeed. It helps a lot if, before the quake you were reasonably OK and therefore have some ability to cope in reserve and if you still have areas of your life?

Good to hear. But take care of yourself. I recognised the tone of your comments, they were too familiar to me to dismiss. Don't be afraid to ask for help even if you aren't sure you need?

The other thing that counsellors should have is the training and distance not to go under?

And the professional supervision support so they can safely sustain themselves.

That may count as disabled. It's a perfectly natural part of ageing.

Yes.

I'm wary of looking to make my brief impressions the story,?

don't care :)

It's all a matter of degree, yes

And strengths; sometimes they're the same thing.

Consider me reassured, but I'll just +1 what Bart said:

Good to hear. But take care of yourself. I recognised the tone of your comments, they were too familiar to me to?

With respect to words, blind people (for example) know they're blind. It's only the sighted that label blind people as "visually challenged", so they don't feel bad about?

Almost suited to a political career :)

outrageous

One of my brothers is a builder/building contractor and has difficulty in getting one of his own properties brought up to standard (yellow-stickered.)He cant do it ? after the basic ?remove chimneys/tarpaulin bent roof ?bit ? because he has many other things?

;- )

Like he suggested, not much skill needed in terms of knocking off bricks and tiles and fitting weatherboards and corrugated iron roofing is not rocket science.

Looking at my sibs' kids (and grandkids) there are good practical people around. But this young man...despair.

(I wont tell you about the?

I think talking about trauma can be good up to a point, and helps some people. But sometimes trips away, distraction and not talking about it can be good,?

So. Despair it is then. With Anne Tolley running around saying?

If the?

Islander ,I cant get the sky remote to work, I'm gonna have to call in the big guns. if I had my way it would be in pieces. Trouble is I don't know whether?

Annnd can?

Is that the bit that says "Welcome to Sky TV"?
;-)

Wild Turkeys aside. :))

which is a kind of worry in itself, of course....

Wow, so it doesn't run on electricity, then! Clearly an alien Device. ;-)

I was being a bit general in my comment, sorry if I came across as pushy. I do though feel that if we listen to the things that nudge us in odd directions adventure is there?

Is that why I can never find the remote?.

But Clarke, it's not a TV show here. It's not?

Drop CERA a line about that too. I understand the high-culture establishment are already manoevring to score much of the funding (associated with a proposed arts precinct).?

I have just arrived back after three?

A lot of people are missing the public libraries really badly. Central, Linwood and Sumner branches are red-stickered, in all cases I think because of nearby unstable buildings. All their stock is lying where it fell on Feb?

heh this is the number one reason I'd be a crap counsellor. I cannot help but give advice, even though I know all I should be doing is listening and sharing someone's problems I have this compulsion to give advice, it's a like a disease.?

Don't tell Emma she'll want to steal it from you in the hopes of trapping him.

Classic masculinity (how we're helpful)

I'm a recovering advice-giver myself. Other people's problems always seem so much simpler than one's own!

But if people want advice they generally ask for it.

And if they don't, then listening respectfully, sending good wishes, hugs, flowers, gifts, telling jokes or funny stories (depending?

Heh, everyone sits there biting their tongue the entire time? Telling their own story – "It's been 9 months since I gave advice , I used to do it all the time because it made me feel powerful and?

Agreed. There are (often gender-related) differences in what we want to receive as well as give – folk can work things out in ways other than talking. Sometimes a simple answer is what we want, or?

It will host the World Cup Fanzone along with other major events such as the Christchurch Arts Festival, Carnival week and Buskers' festival.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the $650,000?

As long as it's rugby-themed fun, right?!

OK, it sounds like it'll be reused for other stuff...but maybe the Public Library could get a few tens of?

The first step ...

Homeless Cantabrian: Heh, you know, watching you just now with the Deutsche Bank, one would think you've been doing this all your life.
John Key: Oh, what makes you think I haven't?
Homeless Cantabrian: Oh, n-n-n-nothing, but when you first came to Christchurch,?

Absolutely.

Christchurch is home?

3 cheers for the loan arrangers...
A lot of people are missing the
public libraries really badly.
Having Shirley Library back open is
fabulous, walking distance,?

It?s a pisser, innit,
having only a potty in lieu of loo?

But better, perhaps, than a drop in a bucket.

The Minister made it very clear that one of the key considerations for him is making sure all participants are on the same page and heading in?

I was charmed by a photo caption in today?s Press claiming that ?steel gentry? was holding up the front of the cathedral.

I looked, but couldn?t see any iron ladies or bowler-hatted caryatids in the picture. Sad.

Especially given the way Danyl's verging on losing his shit today.

Just you get back to your invisible show! How dare you criticize the omniscient Danyl? If it wasn't for him (and Chris Trotter), how would we know what to think at all?

The rest of the info about the seismic lie of the land can be translated from geologist-filtered-through-polly-speak: buggered if we know?

I have friends who are sedimentary geologists with an additional discipline in earthquakes. The quoted likelihood of large aftershocks/new biggies is BASED on previous events of this kind of magnitude BUT -?

RE Sumner/Redcliffs : yes the red-sticker saga has been told, but the current?

As hard as it is we just have to wait a little longer. In many ways this is probably the calm before the storm, a storm which I suspect is likely to fall upon us in the depths of?

They've settled down then?.

And yep! In a strange way,?

After a brief visit to the city, international agency Architecture for Humanity chief executive Cameron Sinclair yesterday told the Sunday Star-Times he was shocked at the slow pace of deconstruction work in the quake-damaged city's centre.

Mr Sinclair, who?

Surely not workforce planning issues exacerbated by cutting industry training programmes and apprenticeships? Or failure to operate a real market economy where pay rates go up until demand is filled (by people from other countries in this case).?

This is why we have hire companies and lease arrangements, plant is not the problem either. The problem is with cashflow, firms are going to the wall out?

Given that there's a fair bunch of news stories coming out of Christchurch with people complaining that buildings are being knocked down too fast, I'm unsure if there's an actual problem that suddenly requires more demolition workers,?

In some cases, it is. High-rise buildings in the CBD need to come down before anything can be done in the surrounding area. There are plenty of buildings that are basically?

CERA will be installing their new signs soon, including this obvious one

I'm resisting the temptation to play a Rage Against the Machine song.
.
.
.
Still resisting.

Wishing everyone well, and hoping that the worst is over.

ETA: Snap Jackie.

I was with my kids at their new school in Halswell for both aftershocks. The prefabs have all been placed on some?

It's almost like the city is battling with a potentially life threatening illness, with slow progress of therapy and sudden disastrous reversals, as well as the underlying and constant malaise.

Similar metaphors occurred to me when I was down recently.

When are the aftershocks going to stop? I'm wondering if there are emerging parallels with the constant flooding of the?

All good. They have electricity (not water) and the new damage to the house isn't as bad as David initially feared.

Jen has a few bruises — she was cycling when the 6.0?

I was thinking last night that Chch is like an alcoholic spouse who keeps promising to go straight. I don't?

Heroic!!

Without wanting to get into that "you're all so brave!" territory — because I can understand how that could get really old really quickly — hell yes.

That's true – but on a gut level, you're got to respect a scientist being a scientist who's going to tell the truth rather than a comforting lie.

As above, it?s hard?