Monday, August 1, 2011

A New Perspective


It is great what a little time away from this city can do for the soul. Loads of people I know are taking trips away this year. Partly to get just get away, partly to have something to look forward to and partly I think because having gone through everything here, you start to get an attitude of just do it - who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Before we left, on the last day of school, Lucy saw the book belonging to the friend she was drawing with at the time the big quake struck on Feb 22. She started to cry, the friend has moved away now and everything is different. Some tilt slab concrete buildings(see above) are starting to go up already. We began getting depressed about whether our worst fears of an ugly city might come true.
Then we went away to Melbourne. On the first night as I got into bed, a wee thought popped into my head - I could relax, I was going to get a good nights sleep, (no aftershocks to wake me). I hadn't realized I even thought this back in Christchurch.
We loved looking at all the old buildings and admiring their twiddly bits, most have fallen off our buildings here. It was great to hang out in a CBD and go to art galleries.
If people asked where we were from, they then asked about the quakes. It was hard to explain that the city was carrying on but the possibility of the next aftershock was a thing we lived with now everyday. It isn't like other natural disasters that come and then are gone, leaving the clean up.
We came home to snow - which was quite pretty and to hear good news. Exciting interesting things are happening like the cluster of high tech companies in town and the temporary cardboard cathedral. I noticed the buildings that are still here and there are some good ones left or at least ones they are going to fix. Other buildings, I now notice, that have previously been neglected. I wonder if we will start to value them and do them up.
The demolitions appear to be happening much quicker now. Once the buildings are gone, the gap is easier to look at than the broken building, it suggests something new, rather than a reminder of the past year's events.
Aftershocks are also staying minor. Last night I did wake up and wonder at the stillness, that was then interrupted by a shake. But it was just a shaking, nothing fell. It definitely feels like the city is moving forward. In June people began to voice fears that it would never stop but the despair has gone. While it continues to be calm, we can stand strong.

2 comments:

Raewyn said...

I am so glad you and Karl were able to get away for a break. I also appreciated your comment that ' the gap is easier to look at than the broken building, it suggests something new, rather than a reminder of the past year's events.'

So true.
Long may that be :-)

karyn said...

Great post Fiona. You express so beautifully what it is like to live in our broken - but still optimistic - city. I totally agree that gaps are a lot easier to look at than damaged buildings. And I think one of the biggest silver linings to the awful events we've all gone through over the last year has been to show us all how amazingly resilient, positive and energetic human beings can be in the face of difficulties and disaster. Go Christchurch!

5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.