Posts by Susannah Shepherd
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Which cover of Kate Bush's gloriously insane Wuthering Heights makes your ears cry louder?
The Wolfmother lasted less than 60 seconds due to sheer tuneless incompetence - but tuneless incompetence isn't that hard to find. I can do it myself effortlessly. A train wreck on the scale of the Hayley Westenra performance, on the other hand, is something special.
I miss Alan Partridge.
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to David Haywood,
and yet I frequently feel like the stupidest person on Public Address.
I think we've had ample evidence this evening that that is far from true...
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The most useful advice? Have a door, shut it. Try to ensure that every partner, child and cat in your family understands that when the door is shut, you are Not At Home.
Totally agree. Some are slower learners than others. One of our my more blazing domestic rows was when the in-laws used to come round for frequent long visits when my partner was home a lot during the day, and got very huffy that I didn't say more than 'hi' and head back into the office unless they came at lunchtime. This was apparently very very very rude on my part, and my pointing out that they didn't go to my brother-in-law's building site twice a week and expect him to drop everything didn't go down too well...
Other than that, I don't have any tips that haven't been raised already, but here's the tips I'd most endorse, especially for a newbie at working from home:
* Create a work-only work space, even if it's just a corner you can throw a rug over at the end of the day.
* If you can, have a dedicated work computer. If that's not possible, create a separate profile with all the distractions purged from the start-up menu and desktop. This was much easier in the days of dial-up; I used to have a work profile with the dial-up icon hidden so I had to go digging for it to fire up the internet.
* If your work is spreading out over 12 / 14 / 16 hours a day, or you feel like you're not actually doing anything at all, keep a time sheet. If you spend 30 minutes on Facebook, write it down. Remember if you're at the office, you're unlikely to spend 100% of your time actually *working*.
* Research libraries are particularly good if you need a quiet space to focus! -
I forgot to say amongst the verbiage - PAS'ers of Christchurch, you're all bloody fantastic. You remind me why I loved the place so much in the first place. Kia kaha.
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It's now nearly a week, and it feels right to take stock of how my reactions to this have unfolded. Indulge me, it's been complex.
Like many Wellingtonians, I can't help feeling that we've dodged a bullet, but it's left me feeling shaken and queasy that Christchurch was the innocent bystander that copped it.
We've become a bit estranged, Christchurch, despite our long history together, but you'll always be my first urban love, the place where I discovered I could be amongst like-minded people and not have to constantly compromise myself. That love affair cooled, especially as Christchurch made some dumb decisions and did its best to become yet another nondescript, suburban mall horror story with all the provincialisation of outlook that comes with that. This week, all of that is forgotten.
I've been struggling all week with reactions that seem off-key. I wasn't too bothered at first when I heard the cathedral had lost its spire (that's happened before), but that was replaced by irrational and disproportionate anger with shell-shocked reporters who can't get their ecclesiastical architecture right and distinguish a spire from the whole bloody tower.
The last of my family to report in, a pretty resilient cousin, could manage nothing but the word 'numb' even 30 hours later. The questions from the rest of us were met with incoherence then silence. I know she's unhurt, but I can't help feeling she's not remotely safe. Yet when I saw the first familiar face amongst the missing/dead, I could see what she meant by being numb. All I could feel was a sense of resignation. Perhaps that's appropriate for the death of a passing acquaintance, or perhaps I'm still not processing the scale of it all.
The meme I struggled most with at the outset was that the buildings aren't important. Buildings aren't as important as people, I can agree to that. But not important? Eight generations of my family have lived in and around the city, and our history is woven with its physical fabric. The places where my tupuna shared their joy, sought solace, and worked to make better lives are gone for good. I can't look on those stones any more and think about the stories that go with them. This, I think, will be the hardest for me to cope with in the long run.
I haven't cried yet, although it's there in the gullet, waiting to happen. Maybe today.
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I know lots of other people have said it but, dammit, PAS is just amazing.
After September, I learned so much off the combined wisdom here about what was useful. I ditched the soap from the emergency box and added some hand cleanser, cash, clean undies and a hip flask of booze (actually, now I come to think about it, a respectable but not quite so sober anymore Christchurch City councillor suggested that last one).
This time, I've added a car charger kit for my battery charger and the old corded phone, and I've saved a memo on my mobile reminding me to do all the various bits to save my battery life.
On the phone geekery front, am I the only one who noticed 3G services being extra sluggish and batteries being drained quickly outside Chch for several days after?
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Emma has just tweeted to say the power's back on at their place, so she's back in touch.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Matthew: yes, you're probably right. I just thought Huebner's Twitter feed showed an interesting sense of priorities - and not what I'd expect/hope to see from a NZ diplomat in corresponding circumstances.
Then again on reflection it probably doesn't hurt to take ten minutes to marshal your thoughts and your strength before getting down to what could be a long and emotionally exhausting job.
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It's alright, everyone, the American Embassy in Wellington is on to it...
@DavidHuebner David Huebner
After brief mtg with FM McCully to offer assistance, en route with Congressmen to St Paul's to offer prayers.I seriously hope they summoned the USAR teams before that.
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My first thought, curiously, was to hope that we were near the epicentre of the earthquake. If it had been centred any distance away -- Wellington sprang to mind, of course -- then I knew that anything at the epicentre must have been utterly destroyed.
Thanks for thinking of us! I was lying in bed in Wellington thinking 'This isn't good, it's not a big shake but it's going on far too long to be centred here.'
Would one be right in thinking that Darfield Charlie would usually be too munted at 4.30 am on a Saturday to notice anything short of a collapsing building anyway?