Christchurch

I'm in Christchurch at a school library conference. It is okay. I'm tired and conferences are tiring.
I'm on day 4 away from home and a couple more days to go and i really just want to go home now!
I'm in a school hostel which is pretty good really. I spent a couple of fab days staying with friends April and Geof.
Christchurch is still like a twilight zone to me; it is still absolutely staggering seeing the city and the re-build and the red zone where thousands of houses were and are now all demolished and it is just empty land, never to be built upon ever again. It just goes and goes. (there were earthquakes Sept 4, 2010 and then again on February 22, 2011 6.3 killing 181 people and thousands more "minor" ones since).
Words (or visions) really can not convey the feeling within the city. It is just incredible to see.
These photos are of part of the red zone - the driveways and footpaths are still there, but nothing else.
Also one of the Catholic Cathedral - last time I saw this I cried!

A Spooky giveaway

We don't celebrate Halloween here (and barely get any children knocking on our door anyway). I found these in a cupboard and must have bought them last year on clearance.

So add your name in the comments by October 10 and I'll post off soon after. Open worldwide.
I might be able to find some sweet stuff to throw in too. There will be two winners picked.

hail storm

An incredible hail storm today! (and a mini meltdown by me beforehand - I'll talk about that tomorrow maybe!)

Baby Alpaca wool

Feeling very lucky and loved tonight - 3 gorgeous, divine, stunning balls of baby alpaca wool all the way from a little roadside stall somewhere in Peru. It is the most softest wool I have ever owned!
Now to decide what to knit with it!

this week

It SO needs to be school holidays NOW. Not in another week's time. I need a break from 2000 overdue books.
This week it has been simple things like mail (about 9 letters - yay!) and discovering old shoes to wear (hello purple flowery converse hidden in the wardrobe!).
This quote from yesterday is quite perfect - that sums up today - not the anger but the frustration.
It is the weekend. Hallelujah. Just the essay to perfect after the critique and I'm done for the term. I am truly done already!

Minding my own business

Scanning 10,000 books over the past week and today and finishing.. but with 800 odd on the missing list (the usual suspects of Geronimo/Thea Stilton x 35, Wimpy Kid x 23, Tom Gates X 10 etc).
Reading about the earthquake in Chile just after lunch. Scanning more books. Not looking at e-mails for a couple of hours. Then I do. Then I realise that the husband's mum was in Santiago, but flying home tonight.
Cue a bit of panic. Finding out her connecting flight had just arrived into Santiago half an hour after the quake. Then spending time on-line on and off after school looking at flights. Learning a bit of spanish to understand airport pages.
Luckily her flight back down under has now left but 5 hours late, but we can handle that!
The East Coast of New Zealand is now on a tsunami watch due to hit in 1-2 hours. We are on the side where we should be okay, even if the sea is like 5 minutes drive from home.

I guess an airport pick up is better at 9.30am than 4.30 am :) . What an afternoon!

impulse

An impulse buy today after school. My sister-in-law informed me Hannahs are selling Orla Kiely shoes - I had no idea as it is not a shoe shop I go into. But, sadly, my local shop is not selling Orla shoes, and I'll have to drive across town to another branch - one day.
But I did spot instead, in the children's shoes, these gorgeous Clarks sandals. I'm only a UK size 3 or EU size 36. They came home with me for a fab $60!

We are having huge issues with the 11 year old and hideous sleep cycles - he is quite frankly a teenager already in attitude and sleeping hours. We battled with him for over an hour this morning to get him out of pjs and into school uniform and to school (he was late - his problem - NOT mine). He ended up in the sick bay 3 times , with the school ringing us 3 times and us refusing to go and pick him up, as he is not sick. It is also called "major avoidance of school work syndrome" and the school and parents are working together to get the kid moving. He is deliberately at this school to realise he can not muck around. So we are working on a tough love approach around school work, home work, family involvement and strict computer useage. Sigh. So I needed these shoes!

Nothing Much

Two more weeks of the school term. I seriously need a break. I have little motivation for anything at all... The husband has been away for most of the week and I spent the nights writing an awful lot of letters mainly. Doing a wee bit of uni work (So NOT into it!) and a wee bit of knitting - barely knitted at all these past two weeks. I have the can't be bothered syndrome I think. That included 3 nights of takeaways this week, which is bloody outrageous really!

