Don't stagnate on your path

If we sit upon the path of life, doing the same thing the same way every day, day after day after day, are we growing?

Or are we stagnating?

There is a lovely ease with which we can settle ourselves into a ‘rut’ into a repetitive pattern where we know what we are doing, know the outcomes, know the procedures and responses, know how to get the results we desire. Compare this to knowing how to make a batch of scones and getting a perfect result every time, but never daring to try anything new, never daring a batch of cheese scones, or bacon, or herb, or saltana, least the results are not good. We know what we are doing with a mix for plain scones, we can predict the result, so we spend the rest of our life making only plain scones, and taking no risks. We hear about other people making savoury scones containing ham, feta cheese, and sundried tomato, and we envy them, but we dare not try.

Though scone making may seem a bizarre comparison to life itself, the concept does apply. It equates to the saying: if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Nothing will change, or grow, or evolve. Everything remains the same. Think about going into any café in the world and the only food is a plain scone, and the only drink is a coffee with milk no sugar. You would not expect that in a café, so why would you even consider accepting that in your own life?

Change is movement, between one level and another, and the journey between these levels can be uncomfortable, confusing, and sometimes even painful. But, the higher level brings with it a greater level of peace, of love, or understanding, and of joy. It is worth it on a very personal level.

Do what you can in this lifetime. Grow as much as you can in this lifetime. Be as magnificent as you can be in this lifetime. Love as much as you possibly can in this lifetime. There is no guarantee what the next lifetime you live will be, so make the most of the understanding that you have in this lifetime, and push yourself!

Don’t settle for plain scones when you can have something magnificent!!!

Sacrifice for a new oven

A new oven necessarily calls for a virgin sacrifice!

Note of interest: by ‘virgin sacrifice’ I mean the ‘first thing ever cooked in this new/virgin oven’, not the actual sacrifice of a virgin!

 

This new oven was a longed for acquisition, and the decision was forced when ‘old oven’ took three hours to cook an orange cake! It was supposed to be cooked in 45 minutes! That was the proverbial last straw! In that three hours, my oven ‘crossed the line’ of what was fair and tolerable.

In the food challenge I undertook to entertain a friend who had broken two ribs, I had rediscovered my joy of cooking. Now that I have found that again, I need an oven that does not lie to me, and oh boy ‘old oven’ told some massive lies: ‘yes, honestly I am 180 degrees’, or ‘yes this really is 200 degrees’. Massive porkies! The oven thermometer we bought told another tale, that of 40 or more degrees less! (Yes, I know the seals are shot, but that’s no excuse!)

New oven. Virgin sacrifice. Necessary!

With a vegan and a vegetarian in the family, I decided that the ‘virgin’ should be something we can all enjoy, so we have settled on scone biscotti, from a recipe book given to me by my gorgeous broken ribs friend. A big batch, and four different flavours, I am thinking: salted pistachios; lemon zest, slivered almonds and preserved ginger; cinnamon and apple; chocolate and cherry. I can think of no greater way to celebrate a new oven, and break in the virgin, than by an orgy of aromas, colours and flavours. To be enjoyed by the whole family, along with a fabulous coffee of a vanilla flavoured tea!

Scone biscotti is a completely unnecessary luxury, an indulgence…hence, I think, an entirely appropriate ‘virgin’. And four different flavours, cooked all at once because ‘new oven’ has thermowave and a temperature gauge that has been raised to always tell the truth? Simply because I can!

A new oven is not something to be taken lightly. This will be the first new oven I have ever had, so needless to say I am ridiculously excited! The ‘virgin sacrifice’ is a must, and it cannot—surely—be something practical, sensible, it must be something indulgent, and celebratory!

And yes, I will be making another orange cake at some stage, a gluten free one to share with my dear gluten intolerant martial artist friend—who can kick my ass clear across the room, and whom I occasionally accidentally hit with an eskrima stick …but who loves me nonetheless!

The joy of preparing food, and then sharing that food, is an expression of love. That particular expression of love does, rather, hinge on having an oven that works properly! Let’s just say I shall be expressing a whole lot more love!!

The cooking challenge

One of my dearest friends injured her ribs, and was off work for a week.

Now, this chick is an absolutely gorgeous human being, and a foodie. After leaving her home—twice—with cuisine magazines I hatched a plan. In order to entertain and amuse her (and challenge me), I decided on a game! I would make a recipe out of one of those magazines every day for the remaining four days of the working week!

Day One: Brownie cake with boysenberries. Truly truly deeeelicious! Rather than burden my friend and her family with the task of eating all of it (and I hasten to point out here that I gave her only half the cake and kept the other half for my own family) I issued her with a challenge:  she had to make every person who visited her eat a piece!

