And the Earth did Move

Its a lot of years since I have been woken by an earthquake. I dont particularly like them. This stems from a tine as a young man when I was sleeping rough in the bush. Just a gtoundsheet thrown down on the ground & a sleeping bag to crawl into. It scared me then & it still scares me. Yes, we felt it in Dunedin. Quite vigorously & for what seemed an eternity. We were lucky though, we could roll over & go back to sleep. I made sure that Jude was awake too. Not for any altruistic safety reasons, just so that I wouldn't have to be scared on my own. It wsn't until the next morning that the magnitude of the disaster started to penetrate. And disaster it was, & still is with heartrending stories by the dozen. I could fill a whole blog with stories about houses family pets, vehicles, farms , lucky escapes, sad stories by the truckload, but other more compeetent reporters have done it all better & more vividly than I can. Suffice it to say that my personal involvement was two dear friends there who have both come out unscathed. Also that my heartfelt sympathies go to those concerned

We are basically filling time here till the 16th, when hopefully the cast will come off my arm. Its not wasted time though. We are now staying with my eldest son, Sean, his lovely wife Susan& our two grandchildren, Anna & Alex. Its been good so far, getting to know the little ones for the first time really & doing what we can to help ease the load a little. Every day we try to do something different. Today we went & sat on the waterfront at St., Clairs beach & watched the waves crashing in against the seawall, the gulls soaring in an onshore breeze & the couple of optimistic surfers willing to try their hand against Mother nature. It was good time out.