Christchurch earthquake September 2010: More than two weeks later

The earthquake was more than two weeks ago now -- 17 days, almost -- and at last I find myself thinking of other things for most of the day. We have yet to go long without detectable aftershocks, and we had a 4.6 magnitude less than 24 hours ago which left the whole house wobbling for at least 30 seconds afterwards, but they are definitely less frequent.

I am back to my normal job in my normal office building, although not at my own desk. The earthquake damaged important things like fire stairs so some areas of the building are still out of bounds. I'm currently sitting on the fourth floor mezzanine, with a huge concrete beam and cracked plasterboard directly above my head.

The city is no longer in a state of emergency, as things have been downgraded to a state of urgency. This is probably small comfort to the people who have been made homeless, or who still don't know if their house is safe enough to live in. In some cases they are hoping for a demolition order, which will at least allow them to take the insurance money and move on. The alternative is living in a damaged house on a street that nobody will ever want to buy on, but there will definitely be people stuck in that position too. Property values for houses that border on demolition zones are going to plummet, as with every subdivision built on land that we now know is prone to liquefaction. Who is going to want to buy a house there? Nobody who can afford to live elsewhere, that's for sure.

Walking around the city centre is surreal. Life is going on as normal almost everywhere, but then there are pockets where it's only a matter of time before the demolition equipment moves in. These buildings are just around the corner from my old office building (the one we only moved from a week before the earthquake). It's hard to see the damage in the second photo but up close the building is cracked and broken. There is a red placard on the door and little hope that it will be made safe for business anytime soon:

And here's my old office building itself. Poor old girl, she has seen better days, but she's still standing! I don't know what the future holds for this 1934 structure but I do hope it escapes demolition despite the current damage. It's a heritage building so worth saving if that's possible.

Although we are still getting aftershocks, the last fortnight is starting to feel like some crazy dream. It's not a dream that I ever want to experience again in my lifetime but it's starting to feel like this is almost over for me. I am one of the lucky ones, for sure.

Christchurch earthquake September 2010: Other people's stories

I didn't compile this but I did contribute to it. It makes interesting, and occasionally distressing, reading.

Earthquake Map

Christchurch earthquake September 2010: Civil Defence

I thought last week that I wouldn't be on Civil Defence duty much as I didn't see how I had any practical skills that would be useful, but I was wrong. As part of my normal job I spend a lot of time working with people from all parts of Christchurch City Council, and I (and the other people in the same role as me) knew many of the people working at the Emergency Operations Centre. This made me a natural choice for working on the front desk, acting as an  interface between the public and external organisations and the inner sanctum of the EOC. I've put in more hours there this week than I would put in at my normal job, but it's all to the good. I've been delighted to be able to help.

The first shift that I was there, I brought supplies of fruit, water, and muesli bars with me, but I quickly realised that wasn't necessary. We have proper catering! Staff at the EOC get a proper meal at lunch and dinner, and I've heard there's a proper breakfast as well but I have been doing shifts from 1pm onwards so missed that. The food has been excellent and is a vital part of the whole operation, keeping staff properly fuelled rather than relying on energy drinks and junk food.

The response from the public has been incredible, too. We have had all kinds of people coming by with offers to help, offers of free/discounted services, or heaped plates of goodies for the staff. Lots of people who don't know how else to help have been baking cakes and biscuits and scones and muffins and bringing in sweets for us. There was also a lovely lady going around giving us free shoulder and hand massages to ease the tension! It really does mean a lot to know that we are in their thoughts, and the generosity has been astounding. If I am ever on the other side in this type of situation I'll try to remember this.

Christchurch earthquake September 2010, day ten

I can hardly believe it is Day 10 already. Ten days of trauma, stress, aftershocks, Civil Defence, uncertainty, and unity. We are still getting detectable aftershocks, but not as strong (nothing today has exceeded 4.1 so far) and not as frequent. I hardly dare to say it but it seems like we are getting back to normal. The scientists say there's still a risk of another 5 or 6, but with every hour that passes that risk lessens.

