six point three
Yesterday morning I was in the Christchurch CBD. I was preparing script concepts, listening to a lecture, excited about directing/writing my own drama/short film and working to sign a band for a music video. I was going to go to the movies that night and was looking forward to the steak that was in my fridge.
That steak is still sitting in that fridge and probably will for at least a month, slowly going bad.
It's silly the little things you think about.
At 12.51pm I was at the top of the stairwell in our studio when the world lurched sideways. We huddled under a doorway (all 20 of us in the room) until the worst was over then made our escape outside. We saw dust billowing from what turned out to be the collapsed CTV building down the road, people are still trapped under there now, many are dead.
We walked 20 minutes to a friends place, best to get out of the city but we didn't feel safe there either. Six of us hopped in a car, silent and crying, listening to the horror stories on the radio, and drove to each person's house, dropping them off with family and loved ones, hoping all the while for that one house we could maybe stay in for the night. None were safe. Finally after five hours of driving clogged, dangerous roads we ended up at a friend of a friends, bizarrely eating fresh BBQed snapper and beef via candle light, a rather grand banquet.
Two blocks down a boulder the size of several buildings had rolled off the cliff face above and had flattened the RSA. There were people inside at the time.
This morning I was leaving a stranger's home in a stranger's car, unsure where I would sleep tonight.
A welfare centre, the Red Cross, airport queues and a jumbo jet later and I am now in Auckland, in the bed I have known for the past five years. I am one of the lucky ones.
Over the past 36 hours our stomachs have been these empty, hollow abysses. We are not hungry, we are not nauseous, there is just nothing in there. We all sit in silence, staring into space. I slept with clenched fists, fully clothed with shoes on. Aftershocks rocked us, some as high as 5.1 throughout the night and into the day. I am operating on 2 hours sleep.
There is no adrenaline buzz anymore, no leap into action, no planning, no contemplating. Just merely getting through the hour.
I am one of the lucky ones.
People have lost loved ones, people are still trapped.
I am in Auckland tonight but my heart is in Christchurch.
Please please please send all you can to this beautiful city, even if it is only thoughts and prayers.
Donations can be made through any official charity, here: http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ or by following these steps: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/christchurch-quake-appeals-launched-4038581
Please pass this along.
EDIT: This is it. This is what I was trying to say. Above all, read this and step into the leopard heeled shoes of this particular Cantabrian if just for a moment.
That steak is still sitting in that fridge and probably will for at least a month, slowly going bad.
It's silly the little things you think about.
At 12.51pm I was at the top of the stairwell in our studio when the world lurched sideways. We huddled under a doorway (all 20 of us in the room) until the worst was over then made our escape outside. We saw dust billowing from what turned out to be the collapsed CTV building down the road, people are still trapped under there now, many are dead.
We walked 20 minutes to a friends place, best to get out of the city but we didn't feel safe there either. Six of us hopped in a car, silent and crying, listening to the horror stories on the radio, and drove to each person's house, dropping them off with family and loved ones, hoping all the while for that one house we could maybe stay in for the night. None were safe. Finally after five hours of driving clogged, dangerous roads we ended up at a friend of a friends, bizarrely eating fresh BBQed snapper and beef via candle light, a rather grand banquet.
Two blocks down a boulder the size of several buildings had rolled off the cliff face above and had flattened the RSA. There were people inside at the time.
This morning I was leaving a stranger's home in a stranger's car, unsure where I would sleep tonight.
A welfare centre, the Red Cross, airport queues and a jumbo jet later and I am now in Auckland, in the bed I have known for the past five years. I am one of the lucky ones.
Over the past 36 hours our stomachs have been these empty, hollow abysses. We are not hungry, we are not nauseous, there is just nothing in there. We all sit in silence, staring into space. I slept with clenched fists, fully clothed with shoes on. Aftershocks rocked us, some as high as 5.1 throughout the night and into the day. I am operating on 2 hours sleep.
There is no adrenaline buzz anymore, no leap into action, no planning, no contemplating. Just merely getting through the hour.
I am one of the lucky ones.
People have lost loved ones, people are still trapped.
I am in Auckland tonight but my heart is in Christchurch.
Please please please send all you can to this beautiful city, even if it is only thoughts and prayers.
Donations can be made through any official charity, here: http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ or by following these steps: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/christchurch-quake-appeals-launched-4038581
Please pass this along.
EDIT: This is it. This is what I was trying to say. Above all, read this and step into the leopard heeled shoes of this particular Cantabrian if just for a moment.