We are home again over night then back in the caravan again. We are going to use it as a base for Mum's garage sale, because we have emptied her home so can't really do much in the empty house, though there is still electricity to run the caravan.

Erle and I will sleep over at mums in the caravan to protect all the gear we have got ready for selling at the garage sale. It will be all go from about 6am in the morning! Fortunately my Brother and Sister will be helping too.

Already the 3 wonderful relaxing days at White's Bay seem ages ago! Might have to do it all again!

After working all day, helping to clear out my Mother's home, move her into her lovely new apartment, and prepare for a big garage sale on Saturday, came home exhausted and needing a few days relaxation.
Sooooo......
We are off in the caravan tomorrow morning, the weathers good and we are free for a 3 days so we are off! Would stay away longer but for the need to return to assist at the garage sale.

Christchurch three weeks later.

I was asked how things were in Christchurch after the major earthquake Feb, on 22nd.
Things are not really good there, aftershocks continue, there is talk of moving whole suburbs away to a new location! As many as 10,000 homes have been badly damaged, most of central Christchurch business are too and may never re open. Death toll is about 200, not all can be identified, many are foreign nationals, mainly Japanese children who were in a language school.
Electric power has been restored to most of the city, but, water and sewerage has not been restored, thousands are using portable toilets, and living in tent villages, fine for now but won't be so fine in winter.

One bit of good news; there were no bodies found in the Cathedral, it was thought 20 people would be found there, but it is a minor miracle is that no one died in Gods House. But it. is so badly damaged it may have to be demolished and replaced entirely.
Another wonderful thing is that a gentleman in England has donated many millions of dollars to rebuild!
Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts.

Mother's 90th Birthday Party

Mums 90th Birthday Party.

Mum decided to celebrate her birthday in style; she hired a great venue for the afternoon and invited 50 of her friends and all her family except for Shakara her 2nd Grand daughter who is living and working in Cairns Australia.
With all of my family in the one room, bearing in mind the devastating earthquake only two weeks ago ( some of the family were in it, but are safe) with death toll and survivors stories still ringing in my ears, also, realizing none of us have a guaranteed tomorrow, I took advantage of the opportunity to seek out every single family member to give them all a big hug and let them know I cared. Mum was doing the same as it was her big day.




There was a soloist clarinet player Gaven who played her favourite tune, 'Stranger on the shore' it sounded lovely. Then a gentleman sang several tunes from shows mum enjoys, and an old song, 'I'll walk beside you', finally a pianist played ' Have I told you lately that I love you', at my request, this is the song that Dad used to sing to Mum frequently, I knew it would probably bring a tear to her eyes and I was not wrong, in fact it did the same to many of us.

Mum then cut the cake, made by our sister=in-law Jan, she also iced it beautifully with red roses she had also made.
Rochelle another grand daughter put on a fantastic powerpoint slideshow of Mum's life, made from snapshots gathered from all the family and purloined from Mums own albums. She was so surprised and delighted by this. All of us were amazed just who had some of the photos we had never seen before.

We took advantage of the fanily gathering to take another 5 generation photo of the all first born females. Katie-May is now 3 years old, cute and lively, and soon to have a small brother or sister.

I neglected to take any photos of all Mums old friends! Sorry about that.
We all had a glass of Marlborough's finest white wine, and a sumptuous afternoon tea, plus lots of fun and laughter and noisy catch-up chats. Aren't families just so special.

I proudly took a couple of my family photos as well. Nyle and Teagan and Nyle and Kayne
Finally I got a shot of Mum with her young best friend Arther whom she calls her surrogate grandson. An a amazing friendship that keeps her young.
That is My World for this week, check out some other peoples worlds on this Meme.

The moment the earthquake hit Christchurch

The moment the earthquake hit, taken from the port hills overlooking Christchurch City.