Day two: and this was a massive undertaking, it was quince and roquefort frangipani tart. I have never eaten blue cheese in my life, indeed I phoned my friend and asked “Is Roquefort supposed to smell like that?” to which she replied “Yes.” Tart made, I took it round, and insisted she try it first as I had no idea how roquefort, quince, a pastry base with icing sugar in it, and frangipani was going to work. She loved it, so I tried some, and I have to admit folks, it works so utterly gorgeously because of the Roquefort!!! It was a smash hit!!! Since her lovely parents were there they helped us to eat some and (in continuance of the game) took two slices home, plus some brownie cake! I came home with a little under half of the remaining tart and my daughter and I finished it off.

           

Day three: by this time I knew that both I, and dearest friend, were concerned for our waistlines, and so I scoured the two magazines for the right recipe, and when I selected it I made it, took it round, raved about how long it had taken me, told her “You are going to love this!” Naturally she was fearing another extravagant and fattening dish…and so I removed the tinfoil cover to reveal: fruit kebabs with a lemon yoghurt dipping sauce!!! She laughed, with—I believe—both delight and relief!

Day four: still concerned at sending my friend’s scales—and my own—to new heights, I opted for a roasted tomato and labneh recipe. Basically, tomatoes with garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of smoked paprika and caster sugar, seasoned with salt and pepper, then roasted slowly. Once done, a scattering of sliced almonds, and dollops of labneh (greek yoghurt mixed with a tsp of sea salt and strained for 24 hours). Again, I sold her on the delightful dish, and then did the great reveal of something simple, healthy, and low calorie! However…she had phoned me up and give me a recipe, earlier in the week, for salted caramel, and so I am afraid I made that also, and to compensate for the healthy dish, I took some of the salted caramel as well.

Admittedly I have had a fun week, and probably could have done some more writing … but the wonderful thing for me, is that I feel a renewed enjoyment of cooking! I feel re-inspired!

It is so easy to get sick of cooking, and it is so easy to not make the time for another person. This week I have rediscovered the joy of cooking, and got to spend time with a person who is often out of the city with her job, and busy for most of the rest of the time. She is, as I said, a truly gorgeous human being, one who’s very presence lights up the lives of those around her.

It was a great week! When I saw her yesterday and she gave me another cuisine-type magazine I quickly asked “There’s no challenge with this one, is there?”, and her ‘No no no!” was uttered rather too quickly!!!

Life in Christchurch

As time rolls on, and it is now one month exactly after the earthquake which shook Christchurch to its knees, metaphorically and literally!

How does the recovery progress? Slowly. In every city there is the main central business district, the business hub of the city, along with shops, cafes, and restaurants of every description. Well, ours is now a disaster zone, yet even within that zone stand buildings that are perfectly fine, but cannot open for business because of all that is around them.

The work progressed in stages, first, the desperate search to find survivors, then the search to recover bodies, on to demolishing highly unstable and dangerous buildings. Amidst all that the desperate work to get electricity working again, water flowing, and sewerage systems working – all of which were seriously damaged in the earthquake.

What we face now is the possibility of more buildings that will need to be demolished, others that are repairable, and yet others that are at risk because of the neighbouring buildings. We have streets where the front/facades of the buildings/shops crumbled onto the footpath and road. We have hills where one house may collapse onto the one below, which may in turn collapse onto the one below.

Our CBD is littered with mounds of rubble, and severely damaged buildings.

Some of our suburbs look like a Salvador Dali painting, with not a single building completely upright or undamaged.

Some of our suburbs look like the beach came to town.

Many roads stretched and pulled apart.

As a fairly good guess, I would have to say that there is not a single street in Christchurch that is a level as it used to be. You drive not just watching traffic but watching to see the state of the road ahead of you.

The physical recovery of our city is going to be a very long term recovery. What is unrepairable needs to be demolished. What is repairable needs to be repaired. Collapsed buildings, demolished buildings, piles of rubble, all need to be cleared away. But there are only so many people, and there are only so many hours in a day…and it is going to take a long time…a long long time.

The questions we ask are:

Will there be anything left in the CBD at all?

Will the damaged suburbs be complete wastelands?

We ask these questions of ourselves, inwardly, because no one can answer. We don’t know how long anything will take. We still have suburbs with no working sewerage systems, and no running water.

And so we do the only thing we can do, we keep breathing, and we keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Life here is not the same as it was, we think differently, we are ready to flee in a single moment, and we live at a very heightened level. But, the wonderful thing has been the spirit of humanity, that wonderful community spirit that has risen amongst us. Let that continue.

We are in this together. And we will continue to support each other to the best of our ability in whatever ways we can. We all have strengths, we all have something to share, we all have skills to offer.

In the most painful of days, a simple smile can be the light that lifts the world.

