Brittle

A shard of an old bottle, from my mother's collection, made a hundred years ago at the glassworks in Lyttelton - the epicentre of last Tuesdays Earthquake.

One of my Auckland friends once disparagingly called Christchurch "the Little Village", full of it's old school ties, cliques and "cool" people.

In Auckland one is asked: "What town are you from?"
In Wellington it is: "What government department do you work for?"
In Christchurch it is: "What school did you go to?"
Followed by: "Oh, would you know 'so-and-so, he/she was in your year?"

Christchurch is a small place. I've always known this, but now it is becoming starkly obvious as we start to find out who has been lost.

My Bloke went to the tangi today of a friend who used to work in our local pub. There will be more to come...

My office block overlooks Latimer Square. It is one of the few still standing in that area.
Luckily I didn't go into work that day as I'm a part-timer and can choose my hours.
I won't be going back there again.