This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

I'm writing this from the container mall that's been set up amongst the buildings on Cashel Mall which are still standing. (Only two of the remaining ones have people trading from them.) I just finished watching a local busker juggle a spanner, flaming torch, and knife atop a ten-foot unicycle, and a pack of Occupy: Christchurch hippie-types just marched past on a demonstration. Their aims seem disorganised at best considering our government's fuckery is quite a different breed from the bigwigs responsible for unrest in the States, but they're just down the precinct singing along with some busker on his guitar.

I look one way and can see the Bridge of Remembrance. A tinsel wreath decoration is strung in front of its arch, but that's only because of perspective. The Bridge itself is currently inaccessible, pending structural strengthening or demolition. I haven't heard which yet. In the other direction is a huge crane sitting in the middle of a fenced-off road, that's been hauling pieces off the Hotel Grand Chancellor. The Hotel's the next well-publicised demolition project for the city, and is a skeleton being dismantled from the top down. Looking toward where the Cathedral used to stand, I can see the BNZ building. It must be at least eight stories tall, yet I've never really noticed it until now. (If I had been sitting in this spot ten months prior, I probably wouldn't have. There would've been... shit, I don't remember. A three-storey building whose lower floor was a bookshop chain?) Its demolition has been delayed until at least next weekend, so the walkway into Cathedral Square will also be open until then.

The walkway starts at the end of this container mall, leading into the Square up Colombo Street. They've made it quite clear that anyone who walks it is entering a dangerous area and risks losing their life if another earthquake struck. They advise carrying ID on your person, rather than in a bag, and they clear the walkway each hour.

I guess the first thing I noticed is how much brighter Colombo Street is. It used to be flanked by several-storey buildings on both sides, and it had two-way traffic and was generally pretty grim, but a lot of those have come down. I spend a bit of time at each gap, trying to remember what franchise restaurant used to be in the building. Looking at the unfamiliar-enough-to-set-me-on-edge skyline, I just think really hard trying to figure which gaps were always there and which ones used to have something standing in them that I never thought about before now. The temporary fences had laminated notes on them, detailing which buildings were standing and which were facing demolition.

There weren't a lot set to remain, but the one notice that got to me worst was a photo of the pub I worked at last summer being demolished. It was a registered heritage building, tucked round the back of the cathedral. I used to polish the mirrors in the back room, where Captain Robert Falcon Scott had his final dinner before he set off for his ill-fated trip to Antarctica. That's gone, and through the gap I can see where the Press Building (my dad's old office, when he worked for the newspaper some years back) isn't. Through that gap I can get glimpses of where Gloucester Arcade is/was, which had a few Japanese/Korean restaurants, a bakery, and a second-hand clothing store I would always hit up. Mum keeps me posted on where in town our favourite eateries have relocated to, but a lot of businesses just won't come back.

The Christ Church Cathedral was obviously the centrepiece; you can probably find photos of it both before and after. The recent deconsecration of it was pretty well-publicised; since then the Anglican Church is arguing what to do with the site/how to continue in the city in general. Churches the city over got wrecked in February. The top of the steeple's been lowered and placed in the overgrown grass beside the Cathedral; unlike the rest of the building it was made of copper (replaced after the top fell off in another earthquake decades ago). That's a pretty common sight through the suburbs as well.

There was a dent in the stone tiles beside the plinth which used to have a statue of John Robert Godley on top of it. I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo of the fallen statue, with the head knocked off. They've removed the statue since, and there's kids climbing on the plinth.

I'm running out of battery, so I might toss down some more thoughts later.

Addendum: Turns out I did not.

Also, my work is so friggin' great. Today one of the guys (another scholarship student) who I work with was sick, so was tossing up asking to go home early. Another dude who wasn't here Thursday recalled telling our "boss" earlier in the week that he wanted to take the day off. Bossman was just so pleasantly surprised that someone would mention they were taking a day off before the day in question that Another Dude picked up on it.

