Quake

This morning lying in bed in a semi-wake state I suddenly became aware of a very odd noise and thought that Martin must have come back from his morning walk (Wendy already having gone to the gym) and popped in to see me for some reason and the noise was him walking along the deck.  I would, of course, usually have been up and about at that time but had been later than usual going to bed.  The noise continued for a few seconds then the rumble developed into a good shake.  It is quite weird lying in bed watching the house shake and rattle around you which is what it did for, I would estimate, about 5 or 10 seconds which seems a very very long time when it's actually happening.  

My first thought was 'what am I supposed to do?'.  The usual advice is drop into a crouch position but I seemed to recall that if you were in bed then you were supposed to stay there and cover your head with a pillow (assuming there wasn't something likely to fall on you).  Given the construction of The Cottage and the fact that it rests on piles the worst that would be likely to happen is that it might move on the piles.  There is no masonry and no heavy roofing tiles.  Of course by the time all this has gone through my head the quake was over and the shaking had stopped.

The quake was centered 20 k SE of Tokoroa and 94 miles (151 km) NNW of Napier.  It was 175 k deep and was magnitude 5.8.

Just before I returned to New Zealand there had been a few quakes felt in the area but in the times over the last eight years I've been in the country I've felt relatively few quakes (perhaps a couple of dozen at most) and only a couple as severe as today.

This has been a big enough event for me to make a post out of it but let me put it into perspective.  The people of Christchurch have been having to go through this and a hell of a lot worse for several years now and are living with the aftermath of the earthquake and nearly 11,000 shakes since. (Yes, eleven thousand). To get an idea of what that means go to the Christchurch Quake Map for a real eye opener.

Frances Garrood, Novelist

I have now read Frances Garrood's three novels: all on Kindle. Usually I would write separate reviews (usually being a rather loose term given that I haven't written any book reviews for several years) on Eagleton Book Notes but this is one post and it isn't a review. Why? Several reasons: I follow Frances's blog and feel that I know her (to the extent that I am more acquainted with her than with any other published novelist) and although quite different there is a commonality shared by the three books.

Any book that starts off "Nobody expected Ernest to die.  Least of all Ernest." had to be worth some further exploration.  So I explored and found a source of enjoyment, pathos and a whole gamut of emotions.   One of the things that all three books have in common is that they are about ordinary (well, fairly ordinary) people doing what fairly ordinary people do.  Another is that I can't help the feeling when I read some of the interpersonal relationships that the author is speaking with a great deal of personal experience.  I know that there is a theme that recurs in the books of which I have some experience and I don't see that anyone could just imagine the emotions that go with being in that situation.  But then I'm not an author and I don't have a very vivid imagination.

Getting back to Dead Ernest this is not, in many ways, a comfortable book.  Leastways I found parts of it very uncomfortable indeed.  Unfortunately without giving far too much away I can't really say more.  

I enjoyed the books.  If you are a person who is very uncomfortable with emotional issues then you may, just may, be able to enjoy these on another level but you will miss out.  I'd suggest you give them a try anyway.  The order doesn't really matter.

I do know that Meike who blogs at From My Mental Library has written reviews of all three books.   I wanted to write the opening to this post without re-reading her reviews but I shall now go and do that and I would also suggest that you read her posts at Dead Ernest, Basic Theology For Fallen Women and The Birds, Bees and Other Secrets.

Christmas Decoration

I got out my Christmas decoration today.

Thank you Fiona.

Thankful Thursday: Lemons

The Family have an orchard as part of the 5 acres in which The House (and The Cottage) stands.   It's not the sort of orchard that surrounds the property which are cultivated apple trees but an old fashioned garden orchard with a mix of fruits including apricots, plums, lemons and the inevitable hedge of feijoa.  My principle interest is the plentiful and never-ending supply of lemons for my morning cups of hot water and lemon (and the occasional gin and tonic!).

So today I am thankful for the fact that I live amongst such restful beauty and have a plentiful supply of wholesome truly organic lemons.

The Journey From Dannevirke

As a change from the written word here are a few photos from the car window (I wasn't driving) on the way home from the croquet tournament in Dannevirke a week or so ago.

The central ranges down the spine of the North Island under big skies

Remnants of snow on the ranges - telephoto from moving vehicle through the haze.

Just a pic

Fairly typical Hawkes Bay farmstead between Wairoa and Hastings

The Time Traveller's Wife

One of the things that I really wish I'd given a higher priority too is keeping my book blog up to date.  Not that I read all that much these days.  I always seem to have much higher priorities for my time: an incomprehensible statement for people like CJ and many of my friends.  Add to that the fact that I'm a very slow reader and the problem shouldn't be so big.  One of the problems in not keeping it up to date is that I often just cannot recall the ins and outs of books I have read over the last few years even though I have a reasonable recollection (leastways I think I do) of books I read when I was in my early 20s.

One book I've been trying to read is The Time Traveller's Wife , Audrey Niffenegger's début novel.  I started it several years ago and it's travelled back and forth between Scotland and New Zealand several times but despite many attempts and re-starts (several from the beginning) I've never got past half-way.  Last year I attempted to watch the film but even that defeated me and I didn't get past the first half hour.  I don't even know why I found it so hard to cope with.  Yesterday, however, I had a breakthrough:  I watched the film to the end.  