Today was a day off Civil Defence duties for me and Skry. We spent a few hours righting in the inside of the house (putting the bookcases back up if undamaged, throwing out the broken one, replacing things that have been on the floor for more than a week), and then enjoyed a couple of hours reading on the deck in the sunshine. It felt like summer holidays, not a state of emergency. He is off for another day but I'm back on the front desk tomorrow afternoon. I have been doing front desk duty at the Emergency Operations Centre, directing people to the right place or finding the right person for them to talk to. The army is helping me -- army reserves in camo uniform man the sign-in/sign-out desk -- and it has been quite enjoyable knowing that I am doing something genuinely useful. It can be upsetting when people come in who are facing the loss of their business or all their rental properties, but thank goodness I haven't had to deal with anybody who is losing their home. That must be horrible for everybody talking to them as well as the person themselves.


It will be a long time before Christchurch is back to normal, but for now I am just enjoying the normal feeling that we got today. I can deal with the ground shaking so long as nothing else falls down.

Christchurch earthquake September 2010, day seven

Did I tell you about the 5.1 mag earthquake we had on Wednesday morning? We thought we'd had a terribly strong aftershock from the original quake, but it was actually a quake from a new fault only a few kilometres from here and did lots more damage around town. Buildings which survived the first quake with no damage didn't all survive this one, and it badly frightened a lot of people including me. For many of us this quake was just the last straw. The Civil Defence emergency headquarters at the Art Gallery had to be evacuated while the building was assessed (thankfully it stayed safe), and staff members were reduced to tears.

The 5.1 struck just before 8:00am when we were asleep. I dived off the side of the bed onto the floor, and Skry froze where he was to see what would happen. The whole house was rocking quite violently and making a tremendous noise, but although it was bad it was nothing like Saturday's earthquake. Nothing fell on the ground, probably helped by the fact that we haven't put anything back up that fell on Saturday. It's all just lying there, waiting for the aftershocks to stop.

My nerves were completely shattered by this and I couldn't bear to stay in the house just waiting for the next one. Skry came with me for a walk around the neighbourhood instead, where we saw many chimneys just barely keeping their balance, and some big cracks right across the road at the bottom of Linwood Avenue where it reaches the river. That is the edge of the Avonside area which has been very badly damaged this week.

By lunchtime it was obvious that I needed to get away from what was going on for the sake of my mental health. Skry and I joined the steady stream of people leaving the city (the queues at every operating petrol station were impressive) and fled to friends in Scargill, about 1.5 hours north of here. The aftershocks were barely detectable at their house, which I always love anyway because it's so relaxing in the countryside there. We had two wonderful nights of unbroken sleep and my nerves feel in a much better state now. I am so grateful to have friends in a position to give us the gift of sanity!

We are still getting aftershocks on a regular basis, of course, but I feel better equipped to deal with them. I know that many people haven't been lucky enough to get away, and the strain is definitely starting to show on those who have lost homes, businesses, or both. It must be devastating for them.

Here is a picture that I pilfered from the Stuff website. It shows the aftershocks we have endured this week. An impressive collection, isn't it?!

Christchurch earthquake September 2010, day four

When I said yesterday that the aftershocks were smaller and further apart, I was wrong. We got slammed last night.

11:24pm 5.2 mag
11.38pm 4.0 mag
11.40pm 5.4
11.47pm 3.7
11.54pm 4.2
00.21am 4.7
00.47am 3.5
00.51am 3.9
01.39am 3.4
02.52am 3.1
03.14am 3.7
03.24am 5.4
04.17am 3.5
05.14am 3.9
05.17am 3.3
06.22am 3.5
08.14am 3.6

As you can see, there were three aftershocks overnight of magnitude 5.2 or higher. These are big enough to qualify as earthquakes in their own right -- any one of them would be newsworthy, and we got three, along with plenty of smaller ones. These aftershocks caused more damage to the buildings that have already been damaged, and led to a refuge centre being evacuated, the airport's domestic terminal being temporarily closed when cracks appeared, and damage appearing in houses that had seemed unscathed up until now.

