Terrorist attack in New Zealand. I never thought I would see those words in the same sentence. Not in this little country that has felt safe and isolated from such events in other parts of the world. But there is a new reality that has come at a huge cost to my country and the many innocent victims - nowhere in the world is safe.
The terrorist came from another place, not just another country but a psychological place of evil and extremism that I cannot begin to understand. The harm that one person wrought in a few minutes on a Friday afternoon is overwhelming in it's horror and sadness.
But one thing my fellow Kiwis have shown in the past week is that we can stand together, not just to condemn such an obviously despicable act, but to genuinely care about the people who were killed or injured. Eight million dollars has been donated in one week via the Victim Support Givealittle page. That's pretty amazing from a population of 4.8 million people. Jacinda Ardern gets a big tick from me for her strong, decisive and compassionate leadership at this time.
From masses of flowers and practical assistance by people on the ground in Christchurch to the beautiful comments on our paper hearts and in the condolence book at the library it gives me hope. I feel hope that the racism we must acknowledge exists in New Zealand will be overcome by good people not looking the other way but showing by their words and deeds that we are so much better than that.
We never thought it would happen in New Zealand. I am so sad for all those people who lost their lives and their loved ones in Christchurch today.
This little guy must have been very thirsty due to the dry weather and summer heat. I noticed him licking drops of water off the plants I was watering in the back garden. So I put a container of fresh water down and he lapped that up. Then he pushed his snout into some leaves and pulled out a weta. He crunched and munched his way through that tasty morsel until there wasn't a single scrap left.
So many books, so little time. I need an extra day each week for 'professional reading'. I could certainly improve my readers advisory skills if I could devote some work hours to reading books. But the actual job of being a librarian has nothing to do with reading books (unless I count the picture books I read while selecting suitable resources for story times). Most librarians love reading so we don't see the hours spent reading in our own time as work, rather it is a leisure activity that has the added benefit of being very useful for our customer service skills.
Carolyn's top picks for 2018 (with links to Goodreads and Goodreads ratings) are:
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (fiction, Alaska, family drama, 4.33)
Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer (fiction, drugs, family drama, 4.21)
See You in September by Charity Norman (fiction, NZ cult, 4.30)
Legend trilogy by Marie Lu (teen fiction, dystopian, 4.18)
Educated by Tara Westover (autobiography, 4.47)
Dictatorland: the men who stole Africa by Paul Kenyon (non-fiction, 4.45)
A Higher Loyalty: truth, lies & leadership by James Comey (non-fiction, FBI, politics, 4.21)
The Big Thirst: the marvels, mysteries and madness shaping the new era of water by Charles Fishman (non-fiction, 3.95)
Daring to Drive: a Saudi woman's awakening by Manal Al-Sharif (autobiography, 4.3)
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird (children's fiction, Syria, 4.28)
Nevermoor: the trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (children's fiction, fantasy, 4.40)
Lyla by Fleur Beale (children/teen fiction, Christchurch earthquake, 4.02)
Boy Underwater by Adam Baron (children's fiction, funny & serious, 4.18)
This is the third stick insect I've found in the past week. Or maybe it's the same one I've seen three times. If so it would be a case of third time lucky for the little fellow. I spotted the first one on the carpet just before it went up the vacuum cleaner hose, the second one nearly got washed off the windows during my (infrequent) window clean, and this one was on the recycling crate today.
4 Jan: Found a big stick insect in the camellia tree as I was cutting it back this morning. Another near miss for the local stick insect population.
Lunch in the garden with a good book on a warm, sunny, summer's day. The book was excellent (Find Me Unafraid: love, loss and hope in an African slum by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner) and lunch included a few strawberries from my garden. A relaxing day although the game of squash with Lynda this afternoon was quite the opposite to lazing under my sun umbrella.
The sky was blue, the ocean was blue and there was a gentle breeze. It was a perfect summer day to walk the Paekakariki Escarpment. Alison and I traversed it north to south and I think that was a good direction to walk it. There are steep steps both ways but in the morning we had the sun behind us and the added interest of two swing bridges towards the southern end. It was a popular outing for holiday makers today although we started a bit earlier than most of the walkers. We passed a lot of people heading north as we descended and there were about a dozen people waiting for the bus (train replacement today) at Pukerua Bay.
