"Red Stickered"

This is a new concept and part of our vocabulary in our shakey land. A "Red Sticker" means the building has been officially closed for entry by the Civil Defence Controller, or his staff. Our house has finally been "red stickered" which is halarious to us, as it has been unsafe for over 7 months now. It has taken a long time for them to action it. Several teams of experts have been to view it in the intervening time, maybe 10 groups of engineers, 3 groups of EQC (Earthquake Commission), plus multiple USAR teams (Urban Search and Rescue). FInally someone decides to sticker it. One previous group didnt want to sticker it as they didnt want to get close to it to stick the label on because it might fall on them!
We feel it is quite a joke but it did mean our office area is unavailable for our "quake refugee" 13 year old visitor to stay in there as his house was "red stickered" some time ago. The last few days have been a process of getting the stickering changed on the office foir his sake, and more engineers will visit tomorrow!
Luckily we have an alternative exit for this building and he is allowed to live there, if he goes out that door instead of the usual one.
Today I had someone say "you must be getting back to normal now". I was just stumped. What is normal these days? Today for instance we are advised to use our portable toilets as it is raining heavily and the citys broken sewage system is overflowing in the streets. The local race course is open for business today we are told, no, not for horse racing, but campervan accomodation for those who have no where to live. I am boiling water constantly all day as we have 2 extra borders in the house, and one in the office, and 2 more in the driveway in a caravan, all Quake Refugees of one kind or another. Drinking water is said to have E Coli levels "off the scale" in our district. Mmm Normal life is certainly not!