March seems to have passed me by and it is almost the beginning of May!
One of the consequences of the big earthquakes is the diaspora of rats, the water type and the land type (not sure whether they are interchangeable). Christchurch is suffering from a surfeit of both and I have not been overlooked.Rats got into my roof (I live near a waterway) and chewed through water pipes, resulting in a silent inundation of the floor, as the water ran down the inside of wall linings, hit the concrete base, and spread in ever-widening circles through the underlay and thence to the top carpet (fitted carpet). Great was the lamenting thereof when all was revealed by my walking across a saturated piece of carpet not yet showing signs of the wetness within! At first, I thought it was my hot water cylinder leaking again and put in an urgent request to the Earthquake Commission. In the meantime I had to turn off my water supply. FIVE days later the EQC got back to me saying it was unlikely to have been related to an EQ event. By then I had already contacted tradespeople to come and sort out the problem..
Guess what?... Insurance policies don't cover "rodent damage"!!!! However, they did say they would cover the drying of the carpets and damage to my bedroom roof, which had released a torrent of water through one of my downlights, straight onto my bed. Fortunately I was present when it happened, and got a bucket under it quickly. Only the duvet actually got wet and the bed itself was still dry!
Every day we have to run the gauntlet of road works as roads as dug up in long strips, old and crumbling pipes are excavated and new ones put down. Work around the clock continues- as it has for the last two years. It's very eerie driving at night to suddenly find lots of lights, some flashing, and many people rushing around with big machines, working while traffic is light! Living in Christchurch is an odd mixture of everyday life and extremely bizarre and ever-changing road and landscapes. Large tracts of the inner city are now either deserts of stone or meadows of grass- the latter, rather pleasant!.
While there is a lot of work for tradespeople, the work is not necessarily suitable for our Aspies. Long hours and rough company are not a good mix.
Leith has been confirmed as a speaker at both conferences mentioned in the previous blog, which is very exciting!
Jan has been working with her eco-funerals group to perfect their presentation about their service, and is receiving rave reviews.
Emma Goodall has signed a new contract with the Ministry of Education to be the first Autism Spectrum specialist teacher for ASC children (Autism Spectrum Condition). This is an excellent "first" for our community.
She is also waiting for her Ph.D to be confirmed! Emma is able to diagnose ASC and her partner, a GP, is able to take care of any medication indicated.
Autumn is upon us. The sunny days have that beautiful golden glow and skies are clear. But rain has come at last to a drought stricken land. We just need more! The subsoils are dried out and the farmers are worried.
Work goes on to support our Aspie friends via Facebook and also making plans for a bigger Aspie Trust and advocacy on a National basis. It is difficult as most of us are physically a bit frail, and, as strong-minded individuals, we need to discuss everything very lengthily in order to reach agreements!
One of the consequences of the big earthquakes is the diaspora of rats, the water type and the land type (not sure whether they are interchangeable). Christchurch is suffering from a surfeit of both and I have not been overlooked.Rats got into my roof (I live near a waterway) and chewed through water pipes, resulting in a silent inundation of the floor, as the water ran down the inside of wall linings, hit the concrete base, and spread in ever-widening circles through the underlay and thence to the top carpet (fitted carpet). Great was the lamenting thereof when all was revealed by my walking across a saturated piece of carpet not yet showing signs of the wetness within! At first, I thought it was my hot water cylinder leaking again and put in an urgent request to the Earthquake Commission. In the meantime I had to turn off my water supply. FIVE days later the EQC got back to me saying it was unlikely to have been related to an EQ event. By then I had already contacted tradespeople to come and sort out the problem..
Guess what?... Insurance policies don't cover "rodent damage"!!!! However, they did say they would cover the drying of the carpets and damage to my bedroom roof, which had released a torrent of water through one of my downlights, straight onto my bed. Fortunately I was present when it happened, and got a bucket under it quickly. Only the duvet actually got wet and the bed itself was still dry!
Every day we have to run the gauntlet of road works as roads as dug up in long strips, old and crumbling pipes are excavated and new ones put down. Work around the clock continues- as it has for the last two years. It's very eerie driving at night to suddenly find lots of lights, some flashing, and many people rushing around with big machines, working while traffic is light! Living in Christchurch is an odd mixture of everyday life and extremely bizarre and ever-changing road and landscapes. Large tracts of the inner city are now either deserts of stone or meadows of grass- the latter, rather pleasant!.
While there is a lot of work for tradespeople, the work is not necessarily suitable for our Aspies. Long hours and rough company are not a good mix.
Leith has been confirmed as a speaker at both conferences mentioned in the previous blog, which is very exciting!
Jan has been working with her eco-funerals group to perfect their presentation about their service, and is receiving rave reviews.
Emma Goodall has signed a new contract with the Ministry of Education to be the first Autism Spectrum specialist teacher for ASC children (Autism Spectrum Condition). This is an excellent "first" for our community.
She is also waiting for her Ph.D to be confirmed! Emma is able to diagnose ASC and her partner, a GP, is able to take care of any medication indicated.
Autumn is upon us. The sunny days have that beautiful golden glow and skies are clear. But rain has come at last to a drought stricken land. We just need more! The subsoils are dried out and the farmers are worried.
Work goes on to support our Aspie friends via Facebook and also making plans for a bigger Aspie Trust and advocacy on a National basis. It is difficult as most of us are physically a bit frail, and, as strong-minded individuals, we need to discuss everything very lengthily in order to reach agreements!
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