time goes by

Had a lovely Valentines. Dinner turned out delish, if not very restaurant-looking...

So delish, in fact, that I forgot to take a picture until I was half-finished.

And I got this lovely present...

A gorgeous thick glass vase for our new apartment, filled with some of my favourites.

Louis ate his dessert happily while we had our dinner. No candlelight or romantic music, and these orange plastic chairs aren't fabulous for ambiance, but at least there was no screaming baby or food-throwing.

After a french lesson, we watched an episode of Castle, with the french subtitles on (it all helps, right?) and then had a lovely early-ish night.

Keep thinking about how we celebrated last valentines. Mum and Dad babysat Louis. Luuk and I went to Simo's - this gorgeous moroccan restaurant in Christchurch - in the Grand Chancellor hotel. The food was incredible, and there was a belly-dancer! I wore my ridiculously high-heeled polka-dot shoes (why do i remember that?) and tottered through the atrium of that hotel one last time.

8 days later it was closed, the building crumbling after several significant earthquakes.

So, I'm experiencing a strange sense of time passing. It's nearly a year since those quakes, and back home in Christchurch it's the topic on everyone's minds, and all over the media. Here, on the other side of the world, it's easier not to think about it. But it's there, in the back of our minds. I notice cracks in walls in a way I imagine civil engineers usually would. I'm on alert every time a building vibrates. And I hate to think what would happen if there was a quake here, because they'd be totally unprepared. These buildings probably aren't required to meet much of a code for earthquake safety. And we're 4 floors up.

So I really try not to think about it. In part because I don't really need to. It's highly, highly, unlikely. But it's hard to believe in safety.