Wednesday night

It's 10.15pm and I am really tired but not willing to go to bed. There have been no quakes for hours so I guess I feel that one is on the way...? I also haven't heard from Sam today, and Dom is at either ice hockey or a Stake HC Meeting. Not sure which one as I daren't call him at either place!
I had another long day at home with the kids today. The dance competition was probably the highlight of our day. That, and the fact that Megane found some very old gypsey dolls in a store and I bought them for her. She has been in Doll House Heaven ever since. Lucy built an amazing "birthday cake" for Bob the Builder. I'll have to take a picture of it. It has towers and people on the turrets, and a complicated kind of bridge system. Sebas finally went outside for an hour and rode his bike around our dead-end and gave me some peace at about 5pm. He is like a caged animal when he can't run around. I cannot imagine how it would be living through a Canadian winter with that boy.
I read some interesting stuff today by a UN Disaster Assessor today. He reckons that going under a table or in a doorway will NOT save you. He has a pyramid theroy that says if you go beside a table/bed/sofa (in feotal position) then you have a much higher rate of survival. He has seen whole schools of children squished flat like frogs because they went under the desk and all the weight of the roof pushed down on that surface and killed them. Dad seems to think this makes sense. Darn it, I've had to retrain the kids! They all practised sliding out of their beds and curling up on their sides before I'd let them go to sleep tonight.
I also heard we have had over 250 big aftershocks. No surprise there! I often think I feel the house swaying but it is possibly my distorted sense of balance. I hardly know what is stable anymore.
Dad seems to be okay. His house is still (semi) standing and he is working on having the brick firewalls removed and totally rebuilt. If this happens it will be a miracle and a testament to his love of that old house. Thankfully Gaye has been given some leave from work - it must be awful living with that kind of stress on top of all the shaking.
My school has decided not to re-open until Monday. I wouldn't mind teaching at the moment to distract myself but there is no way I could do it unless the kids were with either Dad or Dom. Dom however is back at work. Their office space is going to take a good two months to rebuild (it was on top of the new car parking building which was designed to move with the earthquake like the agitator in a washing machine) so he is now on the second floor of an old out-building on the airport grounds. He is not in love with where they have put him but at least he is back in his normal routine. He *hates* earthquakes and the building he is in rattles when trucks go past... but he knows that there is no point in complaining about it. I am always telling Dom and the kids that there is no past or future, just the NOW and right now they have everything they need, so not to worry. He is working on that.
Tomorrow I am going to have to find a way to go for a run. If it is raining again the kids will have to put on raincoats and go on the swings at Elmwood Park... or I will go insane. Wish me luck!

Dance Competition in the State of Emergency

To entertain and cheer up the kids a bit we had a dance competition. Prizes were awarded for costume, dramatics and grace/style so luckily each one won a medal. They were cuter than cute, and it took our mind off the drama for an hour. We are going to walk to the mall (the one closest to us is still open, Westfields at Riccarton is cordoned off and of course the CBD is still out of action) and get a wind-up radio/cellphone charger/torch that my friend told me about. Oh and the State of Emergency has been extended until at least next Wednesday. I am not sure if this is because of the quake that happened this morning in Diamond Harbour (ie a completely different fault line)... or just because the after shocks are still causing havoc. I am keeping busy making powerpoint presentations for my French classes (on emergency preparedness, the earthquake on Saturday and stuff like that). I am desperate to go for a run, but it is raining today and the park the kids bike around is in the CBD and all the other parks have wet playgrounds. Blerg.

Tuesday morning

Well, we are still here. That's about all I have to say really - the rest is all "aftershocks, destruction, kids desperate for entertainment and worry" and I won't burden you with it.
Dad is still hanging onto his house. Turns out his structural engineer friend says he can keep the house if they pull down the exterior walls, re-structure the house and rebuild the walls. Yes... sound like a re-do to you? Me too. But if that is what makes him happy I'm all for it. Of course, this was before the 5.1 that hit half an hour ago that was only 5km under the earth - who knows what state his house is in now.

Humph. I'm sulking.

After thinking we have been doing really well, what with over 100 aftershocks of between 4-5 on the R.S. in the last couple of days... I just read that the rate of aftershocks is "very low" considering the size of the quake we had and we should be preparing for another earthquake of at least #6 in the very near future as the rest of the pressure releases. Ummmm WHAT??? Are you kidding me? I've got water back! It is time to move on! My dishwasher and clothes washer (and dryer) are happily working right now and I refuse to have that interrupted again! AAAGH!
(not to mention that Dom is having a shower and the toilet flushes again!)

WE HAVE WATER!!! 7.42pm Monday

Okay so we still can't drink it (and won't be able to for quite some time... the city has to repair all the water supply, then the sewer, then flush chlorine down all the pipes to disinfect them....) but at least we can now flush (sparingly!) the toilet and take a shower and fill up the kettle (to boil the water) from a tap :) I am so happy! Here are my heros doing the fixing....

This one's for you Chuck

PS the red walls with sunlight shining thru is the corner of Dad's living room... from the inside

Seb's awesome motorbike truck and the inspectors outside my gym