Day Thirteen

I knew as soon as I published the idea of going away for the night, that it would not happen! Malc did infact finish early enough for us to get away, but was also needed for work today. Every sensible and reasonable fibre of my body is saying that this is good...as Malc is doing something useful towards cleaning up Chrsitchurch. But...

every other fibre of my body which has been stressed and stretched to the limit is annoyed (but I know I shouldn't be).

Today my emotional well-being is being put to the test. My eyes keep threatening to overflow, my tolerance is at an all-time low, and I feel shattered. We have had about 300 aftershocks in the last 13 days, but last night one of them was big enough to frighten me into thinking we were about to have another big earthquake. It was only a 4.8 on the richter scale...but the house shook and made heaps of noise.

Malc has just rung to say it will be a long day for him in town...he is pitching in by driving the digger (which is going through the remaining rubble of the CTV building). Usually, Malc transports the diggers, cranes, high-reach machinery about on his truck.

Yesterday I drove up Papanui Road...how heartbreaking! This road is well-known for large two-storey villa style houses. I saw many of these houses still standing, but with entire walls missing - you could see right into the rooms. How awful for the people who live here. At the top end of Papanui Road (near Northlands Mall) there is a pile of rubble from 4-5 business's whcih had to be demolished. These business's have remained closed since the September 4th quake damaged them, but the February 22nd quake had damaged them further and made them unsafe.

It really does look like a war-torn city out there.