Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

I’m spending a lot of time in a different part of town at the moment, so I am seeing a lot of this frog mail box. I love it, as it makes me smile every time I see it (and we all need something to smile about at the moment). Froggie, as I have come to think of him, has become a landmark for me (turn right at froggie). I was driving along the other day and actually saw someone deliver a circular to it. If it was my frog mail box, I’d have a motion detection system so it went ‘ribbet ribbet’ every time I got new mail. Geeky I know, but wouldn’t that be fun? As you can see from the photo, it’s rather a big mail box – I’d estimate the frog alone is about 2 feet high and he sits on a large rock.

The wind came up today (our nor-wester) as if we didn’t have enough to deal with – it’s stirring up all of the dust – and apparently our side of town is particularly bad. I won’t know until I log off and drive the 20 minutes back to the other side of town – which feels like driving back in time as well – to a place with no power, no water, and no sewerage.  But at least our house is still standing and for that I am extremely grateful. I spent most of my time working today, and it feels good to get distracted by building something – even if it is just a website. But I also spent a bit of time reading the news online and getting updates, and the one news item that shocked me the most was that the CBD of Christchurch may not be open again until Christmas! I feel so out of touch and disconnected with my city and I think until I see it all for myself it still won’t be real.