Talking, walking and thoughts

Thank you to my friend for taking me for a walk today. The talk was much needed and very appreciated!
It's often the small things that mean a lot.  

My day started with a meeting (- oh the nerves! - meeting strangers) in a coffee shop to meet and discuss a neighbourhood meetup for the Wellington Host Lions. They set up a meeting, which is happening in a little over a week to get neighbours to meet up and help prepare in case of an emergency, or in case the "big one" hits *. The idea is to get to know our neighbours within our building, so we can help each other out. Even if it's like a Fire Drill - to know that the lady in 10B** has a small child is a good piece of information to have. That way - if we evacuate and see her without said child, we can respond appropriately. (IE By telling emergency services etc). Or if there's an elderly couple or someone with a disability...

Next up I guess would be setting up a Neighbourhood Watch/ Neighbourhood Support group within our building. We used to get newsletters of things happening - but we haven't had any in quite a while.
I wonder if I should / could write a new one, or if it is out of place for me to do so? I don't know who the Body Corp. of the building is for a start, and I don't want to step on their toes too much. Just hoping this initial meeting neighbours thing goes down well. At least I'll know who (from our building) is on board soon enough.

There are a lot of apartment buildings in Wellington's CBD I noticed today on my travels (both alone when I was going to and from the coffee shop, but also when walking with my friend)... a lot of new buildings being built too. I hope the market drops soon. If we want to buy an apartment it looks like we need to wait until the prices drop and they won't do that until some sell, or more are on the market!

It was crazy to think, today, that our apartment building with 60 apartments is considered "small" compared to most. I know it's only 5 stories worth, each with 12 apartments... but it's not that small, surely? SOHO just down the road has 350, it may be closer to 400. Insane! There's a new building going up that is rumoured to have close to 500 apartments. Each of those are also 1-2 bedrooms. (Which means 1-4 tenants... the same as we have here).

Dan is still away for another 8 days. Missing him lots. But can't do much about that.




NOTES:
* I live in the Capital city of New Zealand and we're right on top of a fault line, earthquakes are common here. Hence we're waiting for the 'big one'.
This of course has been the status quo for years, if it happens this year or next, who knows. Best to Be Prepared and have our things ready to Get Thru.
Get Ready & Get Thru
**10B is just an example, there is no 10B in our building.

Middle of July and end of July 2013

So in the past few days, since last Friday in fact, Wellington has been rocking and rolling.
We were awoken by a quake just after 7am on Friday morning, large enough to make me wake up, roll out of bed and "turtle" on the floor.

This cute video from 1951 shows how to "turtle": aka Duck and Cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60
In NZ we're taught to Duck, Cover and Hold. (Usually under a table).

Friday Dan went off to work. I was left at home alone, to fend for myself. Luckily the internet kept me entertained.

On Saturday we decided to relax. We stayed home and just hung out. Watched some TV shows.

On Sunday, another early morning jolt. Then after an afternoon of wandering town shopping and enjoying ourselves. . . We went to the supermarket. At 5:09pm we experienced the scariest shopping experience of our lives. We were in the middle of deciding what to buy, when everything started to shake and move. Things fell from the shelves. There was panic and mayhem! Somehow Dan grabbed my arm and we ran from the aisles to a closed doorway/ space clear enough to stand without having thing fall on us. About 4 other people joined us there. Everyone just ran. As soon as it has stopped, we checked everyone was okay and promptly left, bought our things and walked home. To the sounds of blaring alarms; the streets were quiet, with only a few other people around all walking quickly to their destinations.

When we reached home, 8 blocks away, we were thankful to find everything pretty much intact.
My lava lamp fell to the floor, thankfully it fell into the three parts, base, glass lava and top. Luckily the glass didn't break.

Next door, the apartment building has some cracks in the base. A few concrete blocks are broken out of it. Today I see that someone has put some cones up around it.

Here are some photo's I've taken from the Quake:

My Plants Vs Zombie figurines fell over off the bookshelves.

My artist human fell over...

The after photo: a few brick blocks are cracked/ falling out. 

Today: some cones and caution type tape. 

I also went up to Eva's Attic, where I volunteer and came across some other interesting quake problems. Such as:

A dolly was blocking the doorway!

Large mirror fell, not broken, thank goodness!

Wiring left exposed. Thankfully this is phone jacks not power!

A glass fell, unbroken.

A shoe rack: squashed by the mirror.

In the meantime Eva's Attic is closed until we can get engineer reports back about the building itself. Nothing too major, hopefully will be a fast fix. Closed until 5th August at this stage, but that date may change... so keep an eye out!

**Update: closed until we move. Having some moving sales check out our page on Facebook.