Tokyo, Christchurch and all

Just had a day trip to Christchurch, escaping the rain for a hot sunny day. Despite staying out of any major affected areas there are still signs of the earthquake in the number of missing chimneys, the partly fixed roads, roadblocks manned by soldiers, and parks filled with silt 'volcanoes' from liquefaction. With The Palms, Merivale and Eastgate Malls damaged, South City and Spotlight blocked off, and the city centre (as the mayor put it) munted, Westfield Mall was even busier than normal. Even for someone who usually enjoys shopping it was 'let me out of here' time. Catching up with two sons and mother-in-law filled up the day and it was nice to head home even if it was still raining.
Middle son is back in Tokyo and keeping an eye on news on the radioactivity front. To him and his friends the government warning that tap water is unsafe for young babies translates into 'no one is drinking the tap water'. Luckily he has supplies of bottled water to use instead. Here's hoping that is as bad as the situation gets.
Using one weekend day for travel does not leave much time for anything else. Quilting has been taking a back seat lately so today I was determined to do something. Yay, the mystery quilt borders are finally finished. Two more to add to my stash of tops that will be quilted one day. After that it was back to using up scraps in a pioneer braid which is one of about three scrap projects on the go to try and demolish the pile of leftover strips and squares that always collects in the basket under my sewing table.

Hours of sewing and only two braid lengths done. No wonder I need more days in my weekend!



                               

The week that was....

Another week gone by. Does anyone else feel as amazed as I do that we are almost a quarter of the way through the year again already? Despite turning on hosing down wet weather for the visit of Prince William, we have since had several gorgeous days. Today the sea across the road is blue, the sun is shining and the West Coast bush behind the house looks stunning. Days like this the Coast is a great place to be.

Number two son in Japan abandoned Tokyo after a day of shakes and caught a shinkansen to Osaka for a couple of days. Not long after he headed even further away to Fukuoka to visit a friend. This weekend he has begun the trek back to Osaka and perhaps Tokyo. His parents would probably rather he stayed out of there a bit longer, but his job and apartment are there, and so far the news is not too bad. I guess at 28 he is well used to making his own decisions, but parents always worry about their 'babies' regardless I think.
Here's hoping the Japanese manage to stabilise and control their nuclear power plant before too long.

Not much energy for quilting this week, having worked a full week and then a Saturday morning as well. The mystery quilt borders are still lying across my sewing table and no blue strips have been cut. Does finishing a sleeve for a winter jersey count?

I did take time to play ladies for an afternoon at a Home Hospice fundraiser. Afternoon Tea As It Used To Be saw a large group of ladies attend a catered afternoon tea. We were served cups of tea in fine china cups and treated with cake stands holding tiny sandwiches, pikelets, cream cakes, truffles, and other such delights. All thoughts of calorie counting went out the window as everyone enjoyed an afternoon of indulgence and being waited on.

When there's no energy for craft, there's always time for reading instead. Finished Harriet Evans and Claudia Carroll, plus the latest Diane Blacklock The Right Time. This one I thoroughly enjoyed. A tale of four sisters, each in a different stage of relationships - about to get married; separated; married but with problems; and 'the other woman' outside of a marriage. The personalities are so well written that this was the first book I have read for some time that I have not wanted to put down until it was finished. Definitely a 'chick' book, though.
It didn't take long to read Wally Lamb's Wishin' and Hopin', a lightweight, short novel giving a slice of life in the 1960's. As it's an era I grew up in, even though not in America, I probably enjoyed it more for being able to recognise aspects of the era.
In contrast my next read, Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage, has a plot so convoluted with twists and turns that I find it hard to make sense of it and I am a third of the way through. So far none of the characters is particularly likeable, and I would almost label it tedious, however, it holds enough interest for me to want to find out what is really happening.

We've just heard from the son in Japan that he is on his way back to Tokyo. It appears even the French friends are confident the situation is stabilizing. I wish I was as confident, but time will tell. At least the local charlatan Ken Ring is not predicting another earthquake there!

