One sunbeam lights a room

I am not as tough as you think. After a week of everything breaking down at work, a 5.4 earthquake under our house, a cancelled flight because of the Chili dust cloud, a child that stubbornly does the opposite as what is good for it and an illness in the family I had a little meltdown again. It was like everything was out of  control, I felt powerless, everything just happens and you can't do anything to stop it or change it. Than that same evening I got out of the blue some nice phone calls from friends. I also received an email from friends with some encouraging words and the above video and I realised that we do have power, authentic power. We are able to touch other people and make them feel good again. We are able to make little changes which can lead to big changes. We are able to make a beginning of something which has the potential to become big. As the poem says "one candle destroys darkness, one Sunbeam lights a room"
Very inspirational. Thanks

We haven't been able to go out a lot as it is winter here. As the weather was good today we went for a bike ride to Tai Tapu, 8 km down the road. We recently bought some bikes. As the petrol prices are soaring we thought it was a good idea to pick up biking again. It is quite an adjustment as the bikes here are OK but they aren't Dutch bikes, with big saddles with springs underneath it for example. But they are OK. We arrived in Tai Tapu and to stay in the spirit of this week my hubbies bike broke down. A guy from the petrol station was very helpful and gave us access to his tools and the bike got fixed. We celebrated with a coffee, sat on a comfortable chair in a garden and a cow on the roof  looked sadly as we departed again (as they do).That was a nice trip.

Here a link to a post at Life in the land of the long white cloud about new developments in Christchurch

Take care, marja

Christchurch earthquake Pie parody

Found in a local newspaper:

Many thanks to Dave for this joke
Gerry Brownlee walked into a bakery to get a steak pie. There were none left so the baker went out the back for fresh ones. On the way back he dropped the tray on the floor and some of the pies were damaged. "Sorry. We might be able to fix your pie. I'll ring P.I.S.S. - the Pie integrity and Structure Service. They'll be here in three hours.

"Why so long?" asked Gerry. "Normally only one pie is involved when we have an accident but this is an whole tray. It's the largest pie disaster in the Southern Hemisphere. Patience is required. Please take a seat and wait" Three and a half hours later two inspectors in fluorescent jackets arrived. Gerry asked, "What's the verdict on my steak pie?"

"Sorry. I'll call for someone to call and look at your pie. They'll be here in two hours. Please take a seat and wait." Gerry waited. After an hour he asked the baker if he could use the toilet. "I'm afraid not. You'd have to pass the pies to get there. Here's a bucket. Empty it outside when you are done."
"That's disgusting" "Don't worry. You'll get used to it." Two hours passed before the same two P.I.S.S. workers from earlier returned. "What's going on? yelled Gerry. "We've come to inspect your pie. We got the job sheet when we arrived back at the office, "they said as they finished their inspection. "Sign this and we'll send the rapport out to you".

Gerry waited. Another 3 hours passed before a courier walked in and gave the baker the rapport. "They have graded the pies A, B and C. We can repair the A and the B pies but the C pies are subject to a pastry rapport. If we repair them and the pastry fails it wouldn't be economical. We want our clients' pie equity kept intact. Your pie group is C. That report will take four hours".
Four hours later the head pie man, Master Baker, announced on television that the report was done but it would be another three hours before an interpretive report was finished.

Gerry waited. Two hours and 55 minutes later the baker was picking up the A and B pies for repairing when he slipped and dropped the pies on the floor. Gerry jumped to his feet, eyes glaring. "Don't worry, I'll call P.I.S.S.. They'll treat this as a new incident and will be here shortly to do a report. Please take a seat".

And the winner is..........................

We are tired, I am tired. Forall people in the east of Christchurch are tired. Some have stopped digging the liquifaction from their gardens, driveways and houses. They've reached their limits. I only have expierenced a fraction of what others go through. I am a "rich" person inside a troubled city. Also rich because I had an overwelming response of warmth and care from so many bloggers. That's one of the reasons I can't stop blogging, because the love and care. I move on and get back on track and  remember I promised a souvenir for one of my bloggers and Beach. I printed out the comments and I cut them up and my daughter pulled one out of the hat.

and the winner is roffle, roffle, roffle.................................................................Miss Footloose


Please Beach and Miss Footloose email your adresses to me . My email adress is marja.blom@gmail.com

For all of you thank you and the following wishes are for you and I will visit you soon :)

By Sandra Sturtz Hauss


"May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.

May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.

Always know that there are those
whose love and understanding will always be there,
even when you feel most alone.

May a kind word,
a reassuring touch,
and a warm smile
be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts
as well as receive them.

May the teachings of those you admire
become part of you,
so that you may call upon them.

Remember, those whose lives you have touched
and who have touched yours
are always a part of you,
even if the encounters were less than you would have wished.
It is the content of the encounter
that is more important than its form.


May you not become too concerned with material matters,
but instead place immeasurable value
on the goodness in your heart.
Find time in each day to see beauty and love
in the world around you.


Realize that what you feel you lack in one regard
you may be more than compensated for in another.
What you feel you lack in the present
may become one of your strengths in the future.
May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility.
Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience.

May you find enough inner strength
to determine your own worth by yourself,
and not be dependent
on another's judgment of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved.”

