Earthquakes, Prisons, a robbery and a haircut!

Wow it's been a crazy few days! I'm a little disappointed at my last entry here, there where so many spelling and grammatical mistakes, it was the pills I swear!

Anyway, I broke my back the other day, doctor said I wouldn't be walking if it where broken, so I'm inclined to believe her when she said it was a muscle strain! Feels like it's been snapped and put back together the wrong way round....not nice...so now I'm on yet more pills for the pain. My kitchen cupboard has a wider variety than my local pharmacy, still if it weren't for them, I would be locked in an asylum, and in agony...so.... I'm not complaining!

There was a huge earthquake last night, it was at 2:10am, and I was up on the computer, there was a small rumble at first, I just thought it was a truck speeding by, or a big gust of wind, but no sooner than I thought, "hmmm that was odd" the second one began, and WOW it was amazing, the whole house shook, and I felt the ground wobble, like I was on one of those treadmill type thingys they have at airports! My poor dog went nuts, and naturally I thought it was the end of the world!
Now....bear in mind that I have only been in New Zealand 4 years, and back in the UK we never have quakes...this was only the second one I have ever experienced, the first being last year and it was just a gentle rumble. This one was 5.2 on the Richter scale! 5.2 that certainly isn't a baby, that's a king size, twin pack quake!!

I read on the net that the quake was only 30km down, and was the biggest some residents have experienced in 35 years!
There is something seriously terrifying about earthquakes, when you take out the science behind them, and think about it, the name sums it up, it is the earth, the planet we live on, and take for granted, literally having a little crash into itself...I cannot be alone in thinking that it just isn't right!
Wellington, which is the Capital city, is built around a maze of fault lines, and my house nests comfortably smack bang in the middle of one of them! Take a look!

Scarrrrryyyy!!!


I must say though, that aside from building houses on the planets bad bits, New Zealand has some pretty good ideas! I read this week that the nearest prison from me, has confirmed that they will be housing prisoners in......get this.....shipping containers!! How brilliant is that? Imagine how the proposal for that idea came about; "We need to address the lack of space, what do you suggest"? "Buggered if I know, chuck 'em in shipping containers, har har".....*slight pause in the board room*....."Good thinking old chap"......Whhhaaat!

It really is ingenious though, why waste so much money building nice comfy buildings for them, spa baths, and LCD TVs...not in Kiwi Country, you get a steel box, with a window cut out if your lucky!
As you can imagine the idea has caused some controversy among the animal rights people, oops I mean human rights people, but they are the same lot that believe prisoners should be allowed double beds.....really?? don't forget the goose-down duvets, and a nice mink throw...pffft

There will be another visitor the prison soon, when yesterday some muppet decided to walk into a bank in the main street of a fair sized town near me, and wander off with a bag full of cash...needless to say he was arrested less than an hour later at his house, where he had driven straight to. Apparently he is also being charged with another robbery at a bank less than a block away, at the beginning of the month! NZ is not a place where you can get away with bank robbery, although the Country is larger than Britain, and has only a little over 5% of the population of Britain, everyone seems to know everyone else! I am not joking, it's errie!


Well this was a bit long, but it's been a busy few days! I passed my video module Yay! If you want to have a look, I uploaded it to youtube... just click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHLqiMczwU

And tonight I gave my son his first haircut, it was a brilliant experience, and no he doesn't look ridiculous, for some reason it actually turned out well!!