I feel the earth move under my feet

Tuesday 19th October 2010

A day dominated by a violent aftershock of magnitude 5.0

Our lives are still very much effected by our large September 4th 7.1 earthquake.  Whether we want it or not.  I must be honest and say these quakes are really beginning to unsettle and unnerve me. I had a real moment this afternoon when I thought I can't take any more of these. We go about our daily business as best we can, but always mindful that at any minute another nasty aftershock will occur.
The shocks have largely been either just on bedtime or spreadout through the day when we are busy.  Christchurch people have become real expert at predicting the magnitudes now, a common conversation starter with most strangers.  We amateur experts quickly flick onto a little known beforehand website called www.geonet.org.nz to grab the latest statistics, quite often making it crash with so many requests.
The shake today was a violent and loud as the first big one.

Where were we when it occurred at 11.35am? Standing in the kitchen talking to my parents who had dropped something off and were just leaving.
What did we do? Not much can be done when the ground under your house is twisting and bucking, shaking and shoving, my mum and I hung on to each other, I hung on to the fridge where I was standing. We were terribly shaken afterwards. They say in an earthquake to DROP, COVER AND HOLD. Alf, who works out of Christchurch in a town called Darfield about 40kms from our home, felt nothing.  This aftershock was centred very close to the city and was very shallow. He wondered why he got a stange email asking if he was OK.  He answered why, was something up?

 This is where boths cats can be found sitting during our school day, under my desk

Quick homemade pizza and oven chips for our dinner.  Because takeways are so very expensive, I have dishes up my sleeve like this one to mix up at the last minute.  The humble fish and chip meal nowadays can cost around $20.00, we decided that $20.00 would be better spent on something more important and worthwhile elsewhere in our budget. It is so true that you must make a concerted effort to save the small pennies here and there, and like I said we chose to stop buying takeaways. So making this quick pizza dough that takes a matter of minutes to prepare, is not too hard on the nights when you don't feel like cooking.:-

Quick Homemade Pizza Dough 

2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 dessertspoons of oil

water to mix

Preheat oven to 190c

Mix the flour, salt and oil in a bowl, then add just enough water to combine.  Mix to soft dough.

I used a double batch in the photo, which fills my baking dish nicely and makes a thickish crust.

Vegetable Wedges

Scrub and cut 1-2 vegetables per person (eg. potatoes, kumara, parsnips or combination).

Put them into a clean supermarket bag and add the oil (1 tablespoon).

Rub the vegetables all over, then pour them into a roasting dish, bake 30-40 minutes.

My handy cutter that makes crinkle cut chips, just like the ones from the supermarket.  Well worth looking in op shops or retro stores for one.