More earthquakes - now it's Tokyo

Just as everything is as settled as it can be for the Christchurch side of the family, the earthquake strikes in Tokyo where our middle son is working. Fortunately, again, all is OK. He was apparently at work when a MASSIVE (his capitals) earthquake set their building rolling for quite some time. After that it was a one hour walk home to his ninth floor apartment as all the subway lines were shut. Nine floors up he says the building is gently swaying now and again meaning not much sleep. Major damage is miles out of Tokyo and the ramshackle buildings he thought would be damaged have apparently been built to take earthquakes so they are still there.
My husband made the brilliant comment that as all the rest of the family had been 'quaked' it must be our turn next. He knows just what he can do with that comment!
This weekend he is off pitting his wits against the salmon at Lake Mapourika. To date the salmon has won, and I don't quite know what we would do with a whole salmon anyway, but he will have fun.
It amuses me when I hear comments about quilting along the lines of 'why would you want to cut up all this fabric just to sew it together again'. I figure standing for hours in a cold river tossing out bits of line, only to throw back what you eventually catch, is in much the same league.
Anyway this weekend I intend to cut up and sew together some fabric in the hope of finishing the borders on my mystery quilt tops. Then I have a lot of blue and white fabrics selected to begin a log cabin quilt for my mother-in-law. She liked this one I made in the past so I will probably copy it. Time to cut up a zillion strings of fabric.

Personally I prefer the zing of this one which I made for both my son and my nephew, but she will like the classic blue and white better.

Before I do that it is blob out time with two books I need to finish this weekend. Harriet Evans' Love Always which so far promises to be a love story intertwined with a tale of family secrets coming to light. Then, in what I feel might be lighter mode, there's Colette Caddle's Always on My Mind. Both are a total contrast to Down Among the Dead Men by Michelle Williams which is on my iPad. The writing in this is not the best, but it's a fascinating tale of a year in the life of a mortuary technician in England, best read in small sections.
So now - lunch, reading, quilting and just possibly, if I really have to,  a very little housework.

Christchurch shakes on

Another quake last night which I felt here on the Coast. My son called it a doozy, and I'm sure everyone is just wishing they would stop already.
Eldest son now has his father's bike, his work is re-opened, power and water (at low pressure), back on and food in the house. He is one of the luckier ones. His workplace has also organised showers, washers and driers for their workers and good on them for being proactive.
Youngest son lives in an area which had very little damage at all and for him life goes on much as normal, with the addition of being 'all shook up' several times a day.
Mother-in-law, with food delivered by Jean, now has power and water back on, and a chance to be taken out shopping with some stores re-opened.
We have many who have fled Christchurch here on the Coast and you can tell by some faces that they are shattered. Our family are some of the lucky ones. From all we hear Christchurch seems like a city of two halves. There are areas where people have lost everything and other areas where it is as if nothing has happened, at least in the way of damage.

Keeping in touch with those in Christchurch each evening, plus work with a staff member away, has meant little energy for quilting, which somehow doesn't seem too important anyway. Must get back to it though as it serves me as a great stress relief. I brought back fabric from the North Island to make into gifts for those we stayed with, so the placemat-making production line is going to have to swing into action.
This is usually my weekend for a quilt retreat in Marahau, out of Nelson, but having just had a holiday I have to skip it this time. Nothing like a weekend sewing, with no household distractions, to get heaps done. I will be hanging out for the next retreat in Nelson in July.

Taking up a lot of spare time at the moment is the new toy - the iPad. I have loaded on more word games, Solitaire and Sudoku,  which can all be great time-wasters. The excuse is it is keeping the brain active! There are also several downloaded books ready to read when I finish the supply of 'real' books I have on hand. I've found an iPad app which lets me check out my Google RSS feeds, plus added a dictionary, thesaurus and calculator. Then there is the app which gives me a series of Monet paintings to explore and an iPad version of Stumbleupon. If you have never tried this out then, depending on your point of view, it is either another time-waster or a form of serendipity as you are led to many websites you might otherwise not come across. The choice of websites depends on the initial interests and topics which you set up.

Naturally I still make time for reading and at the moment it is Lee Child. Just finished 61 Hours and moved on to Worth Dying For. Despite the formulaic style they still make fairly satisfying reading without making great demands on the brain. 
I've also just scanned Martin Hawes' Twenty Good Summers which poses the question of how to spend the years left to live as we get older. It's rather intriguing to look at life in terms of the number of summers which may remain, but rather depressing to find that you probably have to spend most of the few you may have left working just as hard as usual. Guess we just have to win Lotto.