Arohanui marja

Bad news from quake city

Liquifaction pooring into the streets as you see above. Serious rock falls in Sumner and other places, people evacuated, 50.000 people without power, many without water, Buildings fell down, most luckily in the central city etc

At 1 pm a 5.5 quake struck. I was at work and everything was shaking like hell. It was frightening. Luckily it didn't take too long and we could breath again. I had a client, no time for lunch, so I had to hop over to the shop for some food after 2 pm. I talked to a shop keeper who said that a building in Stanmore street had collapsed with 2 people in it. Later it was found that the building had been cleared. Anyway I got my lunch, stood at the zebra and the violent shaking started at 2.20 pm A 6.3 magnitude I learned later. I nearly fell down. It was if you stood on a ship in a wild storm. It was scary and I said loudly shit to a man next to me. Yes he said calmly, staring into nowhere.. The power was off at work, people came out from under the table. We all went home.

OK it is enough now, mother earth, you had several horrible goes at us, but now it is time to think about all these people here. Time for you to bugger of and leave us alone!!!!  You heard me don't dare to shake things up here again or...............you deal with me. I'll kick you.

Another milestone

I moved my counter a bit up so you can see that I nearly reached 40.000 visitors. I always celebrate the little milestones on my blog and this year again one of the people who comment  I will send a souvenier from NZ. I will pull one out of a hat.

I started around this time 4 years ago so that's a steady 10.000 a year. Not bad for a part time blogger as I am not alwasy committed to the blog. The reason is that I went through a lot of changes in my life in the last 4 years. I've more plans which will take up even more of me. Something what excites me a lot but which will be also very demanding. It has to grow on me first before I can take the plunge (or not).

I always will try to blog because what I love most is making pictures, writing poetry, collecting beautiful stories, poems and quotes. I use them when Iwant to thank somebody or sometimes just as a present I give a notebook with on the first page a suitable quote or poem. That will be my gift  when I reach the 50.000 as a thank you as you bloggers make it so much fun.

Thanks to blogging I started and discovered photography and poetry. Making photo's is easy in beautiful NZ so I have many favourites. My favourite poem I wrote is Indulgence in dance.
I have to be relaxed to write and at the moment I am on the run all the time so won't be able to do proper writing .

Thanks to you all for visiting me and especially to beach from The Life and Times of a Carolina Parrothead as he has been very loyal for a long time eventhough I have been a bad blogger. I've got for him a NZ souvenier as well.

Arohanui marja

Help a young woman with her great mission

Above is a picture of Louella I found on the internet. I bumped into her in the local supermarket as she noticed me talking Dutch. Yes this lady is Dutch as well and I met her again as she walked coincidentally into my workplace. My interest in her grew as she told me about the amazing work she is doing. Louella is a lawyer who moved to Tanzania in Africa to develop her knowledge in the field of human rights.

Louella's heart went out to the street children though and she set up "Wezesha Wattoto, Empower Children" to give the children a home and education. You can read all about it on her website  She showed me the pictures of  "her children"  telling me their names and remembering how it was.
Her project is just developing and she can use a lot of help and my hope is that you give her as little or as much as you can. You can go to her website and give a donation or maybe you want a change of life and want to volunteer in beautiful Tanzania.
Louella is in the proces of setting up a blog Visit her as she  needs some encouragement in her work.

Think about it: If you empower a child you empower his future life, his future family and you make a spark in this world. A wonderful way to spread your love.

Arohanui marja

5.5 aftershock

This morning we had an aftershock at 9.09 am with a magnitude of 5.5. The quake was at a depth of 15 km in the South West of Christchurch near Rollerston. It has been said that is the 6th biggest quake since the september 7.1 quake. Lots of stuff has fallen of shelfs, more damage to be expected in the inner city but power is still on this time. In our house everything rattled and shaked but only 2 little things fell on the floor. The lamps kept swinging for a long time.

I saw on a few Christchurch blogs tribute videos of Christchurch and I found a nice one myself. It is a kind of way for us to say goodbye to well loved places in the city and hang on to the memories. Not only to memories of the beautiful buildings but also of the carefree times that we were shopping on the markets in the city, had a snack at the art centre,visited my kids at their amazing school in the city or just had a strol through the centre. The art centre my favourite is going to be rebuild but I heard already that it is going to take up to 15 years. I will be retired by that time and will have all the time to visit. Anyway the pictures and the music on the video are beautiful. Thanks to the maker

quote of the day

quote Frank Tyger

It's not over yet

Christchurch has changed. Lots of residents and workplaces still don't have a place of their own. They are still in the process of demolishing buildings. The tallest building on this picture is the Hotel Grand Chancellor and a phased demolition of this Hotel is going to be started soon. It is going to take up to a year. The reason it takes so long is to reduce risk to neighbouring buildings.  The school of my children is not far from this building so it will take that time or longer for them to get back too. They share a school now and that works. Less resources but they are moving forwards. At my work we also sharing with another business as they have nowhere to go. In the area were we are were lots of empty offices last year. Everything is filled up there is nothing left in the city.

Furthermore it's not over yet. We are still experiencing aftershocks. The ground has become more fluid as well. When a truck drives past our house we all move a bit and in many places it is worse. There are signs in the streets to plead truck and bus drivers to slow down as houses are crumbling and sliding.

The people here are tough though and all work hard to move forwards , but just as our nerves started to settle again a little bit we got the following news last week. GNS science who update the Geonet website have made the folowing predictions. There is a23% change of a 6 to 7 magnitude quake in the next 12 months and a 90 % change of a 5 to 6 magnitude earthquake.You can find some further interesting information about the fault lines revealed at Fi's blog. No it's not over yet.

On a personal note. Life is still good. My new job is hard work but I love it. My family is well. Life is good too us We are saving up now for a trip to Holland. Probably in dutch spring next year when it is a bit warmer. I look forward to meeting my family and my roots. As a warming up exercise I already sang along loudly with this dutch song to get in the mood.

        Tot ziens Holland, marja