Reaching

Yesterday morning when my mother texted me to say there had been another massive earthquake in Christchurch, my heart leapt to my throat. But I genuinely, sincerely didn't think anyone was dead. Last time no one died, right?

And then I got her next message, and the toll was at 65. Disbelief filled my mind and I immediately logged onto Stuff.co.nz when I arrived at work. Unbelievable photos of the wreckage and stories of loss and buildings collapsing, and the spire of the cathedral falling down.

Now it's at 75, with 300 missing and maybe 100 trapped in the CTV building. My heart is breaking for Christchurch and for New Zealand and all I can do is sit and watch the updates on Stuff and follow Twitter and try not to cry at work. It's devastating, and it's affecting me far more than I expected.

Kiwis have the innate ability to just get in and help when help is needed, and the offers of housing, sending of food and supplies and general support everyone is giving each other is amazing. I am so homesick, so confused and just generally mourning for the hundreds we have possibly lost, but I am so proud of New Zealand and its people, and so proud to call myself a Kiwi.

I love you, New Zealand. I miss you and I know you'll pull through this, and if I wasn't so ridiculously broke/in debt, I'd send some money to you.

If you can help, though, I know they'd appreciate it: how to donate.

Edit: A good list of appeal funds here.

Movin out.

So above is the list of what needs cleaning before we move out. When you're relying on the deposit to come back from your old flat to be able to afford the deposit on your new flat, cleaning is pretty important.

But there is so much. Like seriously. When you live somewhere, you don't think about what's under the bed or in the storage cupboard, or the cobwebs in the top corner of the living room. You don't examine every part of the carpet, every edge of the windows and dust all of the power points. So it's a fun time.

Also, it's a pain in the ass living in a furnished apartment sometimes. While it's handy as hell to not have to buy/move furniture, it's so much easier when you're moving out to just get all the furniture out and then clean the hell out of the place. But no, we have to clean around/under the furniture, as well as the furniture itself.

We also decided we're going to buy a new rug (and most likely a shower curtain if I can't get the little bit of mould off), as a carpet cleaner is going to cost more than a new rug from IKEA, and mould can be freaking stubborn.

Oh the joy. I have spoken to: Barclays/Smile (our banks), H&M accounting, O2, BBC magazines, Atlantic Electric/gas, Virgin Media and the Council. Dave has to call? Orange. And maybe go into Barclays to make sure the address is changed on his half of the joint account (bizarre system).

And I'm glad we moved a whole lot already, as Friday is going to be all about cleaning and moving the last few pieces. The 25th is going to be a bigger move, what with the bed from Ann's and the chairs she is giving us. We're probably going to hire a van, but I haven't actually organised that yet..

At least it's distracting me from the joblessness! or nearly joblessness. A few opportunities in the pipeline but no joy yet.

Dreaming

Clothes I would buy on my first pay day if I was offered a high-paying job... (hey, a girl can dream!)

ASOS, you are so evil sometimes (I heart you).

New flat ideas

Just browsing IKEA, getting excited for our new home (and hoping I'll have a new job!)

Fingers crossed...