I did spruce up the kitchen and had a glorious day for drying laundry outside today. And went for a walk up Mt Wellington which is a part of Auckland I rarely go too - views were amazing. Next time I will take my camera!

Tomorrow has to be the essay day, as I want it critiqued before I send the final copy in to be marked in 12 days. My sister-in-law and partner will come over for dinner too before they leave later this week to go back and live in England. I wish that was me... I seriously need some excitement in my life! Seems to be same old, same old.

But I do thank my lucky stars really. This sister-in-law was living in New York City on 9/11 and saw the whole thing unfold - I totally forgot the anniversary until a friend from USA reminded me. It is something we have never discussed with my sister-in-law - she fled the city a day later and never went back, quitting her job immediately and leaving her apartment and stuff for someone else to sort out... I have a friend who lost 7 friends on that day and her husband is lucky to be alive, as he was on the PATH train as it was under one of the towers as they first plane hit.
I moan about how things are in this country a lot, but we are lucky in lots of ways! The grass is not always greener on the other side...

NO!

Today New Zealand banned a book. I'm not at all happy about this being a school librarian. I have read it months and months and months ago and think it most certainly has its place and there is little else written like it from the perspective of a Maori teenager,


Nobody has the right to tell someone else they can not read a book. I, as a librarian, do not have this right. Sure, there will be restrictions around books, and school librarians buy books to suit their particular student base, but to be told suddenly by a conservative group to pull the book from your shelves because they disagree with the content of the book is outrageous.


I lent my copy to a friend months ago - apparently it is now illegal for her to give me back the book. Humbug to that.


Read the story here and then read this.


Family First say this is the start of a war on books that our children should not be reading. let me tell you that this is a start of librarians all around New Zealand fighting for a right for our clientele to read what they want!


(You as a parent have the right to ban your own children from reading or watching whatever. I can tell you right now schools battle every day with children seeing a lot more garbage on a screen than from content within a book. I've stopped all computers at lunchtime as am sick of the rubbish students find on the internet on you tube etc. I can not police every single device even if I try. So my solution has been a blanket ban!)

weekend

Well I have sat down at the computer to write my essay - I am such a procrastinator, but it has to be done! It takes me weeks... I am weeks behind with general uni. stuff.
Yesterday it took me 3 hours to do about 6 loads of washing - semi dry on the line. I hate a laundry backlog and HATE using a clothes drier and detest even more clothes horses inside to dry it!
All dry but it'll take an hour or more to fold etc.

One child has gone to a party - I am so un-organised and had no gift and I then had a "go" at several people in the house that it should not be up to me to do present buying (or indeed a ton of laundry!) - I notice now another load of laundry has been hung out. I think it is 3 weeks till the end of the term and I can not wait. (but it will be 3 days of school stuff in hols too as I will be at conference - bad timing I think as I need a proper break!)

New stationery and new books - I am attempting to STOP at stationery and use the vast amounts I have (gifting to me is okay!) - I am jsut, in general, trying to not buy so much STUFF - I have been good this winter with only 2 merino jerseys and a bag and one pair of shoes bought and that is it!

I finally whipped in to get husband some new gumboots (good old skellerup red bands - we have given up on cheap gumboots!) and grabbed some veges/potted colour too. The garden has sat empty for months and months! (yes I like slug slam, but that will be it for the garden!). Beans, snap peas, broccolli, caulilower, coriander, chinese greens, parsley.

And as for that bedroom floor... yeah. I'm lazy and un-motivated with most stuff in my life at the moment!

shoes/Kidscan

taken off a student yesterday - perfect timing for a visit from Kidscan (charity which donates shoes, clothing and food to selected schools to help students/families). They now have the shoes as a perfect example of why they are so hugely needed. We discussed cheap shoes, which families do buy, but they last 1-2 months. Please support this charity - they help so many students, who through no fault of their own, own shoes like these. Don't judge them or their families - they are doing the best they can, with multi needs a lot of the time. (these shoes had been worn for weeks like this...)

I didn't know I'd have a pumpkin tonight!

This pumpkin dishcloth pattern came up on my facebook feed after school.

A few hours later - ta-da! HA. I think this might be one of the most hilarious things I have ever knitted! I just might make a few more. I will use it as a mug rug I think.