rumpelsnorcack

So, yes, like Central New Brighton, any merger won't take place for 3 years.  So, in the worst case scenario the two schools merge at the beginning of 2016.  We now have until December 7th this year to consult with the community and have a response to the proposal ready to be put forward to the ministry.  There's another date of April 5th when something else happens, but I didn't quite catch what the principal was saying when he talked about that.  Apparently there's an email coming out which will have all the dates and the full timeline.  The good news is that Seth at least will be finished primary school even if the worst happens but that's still not good enough for me :D  We're still going to fight the decision as it is anyway, but at least there's breathing space.  So, better than 28 days, but 10 weeks still isn't long.

But when you look at how Haiti is 2 years after their quake you realise that we aren't really doing all that badly.  It makes me grateful that we live in a country whose government, however much I may dislike the current one, does actually try to get things moving.  At the very least we don't have to live with (many) piles of rubble lying around in the streets and what is there is fenced off.  Yes it's frustrating and yes it's depressing and yes we do have issues that are really hard to live with, and broken roads and buildings etc, but ... it could be worse.

However, I don't want to minimise what some people here are going through, so this blog shows a walk someone took through the red zone close to where I live. The kids' school is tucked in behind and between all these streets mentioned here.  I know many many people who live in these streets and in those houses (well, most of them used to live in those houses), and it's hard to live with.  Edit: explored the blog a little more and found this one of the streets immediately by our school.

Because I'm stupid I went to see this movie on my one day off this week.  It was a daft choice.  I was over wrought, over tired and over emotional and found it extremely difficult to watch.  I'll try to be coherent, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly.  Please just bear with any weird jumps in thought :D Also, anyone likely to see it and not want to be spoiled (which ... uh, yeah the storyline is kind of obvious hehe) please to avert your eyes now.

( Long ramblings about the movie under here. Enter at own risk )