A Much-Needed Day Off
Yesterday, as indicated in my Silent Witness post, I didn't go the National Christchurch Memorial ceremony in Hagley Park. But in the end I did give myself the day off. March 18 was declared a special public holiday so everyone here in Christchurch had the day off, including most/all of the people doing infrastructure and service restoration work around the city. Very well-deserved, too, in their case; no question about that.
In the end I decided that calling time out for one day at least was a really good idea: no tidy up work, no books, no workshop prep. Just time out to sit in the sun and recharge the batteries—and of course as soon as I did I felt absolutely knackered, as you always do when you've been running simply to stand still—and then do, finally, stop. So in terms of calling a city-wide "time-out", maybe yesterday was absolutely the right thing to do.
Another question people have been asking me is whether I'll be staying in town for Sunday 20th, given so-called "moon man" Ken Ring's prediction that with the moon at perigee Christchurch is in line for another/even more massive quake. So I'm nailing my colours to the mast and saying that absolutely I will be here. I wouldn't dream of leaving, in fact. Firstly, because I don't believe the moon being at perigee has an equatorial snowball's chance of causing a major earthquake. A major earthquake may happen, but that certainly won't be why. (Massive tectonic forces at play is my pick on that one.) Secondly, because I regard predictions of this kind as being in the realm of scaremongering, given we've only just suffered a second major earthquake, and scaremongering makes me very cross. It's really not what we need right now. Thirdly, because every single millenial-style prophecy of doom that I have ever heard has come to absolutely nothing. So there you go. I may yet have to eat humble pie on this one, but I'll certainly be right here in Christchurch on March 20. After all, you should never pass up an opportunity to put yourself in a position where you may have to eat humble pie! 
So what did I do while I was sitting in the sun, doing that serious relaxing? (Or 're-raxing' as one of my Japanese aikido instrcutors used to say. And yes, I did feel sad just writing the word 'Japan'.) I read Adrian Tchaikovsky's Dragonfly Falling, the second in his Shadows of the Apt series. I liked the first book, The Empire of Black and Gold well enough, but my sister—a keen reader—has assured me that they go from strength to strength and I'll admit that I did enjoy Dragonfly Falling a lot, so am looking forward to getting hold of the third-in-series soon.
