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Update January 2012 I am not committing a huge amount of time to hootoo at the moment. Living in a seismically-active area kind of focuses your mind on other things. We've had 9,500 shakes since September 4th 2010, including significant ones over magnitude 6.0 in February (which caused major damage and loss of life), June and December. It is a strange time through which to live, but our new version of what is normal works for me. I am committed to staying put - and will even be looking to buy my first house in 20 years later in 2012.
I'm an ex-pat Pom living in Canterbury, New Zealand. I left Britain in 1997 and apart from four years back there to find my feet after my husband died, I lived in various bits of Queensland, Australia until 2008 when I crossed The Ditch and started work at one of the local Councils here. New Zealand was never really on my radar (although I holidayed here in '97). I came here for the job, so it is an incredible surprise to find that the South Island knocks the socks off most places I've lived in the last couple of decades. It's been described as Scotland on steroids. And the rest. I'm an ecologist and planner by profession and advise the Council on natural heritage issues. I'm not the person who plants the trees or counts the birds (sadly that doesn't pay enough) but I'm the one who makes sure that it can happen: I write the policies and plans and sort out funding. And from time to time those practical people invite me to spend a day with them in the field, which makes the desk job worthwhile. I also use my interpersonal and negotiation skills to build partnerships with community groups and ecologists working with other organisations. The job pays me enough to seriously plan the dream property: a few acres to grow enough to be as self-sufficient as possible; chooks and ducks; black labradors. I am on the way to having enough money to make it reality. In the meantime I dig up as much of my back yard as my landlord will tolerate and am at my most content growing and tending veg and fruit crops, then concocting preserves and wonderful dishes in the kitchen. The only drawback to being down here in the South Pacific is that all my immediate family are in Britain. I miss them. Thank goodness for emails and telephones.
Make the most of every day and don't die saying What If or If Only Finally: I keep coming back to this poem; which I first discovered in 1980 Thinks
you think
it can't last
it should be over by midnight
or tomorrow lunchtime at the outside
but it goes on
and nobody stops
to handle the brake
it goes on
and very soon you understand
that
perhaps it will last after all
pretty soon you get to saying to yourself
I must do something
about this
so you settle down with a good book
under the arc lamps of reality
you dissect the words
and keep them in vinegar
you take a little love
and bruise it in your palm
you take a little hope
and boil it in your fear
you laugh a little
cry a little
start to blow your nose
and you think
perhaps a storm would turn off the sun
perhaps we'll all learn to work out the facts
so you put out the flags
as you turn out the lights
and much later
about a lifetime
later
one dark night
in the cold of your bed
you sit up with a start
with a voice in your head
and you say to yourself
I must do something
about this.
Miles Gibson
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Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Not pregnant, but...
(Feb 16, 2012)
...drinking a glass of stout a day.
My GP says my iron levels are low. Interestingly she didn't recommend iron tablets, but that I should eat red meat four times a week. That's really hard, partly because my digestive system is used to 'easy' meat these days - fish, chicken, duck - and protein from cheese and eggs. It's also difficult because at this time of garden gluts, there's barely space on my plate of fresh veggies to stick in a fork and come up with a mouthful of food, let alone any room for a chunk of meat.
I did obey my GP for a week or so (she's that kind of a GP) but didn't much enjoy it. Then my lovely sister-in-law suggested Guinness  as an alternative.
Now, I haven't consumed alcohol for two or three years (except for an occasional celebratory  ). This is for reasons of wanting to be 100% alert each morning when I wake up: as I've aged even one small glass of red wine has made itself felt the following day, so I ditched the whole alcohol thing and have felt enormously healthier and more energetic for doing so.
But of course, low iron levels are taking a toll in my energy levels, so I decided to chat to my GP about the pros and cons of Guinness vs. red meat vs. iron tablets.
It was a remarkably short conversation which went along the lines of:
FB - Hello  ... [explanation].. what do you think?
- Go with a glass of Guinness each day. And have iron tablets too for now. Once your energy levels are normal, cut out the tablets and see how you feel.
So off I went to the supermarket to look at the price of Guinness in six-packs (no single bottles)  And then saw individual bottles of various locally-brewed stout sitting cheek by jowl with the Irish stuff 
And I am writing this as I sip a cold glass of Clydesdale Irish Dry Stout, brewed in Christchurch  . It's bloody marvellous  Here's hoping I still think so when the alarm goes off at 5.20 tomorrow morning....
Fb 
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(10 replies,
Latest reply: May 3, 2012)
Robert the Bruce: the Illustrious Ancestor
(Jan 29, 2012)
For much of my life I've known the family fable that Robert the Bruce is my generation's 19th greatgrandfather. My uncle ferreted into the family tree back in the 60s and somehow came up with the illustrious ancestor. Allegedly.
Over Xmas I was slightly incapacitated with a leg injury and instead of spending happy days hiking in the high country, I signed up to a genealogy website and did some ferreting of my own.
To my astonishment and delight King Robert the Bruce is indeed my 19th greatgrandfather 
And when I did further digging, I got back to the Earls of Orkney - his ancestors.
So my family line goes back to Orkney on both sides. I only have to go back three generations on Dad's side to get there and can trace them to 1601 before we seem to run out of records (so far anyway). And on Mum's side, 24 generations back I start finding Earls and we're into the Norse Sagas 
I had no great expectations when I began this investigation a month ago. And now I'm totally hooked.
Once I get fed up with going back and back and back I shall start looking at more detailed records about some more recent rellies: a few wee mysteries have already popped up 
I hope everybody will now treat me with the respect which I am due  
Fb
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(6 replies,
Latest reply: Jan 30, 2012)
Somebody's not listening...
(Jan 1, 2012)
I should think every Cantabrian's New Year wish was for a calmer 2012.
It's not got off to a great start, that's for sure.
We've had 27 earthquakes in the last 9 1/2 hours (since 1.30am); the largest a double-whammy of two 5.5 magnitudes just 12 seconds apart. What sleep was possible was fitful and expectant.
So I'm gazing at my computer through a haze of exhausted headache and bleary eyes.
Enough. Enough.
 Fb
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(15 replies,
Latest reply: Jan 4, 2012)
A Christmas cheer-up for all my friends at hootoo
(Dec 16, 2011)
Have a good one everybody
And here's hoping for a peaceful and healthy 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU
FB
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(15 replies,
Latest reply: Dec 23, 2011)
7,861
(Dec 10, 2011)
That's 7,861 earthquakes here since September 4th 2010.
Still a couple each day, but definitely less frequent and of lower magnitudes now. Thank 
Fb
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(6 replies,
Latest reply: Dec 12, 2011)
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