So...things had changed in Christchurch forever. We, as a city were realising that nothing would ever be the same again. Over on the east side, my side of the city, we struggled without water, showers, toilets with no shops, with broken roads, and the dreadful, awful, grey dust blanketing everything.
But slowly we regained some degree of normality....even if our concept of normal had changed. Schools went back, albeit with portaloos and drinking water trucked in daily. Many schools shared sites with other schools, one school attending in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Shops opened, even if parts of them were fenced off. Gradually we began to feel better.
Then the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami happened. I hadn't cried for Christchurch, I was too numb with shock, but I wept and wept for Japan. The tears I had bottled up, that I had been too scared to let fall in case I never stopped, finally arrived.
My diet this during time was varied. I tried to be low carb in general, but I didn't always make it. When I did things went well, but I kept relapsing. Bread was my worst enemy. I found it hard to say no to bread. One good thing happened re the diet...the day before the quake I had checked "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes out of the library. As all the libraries were shut, I got to keep it until May. This was great as it gave me time to read it even though my reading was not going well.
Reading! I have always read, my life has been defined by books. I cannot remember ever not being able to read. I was born and raised in a second-hand and antiquarian bookshop. A public library was only yards away from the house during much of my childhood. Books have always been very important to me. I read when I eat, when I am in the bathroom, when I am cooking. I have even been known to prop books up against the outside of the shower walls to read when showering!
After the quake, for the first time in my life I was unable to read. I couldn't read anything. I became addicted to my radio. It ran on both solar power and wind-up, and I carried it everywhere with me. I tried to read magazines, but I couldn't. I collected the newspaper, the Press, which despite losing its Cathedral Square headquarters and several of its people in the quake kept going. I still have them, I have yet to read them.
Gradually things improved, after about 3 weeks I found I could read again. I started in with children's books, The Abbey Girls, The Chalet School, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, and Noel Streatfield. Gradually I made it up the age range. I read books written for Edwardian teenagers, mostly by Mrs George De Horne Vaiziey. Then I moved onto D.E. Stevenson and other light adult novels. Gradually I worked my way up, and finally, some weeks later, I managed to read Good Calories, Bad Calories.
Well this was a revelation! I shall do a proper book review later, but this totally changed my mindset. I recommitted to the low carb way of eating. And I started to lose some of the weight I had put on over the emergency. I went on to read "Trick and Treat" by Barry Groves, and I lost a little more weight. By now, I could see a difference, but other people hadn't noticed. My trousers were not quite as tight, and I felt I had lost weight off my face too.
We got the water back and, although we still had to boil what came through the tap, we could at least have showers. No flushing toilets though. We mainly used the long drop, although the council gave us a portapotty, and there was a portaloo in our street.
We got a puppy, a labradoodle pup, we call Ruff, after the Jane Hissey storybook. He was so easily toilet trained! As we were still using the long drop at the top of the garden, anytime anyone needed to go, they took the puppy with them. He was grabbed at all hours of the day and night and taken up the garden. He got the idea right away, and was clean and dry inside within a week!
Weeks turned into months, and things gradually came together. I was losing weight, slowly, but I was losing it. Things were gradually getting better in Christchurch and life was looking up. On Saturday 11th June 2011 we got the best news we had had in months. We could flush our toilets! We were so excited, we could go to the toilet in the house!
On the Sunday afternoon we filled in the long drop. It was actually long drop number 4. We made rather a ceremony of it, and then we went inside and flushed the loo!
On Monday 13th June 2011 we had another 6.3 earthquake. We lost power, water, and yes....we lost the sewage too.......
No comments:
Post a Comment