"I've come to a decision", she types, with purpose and determination I might add. "I am only going to keep one blog page going and it will be this one. Most of my super-best contacts are here and I just hope that the few from Blogster and Ipernity, those few for whom I opened those pages anyhow, will keep contact with me here. I shall miss them deeply if they don't."
One needed time to get over the loss of Multiply. To try out other pages. To get through summer (it's been long and hot and we are in drought mode now), and surgery, and further develop the garden.So, not tonight, but soon, I will be closing my other blogging pages.
Today I went into Christchurch Hospital for my six week check (all's well) and then we went for lunch to the Antigua Boatshed Cafe which is on the Avon right next to the hospital. That's part of the hospital in the picture above, a piece of appalling seventies architecture but at least it didn't fall down. There are newer parts of this hospital which are more attractive but these days much of it is shrouded by scaffolds and surrounded by cranes and other big machinery, still under repair since all the earthquakes. But soldiering on as you'd expect. The walking bridge (just in camera) to the left is still closed. A vehicle bridge to the right (not in picture) has been reopened.
When I was a kid the old Victorian boatsheds were just that, boatsheds, and you'd hire canoes, which you still can of course, and you'd row up past the hospital and through the Botanical Gardens which is all very pretty. There was an ice cream shop attached where this cafe now is. Then some smart cookie opened up the cafe and it is now a thriving business. All that was closed for some time after February 2011 but is reopened now. So this is the street-side of the cafe. Don't know those guys, just as I pushed the button on the camera, they suddenly appeared and walked into my picture. So we said, "you guys are going to be famous online now", and they said, "that's okay we'll send you the bill, haha". I hope they stumble across this picture one day, hehe.
Riverside of Antigua Boatsheds with bright colourful boats. For people who don't know Christchurch on the far side of the river is the Central Business District of Christchurch which has sustained so much damage. So much is now empty spaces where buildings used to be and demolition still continues. Over the other side workers seem to be laying new lawn seed for new grass, the big clumps beside the river are native grasses.
Not sure where this boat is heading ... straight to hell perhaps, for disobeying the rules. Perhaps into the mouth of a taniwha.
I am so very happy you are here, I have missed you.
ReplyDeleteOne of the great failings of the media is that, while they focus on disasters like earthquakes when they first happen, they then move on. One can lose sight of the fact that it takes a very long time to recover from devastation. You in Aotearoa are carrying on but I expect for many people their lives have been changed to one degree or another.
Nice little cafe.
I don't think I ever realised the extent in which disasters get inside your mind or change you. Change perspectives. Something you do know but academically I suppose. Not in your gut, like now.
DeleteHousing (mostly the shortage of) is a huge issue now; obviously heaps of houses (and/or the land they are sited on) is broken, and also all the extra construction people coming in need to be housed which creates more pressure. And because so much of the remaining housing stock in Christchurch is still unrepaired as the insurance companies continue to try to weasel out of their responsibilities, a lot of housing is substandard now. Despite that rents are high because of the shortage and house prices for any decent housing around is skyrocketing.
A couple in the Red Zone (land that can no longer be built on because it simply cannot support a house) have taken their insurance company to court. The Insurance company is arguing that they only have to repair the house, the land is not their issue.
Media coverage is another interesting dynamic. And I think the coverage varies depending on who the disaster happened to, but also whose media is filming, whose media is sharing, the country the viewer is in. If that makes sense. It is kind of awkward to express. For example, here in Aotearoa we appear to receive news from all over the world but I think disasters that happen in the US (like Katrina for example or that oil spill) get far more coverage here than an earthquake that happened in Pakistan some years back. Probably that is strongly driven by the sheer amount of camera activity in the US, we don't have to physically send reporters there so the price is cheaper. Not so many (western) reporters in places like Pakistan, not so many cameras, probably the prices of images is higher.
On our freeview tv we did have the TV7 channel which showed Al Jazeera News which was redressing that balance somewhat but this current flash government failed to continue funding TV7 so now that is gone.
Pleased to see you again over here - I've missed you, and those pictures bring back some memories of my visit to Christchurch several lifetimes ago. See you soon I hope, keep writing!
ReplyDeleteKia ora Vivien, you share your memories with all of us, much of Christchurch is just that - a memory. Still, sooner or later, a new Christchurch will rise up from the rubble and hopefully all our new and repaired buildings will be safer than the old. I'm thinking New Zealand may never have buildings centuries old like those oldies in the UK though.
DeleteWriting will continue and I will visit your page soon.
Have your blogspot page bookmarked, and will definitely keep in touch. Haven't done anything about blogs lately, solely because uni is in full-swing and demanding as. That said, emails are good. Try:changethechanel@gmail.com. :)
ReplyDeleteYep, that was another thing that was annoying me with Ipernity, when you did post, there was no notification of your posts anywhere, so I had to keep going to your actual page all the time. And yes, there's generally enough writing with uni studies I would think, without blogging on top of that lol. I have saved your email addy. Do keep in touch.
DeleteI too find the Blogger site more worthwhile as far as networking. Iri Ani. You'll be seeing most of my serious posts here too. I've given up on Blogster because there are too many right-wing "trogs", mostly my fellow countrymen who I suppose can't get used to a black man in their White House and the fact that we have politicians who believe in "socialist" stuff like background checks at gun shows and banning assault weapons ans making health care more accessible for people who don't have annual high six-figure incomes.
ReplyDeleteGlad you hear you had a good check up. That looks like a nice place for a restaurant (appalling architecture nearby aside.)
I do also agree that photographs and videos drive what gets on the news. Prison protesters on the fifth week of a hunger strike at a US Detention Center at the Gitmo Naval Base in Cuba for example---won't make news in the main media unless they starve themselves with a video-cam. But if somebody falls down a mountain in Wales or the USA, and survives the fall, that gets world-wide coverage if he or she has their camera running. Which is more newsworthy?
I think I was lucky on Blogster because I didn't really get caught up with those hardline rightwingers, but for me, aside from 2 or 3 good people, there was a lot of very tedious posts. But we have to try things out. I guess.
DeleteWhat is more news worthy? You didn't even mention celebrity divorces (apparently far more important than a wee disaster or two) or even Prince Harry blowing his nose in public. sigh.
Yes, I do have a couple friends still on Blogster so I check in now and again there, but I won't be there very much. I got tired of engaging the trolls there. Luckily you can block the worst of them but they seem to always be two or three more. I never had that many on Multiply.
DeleteYes, the media loves the royals I think because they can say pretty much anything about them and it passes for news. There is no need to cover a serious story because let's face it the idea of something calling themselves "queen" or "prince" these days is a farce.
I read your post over there saying you were closing down your site, glad I can keep up with you over here. The green and white cafe looks like a great little place by the river to stop for a bite to eat, and those boats remind me of when I was a child, we had something similar where I lived.
ReplyDeleteKia ora, and welcome to my one and only blogpage, hehe. I feel quite sorted here now, surely 'they' won't close this one down!
ReplyDelete