Sleep late and a big shake

It was great to see Hannah head outside to her bike today - not put off too much by her fall on Saturday. She kept telling me "I can do it" which was great. I had told her about slowing down when you turn and we had chatted about how cars, buses and tractors also have to slow down when they turn. So she was pleased to try it out herself this morning.

Ruth has had a bit of a cough the last few nights and struggled the most last night. So when she just stayed in bed this morning - I left her. She slept till just before 11am. It's great when a child can just "sleep it off" as she did today. I had wondered if she would be getting a cold but she seems fine today. I am so thankful.

At 1 I was busy in the kitchen and Rachel was upstairs doing some work. She came down and asked if we had felt the shake. It was a 5.7 in Christchurch - so I was surprised that I had not felt it. Brendon had been on lunch and people said "another quake" and so he concentrated and could feel the moving. It was quite different for Rachel though. She was on her own upstairs and got really worried. The shake continued for a little while and being upstairs she really was rocked around.

We had pineapple for an early "afternoon tea" and I had to laugh at the contrast between these two. Ruth enjoyed building a tower with her pieces but Hannah was just focused on eating. Eventually Ruth handed out a few of her pieces - Hannah eats way more than her at this stage.

Then we headed upstairs together and were all busy with different things. Ruth and I were just about to head downstairs at 2:20 (we were a meter from the stairs) when Rachel said "another quake" and so we headed back into the room. This time it was a 6.3 and it really did shake us around for quite some time. We knew it was a big one again and it was not a surprise to have all the Guides chatting about the quakes on our way to Guides this afternoon.

When we got home we watched the news and learnt about how much things had been shaken around in town. Boulders the size of cars were falling in Sumner again. Some stopping just meters from homes. One home (that had been evacuated in Feb) had half the building just fall off the cliff.

Many buildings that were damaged in February came down today. And it is reported that "at least 75 buildings in the central business district that had survived the February quake now needed to be demolished urgently".

And again the liquefaction is a big problem for many people (not to mention the many sink holes that have appeared). I do feel so sorry for the people of Christchurch. They have gone through so much over the last 9 months and now the scientists are saying that there is a 30% chance that Canterbury will have another big shake (between 6 and 6.9) within the next 12 months. Just not the thing people want to hear.