There might be a few amongst you you have not read the novel nor seen the film.  For you here is a synopsis of the basis of the book:

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), an artist who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the opening of the novel, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life.

The book, though a huge sales success on publication in 2003, did not receive the rave reviews that might have been expected with some criticism of its pedestrian writing and style and sometimes contrived though clever plot.  In general, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews. For example, The New York Times wrote that the film was an "often ridiculous, awkward, unsatisfying and dour melodramatic adaptation".  I had never read any reviews until I came to write this post (or if I had I've completely forgotten).  Perhaps sub-consciously I just didn't find the book satisfying.

Maybe now that I've seen the film I can one day watch it again so that I can appreciate all the bits I didn't take in and perhaps, just perhaps, I will have another go at the book.  It's one that I feel I ought to have mastered.

What Are The Odds?

Yesterday evening when Jamie was leaving I texted a friend who is travelling from Scotland to Hawaii at the crack of dawn Monday UK time just to make sure that she had completed her ESTA for the Visa Waiver for the USA.  "What's an ESTA?"  "Read the blurb that came with your ticket from the travel agent."  

I wonder how many people turn up at airports without the ESTA and cannot then travel to the USA or anywhere if they are stopping in the USA even as a transit passenger for 1 hour.  It's the stuff of nightmares.  After completing the on-line form and paying £40 it looks as though all may be OK for  my Scottish friend even though the ESTA confirmation hasn't come through yet.

I wonder what the odds are of a near problem in New Zealand making a bystander think of a friend on the other side of the world and just asking......

We'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

The All Blacks

When I was a youngster I was quite a passionate supporter of the Welsh rugby team.  That was in the days of Gareth Edwards - one of the greatest rugby players there has been.  Then I went through a period of complete disinterest in the game until I went to live in Scotland where, eventually, I ended up supporting the Scottish side whenever the rugby internationals were being played.  Coming to live half my life in New Zealand, however, suddenly meant that I had to take some hard decisions.

I've never been a nationalist and supporting a team just because I was born in a particular country has never seemed rational to me.  Seeing the All Blacks from the perspective of living in their country suddenly gave my rugby interest a new lease of life and when I'm here I support them fervently.  When I return to Scotland , though, something inside me compels me to support the Scottish team.  Privately I have some difficulty when the two teams meet.

So when the All Blacks played England at the weekend I fully expected them to win.  England had other ideas and their play was superb bringing the All Blacks' 20-game unbeaten streak to an end by 38 to 21.

Why am I mentioning all this?  Because of the All Blacks' attitude.  They took the defeat on the chin full of praise for England as the side that deserved to win.  There were no excuses from the All Blacks - no mention of fatigue or dramas with a virus during the week: just a simple acknowledgement that they were beaten by a better side on the day.

To me that is the true essence of sport.  It is the way most of us would like to see the game instead of the disgraceful incident in the game against Wales which hopefully will have brought to an end the All Blacks' lamentable behaviour on the European tour.

The Gap Year

Jamie, The Family's, 18 year old first born has left for his gap year.  Even I, male used to a son travelling the world, was a bit on the choked side as Jamie got on the plane for his first unaccompanied flight via Auckland, Los Angeles and London Heathrow to Edinburgh before going on to Switzerland for the winter's skiing season (working) and then China to do a course learning Chinese.

The last hour had not been without drama when a problem with the visa waiver for the USA transit was discovered but with the help of the wonderful Air New Zealand staff at Napier Airport all was sorted in time for the first leg of the flight.

That's Jamie in the blue T-shirt

Poor light through a plate glass window at 30x is my excuse for the poor quality

Looks happy!

Ready for the off

Left behind!

Please Explain

When I woke on Thursday morning it was just getting light although the beautiful clear night when I went to bed had turned to custard and it was raining: a nuisance because I had a whirligig full of washing.  My bedside clock said 0550 which was a bit odd because the sun is usually well up by then but my sleepy mind just assumed it was the heavy cloud and I was back asleep in seconds.  In fact it was not until I woke and got up at 0750 (which is long after I'm usually up) and went through and put the television on for the news that I realised that my clock had had an electronic fit and was nearly 90 minutes fast. It's not just computers that can have fits.

I put it down as 'one of those inexplicable things' put the clock right and got on with things.  So imagine my surprise on Friday morning (yesterday) when the clock was again very fast.  Again I put it right.  When The Family came down for dinner last night Wendy and Martin mentioned that their clock had been 30 minutes fast yesterday morning and caused some surprise.  Both our clocks were fast again this morning.

The common factor with the fast clocks is that they are run off mains electricity.  All the other clocks were ok.

The utility company are replacing the main supply boxes at the moment and we are both on a temporary lorry-mounted generator.  Now I would have expected the utility company to ensure that the current supplied by the generator is exactly the same as the usual mains supply.

In any case I'm not sure how an alteration in current would make the clock run fast without causing damage to other electrical appliances.

Can anyone explain?