Thursday dec 10--brief David Blog

A few headlines:

The gory--"Paramedic sticks fist in bleeding wound" ( gruesome chain saw accident)

The incomprehensible--"Kura kaupapa claims bias in te reo exams"

Slightly more comprehensible--"Snapper users complain of non-existent bus card fee"

And 'it could happen to anyone'--"Distracted train driver rolls on for 9km past his stop."

For a worrier like me it was disturbing to spend an hour in the museum this morning learning all about the terrible disasters that strike New Zealand--volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, and last but by no means least EARTHQUAKES. And we had one yesterday at 5.1 on the Richter scale only 50 miles away. Wellington sits on the fault. So if the building is not blown down by 72 mile an hour winds, it may be shaken from its foundations by an earthquake. The museum is safe-we need to stay there-as it has some very interesting earthquake dampers, which we inspected. Great lumps of rubber, seemingly.

Joan has just told me that each blog should start with a photo. That is why the photo at the beginning of my post bears no relation to anything I have written, except perhaps to show how far above the water we are should the building collapse, as it threatened to do yesterday.