We also hired a car today to go plant buckwheat (pictures later; nag me.) We figured that in a similar vein, the university would be pleasantly surprised if the car came back without dents or a small animal's remains plastered to the front.

This whole campus is just the chillest, and everyone is so helpful. It's great!

Congrats!

I mean, depending on how removed you are from the situation, aunt/uncle-dom is a great place to be. You can have all the fun of BABY without any of the responsibility! I've been an uncle for almost two years now and my personal verdict is that: it is awesome.

Of course, there was a good chunk of time before being a baby-momma brother that I was really worried for my sister, not to mention DAMN I AM OLD. But once things on that end start to sort themselves out and suddenly there is a TINY PERSON there who you can play with and loves you basically always and also ADORABLE and this is not a sentence but I think the point is there.


Anyway I hope everything works out (I bet it will) and try to get them to name him/her something awesome. (I almost got them to name him "bower" which they heard as "cooper" and settled on "Connor")

I'm gonna be an aunt.

I dunno how I feel about that.

Possibly congrats! :D (?)

I'm not exactly in a position to offer experience with being an aunt/uncle, so I can't really match what btp's said. But still!

First (and so far only, apart from the box of chocolates that came with it, and I guess my phone but i got that months ago) birthday present today:



I have the best classmates <3

Happy Plaid Day!

You can have all the fun of BABY without any of the responsibility!

I hate children though

I didn't like children eight years ago. Then a bunch of cousins decided that it was time to procreate, and now we have nine more family members and I love children.

Happy Plaid day indeed!

((when first loading the page I missed the comment about your birthday times and thought the box was your classmate :B ))

You can have all the fun of BABY without any of the responsibility!

I hate children though

Maybe try thinking of them as a sociological experiment. The things you do now will create whatever sort of adult you want.

My mouth is full of blood and my blood is full of happy pills

Wooooooo

My mouth is full of blood and my blood is full of happy pills

Wooooooo

I take it the dentistry either went well and you're currently on a pain pill high

Or it went terribly and you're wearing a hospital gown and bleeding all over the floor of some abandoned garage while typing with a stolen laptop

Oneathem probably

Happy Plaid day indeed!

((when first loading the page I missed the comment about your birthday times and thought the box was your classmate :B ))

Yes. I go to classes with a selection of dried fruits. :P

I had to share my seat with a packet of raisins for three months, I can relate. They always stole my homework :c

Eeeeurgh

internet, please stop being if not quite a piece of shit, a poorly-processed turdburger

What happened to me wanting to avoid real life on you, it's getting close to a reversal

I feel the same, Schaz. I'm so sick of this over-communication.

Hey, I am going to go to Orlando today, I probably won't be able to get online so much until Christmas!

wooooooo

I dunno Superfreq.

BTR didn't steal the idea for their song Music Sounds Better With U, they just got an idea from this. They made their own sound from it, and their own verses. The only thing they took from this song is the title and the course! And this is basically just music, there's almost no singing which there is on BTRs version. And there's a rap on BTRs song. So just get over the fact that a Boyband found this song really good and brought it into the 21 century!! Haters gonna hate, Rushers gonna ELEVATE !

this is, by the way, about this song

Rushers gonna

E-L-E-V-A-T-E

Freqs I did not doubt you for a second, but there are other ignorant losers out there who have to live their days without Breakbot.

Wait, somebody hasn't heard Music Sounds Better With You?

Hokay aaaaaand I'm off

see y'all in a few days!

Wait, somebody hasn't heard Music Sounds Better With You?

:<

I am not a music-savvy person.

Wait, somebody hasn't heard Music Sounds Better With You?

They don't and didn't play a wide variety of music on the radio in the States.

I live in the States. (Everybody here thinks it sucks too.)

Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuys for complicated reasons we had to trade in my biggest christmas present thing, and got a technological beast of a desktop PC. Note that ive been on mac for like three and a half years. I FEEL THE NEED TO BRAGEBRATE.