There are words that have come to mean a lot over the last month in Christchurch, and they are:

RISE UP CHRISTCHURCH

and

KIA KAHA  (be strong)

To all of my fellow Cantabrians…Kia Kaha

Arohanui

Robyn

The Japanese disaster

How does one even begin to fathom the crisis in Japan? It’s almost beyond comprehension.

Here, in Christchurch, NZ, faced an earthquake and the destruction that it unleashed on us, and perhaps as many as 200 people have died. It was devastating, and left our central business district in ruins, likely closed until Christmas time. It left businesses in the CBD scrambling to try to find office space, houses, anywhere that they could work from. It left people’s homes damaged or destroyed. It cut off power, water, sewerage systems. Liquifaction wreaked havoc across the city. Roads and bridges buckled – I would say there is no street in ChCh that is as level as it once was. Schools have been damaged and some well beyond hope of repair, and we now have other schools doubling up and running morning school for one school and afternoon school for another school. Our historic Arts Centre (the original university of Christchurch) has had all but one building red stickered (too dangerous to enter!), and will cost over $100,000 to repair (it will be repaired because it is an important part of our city). Our iconic Cathedral in the Square is badly damaged. The list goes on…

But we did not face a tsunami. We did not have the horrific power of a massive wave wash our city away. We did not witness cars and shipping containers being swirled around in the water as if they were children’s toys. We did not come back to witness massive piles of splinter wood where houses used to be, ships on top of buildings, cars on top of office blocks, bodies along the shore. And we did not face the potential of a nuclear disaster.

So, for all that we went through, we are so very lucky. And for all that the people of Japan have been through and are still going through…I cannot even comprehend how you must be feeling, but my love, my strength, my support, and my comfort flow out to you.

Whatever we face, there may be others who face worse. Whatever our pain, there may be others in more pain. Whatever our loss, there may be others who have lost more. And so we find the strength to go on, to keep placing one foot in front of the other, to keep taking one breath after another.

What Japan faced is horrific, and yet it is so far away we cannot really understand. What we have faced her in Christchurch … a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, 10 kilometres deep, 40 kilometres from the city centre, on 4^th Sep (4.35 a.m.), and five and a half months later, on the 22^nd Feb (10.51 a.m.), a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake, five kilometres deep and five kilometres from the city centre … this for us is real, raw, and we felt it to our very bones. This we fully comprehend. The destruction, we felt it as it happened, and we knew out city was being shaken to its knees, again, and we knew that this time people were dying. Yet, again, I cannot even comprehend what the people of Japan are facing, as we seem such a small scale disaster compared to Japan.

So what can we all do? We  an be kind to one another. We can send out love, our strength, our comfort, and healing, our light, and our prayers to all of the people of Japan and to the land herself. It may not feel like much…but it is something.

Let’s all do something.

Coping after the earthquake...

We needed some groceries items (milk, bread, fruit) and when I called in to our local small supermarket the car park was full. Heading for the next supermarket I decided I would park in the open car park and not the underground one where I normally preferred to park. However, when I got there all the outdoor car parks were taken, and I was forced to make a decision: abandon the shopping, or park in the car park under the building. Normally this would not be a decision to even ponder, but this time, I twinge of anxiety ran through me, and I actually prayed as I pulled under the building and parked my car—and yes there were many car parks available here. There were to be no earthquakes or aftershocks while I was in that building! And I sent a text to my children to let them know where I was—just in case something happened.

             

 Yes, that is what we are living with!

I could not possibly have done the shopping any faster, and even on my way back to the car I said another prayer, as visions of the entire building collapsing on me ran through my mind! It was a relief to be out of there and on my way home.

             

Today, my son and I had to go to Bunnings to get some supplies so that the laundry paintjob could be completed—it was started back in January. Here, again I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. My daughter was home and I did not want to be away for long. I will point out here that my son is 21 and my daughter is 19, so they are not toddlers!!           

This has truly highlighted to me the state of worry and anxiety that so many of us are living in.

             

At night I make sure my daughter knows where the torch is, where the jacket is, so that if she has to run out the door she can grab her jacket on the way. The door is only locked at the top lock so that she can open the door easily. Forget chub locks, as just try getting a key into a keyhole in the middle of an Earthquake when everything is shaking like crazy. Son would head out the front door, and the car keys are in the door, so he can unlock, grab and run!

             

Torches have to be readily accessible at night. Last thing before I go to bed, I make sure the bottles of boiled water are all filled, and put one last jug of water on to boil.

             

We are not living as we used to. We are living in a state of preparedness, ready to do what we need to do as soon as we need to do it.

             

Our lives have changed.

             

With time things will settle, anxieties will ease, fears will diminish. 

             

Until then can I just say this, to all my family and friends: you mean everything to me.