Posts by Hebe
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Capture: EQNZ Remembrance, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
The official ceremonies seem to be important for some groups and certain personality types, and especially for the the families of foreign nationals who have come to Christchurch this week. I didn't have the slightest inclination to join in, and haven't 'gone to Town' for any. Most of us weren't heroic; we did what we had to and what we could for others and stayed upright mostly, and that is sure as hell plenty good enough. It's a lot of tiny parts that make up a community, and it's a lot of tiny kindnesses that make up a disaster recovery.
-
Capture: EQNZ Remembrance, in reply to Just thinking,
There was a sense it was all of us doing what we could for each other and ourselves.
Some of my heroes were the people in the house over the road who, unaccountably, still had power when the rest of us in our street did not. They constantly boiled kettles for cups of tea and coffee (saved us having to fire up the barbie or gas stoves),and charged cellphones. And the friend of a neighbour who came up from Rakaia first thing on Feb 23 with 500 litres of drinking water, which a kept a few households going for about five days until we could get to the well .. And the Opawa well people who piped their artesian well out to the street. And a million other big and small acts: the farmers who left some sacks of Agria spuds out on the street corner.
-
Up Front: One, Redux, in reply to Lilith __,
Good pic Lilith. this place makes me smile too. A silver lining is that lots of vistas are opening up all around the city, and views of the the Port Hills are appearing too. One I saw yesterday was Moorhouse Ave when you look across to the now-gone Freedom furniture shop next to Dalgety's woolstore building and can see straight through to the hills.
-
Southerly: Village People, in reply to James Green,
the shot my parents have.
My family archive has lots and lots from 1961 on at Benmore (when Dad got the Voigtlander camera). Heavy machinery which make Twinkletoes the demolisher look like Lego, and he photographed them all, lovingly. There's a particularly fine slide of my mother standing next to the pride-and-joy Mark I Zephyr next to a Euclid at the base of the dam wall. From the days when blokes built stuff, big stuff: the scale of Benmore was epic and the whole village seemed to be enthralled by it.
-
What would be your first reaction in a crisis? In the past I have wondered what I would do in a full-on situation of unexpected danger -- I spent enough time as a journalist interviewing people who had been through a big thing, or who had been heroic and selfless, to make me question whether I could keep my head let alone be brave enough to help others. I have found that I still can't predict that -- am I totally unself-disciplined or just human?
In the September shakes, while not being a screaming mess, I was very discombobulated -- just couldn't find my balance. I had to take myself and my boys down south for a couple of weeks to settle.
In the big February shake, I was home alone 3km from the epicentre when our eight-seater heavy table suddenly jumped up to shoulder level. (The closer you are to the centre, the less warning shaking you get -- just an indescribably violent shunt upwards). Throwing myself under the table and grabbing the legs as the floor bucked like a mean rodeo bull, my mind went totally clear, cool, and focused. I knew my plan by the time I got out 30 seconds later, and I did it, first firing off six texts to my nearest and dearest that I had saved to draft. I was like that for about 48 hours until I started to shake.
What have been others' reaction experiences? -
Southerly: Village People, in reply to Russell Brown,
the men and machines from our great public works projects.
Damn; I had a sandpit full of Euclids, scrapers and cranes as a girl.
-
Southerly: Village People, in reply to James Green,
It reminds me of the early days of Twizel (but with trees).
Hah! That's why I'm resisting going to the village: I spent my first seven years in another dam town, Otematata.
-
Happy yesterday. Your pictures almost resign me to Stalag Linwood.
-
Up Front: One, Redux, in reply to nzlemming,
Incompetent but happy, me.
-
Thanks Gudrun: the monarchs are lovely. The Sam Johnson shot is one of the best formal occasion pix I have ever seen.