News from the shaky isles

It feels surreal that the beautiful city of Christchurch (about 1,300 kilometres south of me) has taken another hammering only five months after the last massive quake. This time the effect is much worse even though this quake was smaller - there's loss of life because it happened at lunchtime on a working day and the epicentre was very close to the city and only 5 kilometres deep. Aftershocks are happening every few minutes, some of them quite significant so more damage is occurring all the time. It must be terrifying; I have experienced earthquakes but nothing like this.

Please spare a thought for the rescue effort that is ongoing.

I posted a while back when I was visiting Christchurch, see here for a photo of the central city Anglican cathedral as it looked then. See link here for a current view or here for today's shots of around the city centre.

The power of nature is mind boggling.

Is it just me?

I'm scared of the air bag inside my steering wheel.

I've heard people say that if you have your thumbs on the bit of plastic that is the air bag cover in the centre of the wheel, and the bag is activated, it can seriously break your thumbs. It really worries me that I'm going to get more hurt by the bag activating than I might be from the actual crash.

Is it just me?

I wanna be a billionaire

...so freakin' bad

I don't really aspire to billionaire status but as I start to look for some cute summer sandals, I just wish that the bottom end of the market wasn't my only viable option.

Plenty more fabulous stuff where these came from on the wonderfully comprehensive fashion site fashionstylehive.com

Check out some of these beauties.

Christian Louboutin

Givenchy

Dolce and Gabbana

Jimmy Choo

We have a situation...

The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking

Check out this video above. It's an important message and we can all make a difference. The particular organisation I support is about empowering adolescent girls who live in Kibera.

Click here to go to my September 2009 post about the Kibera slum.

Friday flowers

Check out this fantastic bonsai azalea by Phillippe Massard.

The beautiful pink and white blooms and their sheer profusion makes me sigh with wonder. There's another pretty rhododendron and lots of incredible bonsai trees at this great site bonsai4me.com if you're interested.

I've been dabbling in a small way with bonsai for years (with very mixed results) but I'd love to get in to it properly. There's something about miniature things that just rocks my boat - perhaps it reminds me of running my doll house with military precision as a girl or maybe it's the empowerment that comes with feeling like a giant.

Whatever it is, bonsai fascinates me.

Is it just me?

I absolutely love driving for the first time on a brand new road. Actually I continue to really enjoy driving on them until they lose their 'newness'.

Is it just me?