We are very fortunate to still have no visible damage to our house. The garage is damaged, but it was damaged already and it's hard to tell what was caused by the earthquake and what was caused by subsidence years ago. When we bought the house the garage was already cracked and broken along both long walls because one end of the building had sunk a little, but that could have happened any time since it was built. Anyway, we now have a broken window pane along the side, and I'm pretty sure the gaps around that window frame are bigger than they used to be, courtesy of either last night or Saturday morning. But honestly the garage should really be knocked down and replaced anyway, and we should be grateful that it's still standing after the battering it received this weekend.

Skry and I both ended up at work yesterday, helping at the Civil Defence headquarters based in the Art Gallery. He works in IT support and is very useful to them, but I don't have any skills that are particularly in need right now. I thought I'd end up making cups of tea for people, but even that was all in hand! It's a very well run organisation and I have great admiration for those in charge and all the volunteers doing their civic duty.

It's strange to see the Art Gallery used for this purpose, and it's not perfect because of the lack of desk space and IT equipment such as printers and network ports, but it's working so far. And for a building with so much glass in its frontage, it has held together wonderfully. There is no visible damage at all.

Skry has been rostered to do more shifts but I don't think I'll be called in again. Last night I volunteered, but I am really not the most useful person to be in there. If something comes up that I can really help with I'll go back, but right now I'm leaving it to those better qualified.

Today has mostly been aftershock-free since this morning, but it always seems worse in the evenings and overnight. There is no reason that should be, that I know of anyway, but I'm not looking forward to tonight if the pattern holds. I suppose we'll find out.

Christchurch earthquake September 2010, day three

We are starting to feel a bit more normal today. Aftershocks have been fewer, smaller, and further apart. But does that mean this is almost over, or are we still facing a second big quake? Nobody knows.

All we can do now is get on with life as normally as possible in a city where the central business district is closed off, businesses in Christchurch must not open until they have been assessed and deemed safe by a structural engineer, and those of us lucky enough to have running water have to boil it for three minutes before using it.

My employer has advised us not to come to work until the 13th unless we are specifically requested to come in. There are lots of people who have been called in because they are needed to help with the assessment and cleanup effort, but I can't see how my skills are helpful right now so I probably won't get called. Will wait and see.

My colleagues are all fine, at least the ones in my department, but two of them are out of their houses. One (and his wife and family) had chimneys fall through the roof, not sure about the other. Other people are without running water.

My brand-new office building has structural damage, which must be hugely disappointing for the people who worked so hard to make it perfect for us moving into it last week. But I have heard through my friend Fiona, who is at work now to do heritage assessments, that it should be okay. Let's hope her information is correct. The building I left a week ago was badly damaged and nobody is allowed back in, not even the people who hadn't moved yet and still had all their things there. It's another example of how lucky we were that this didn't happen during the day as I can't see how everybody would have lived through it.

Here is what's left of one of my favourite restaurants:

At least the owners have retained a sense of humour. Here's what it now says on their website:

ALVARADOS IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT (and has been totally remodelled).
Was a must for authentic traditional style Mexican Cuisine.
New menu out now! (if you find it blowing around on the street, could you return it please?)

Was fully licensed and BYO (wine only).

Was open Tuesday - Saturday from 5.30pm

Alfresco dining apparently isn't an option. Something to do with the lack of access, water, power and hygiene.

Christchurch earthquake September 2010

So, I have survived my first earthquake -- the first one I was consciously aware of, anyway. And boy was it a doozy. Christchurch was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 4.35a.m. today, jerking me out of a sound sleep and scaring the wits out of me too. As soon as I woke up I knew what was happening, because the signs were quite distinctive: the whole house was swaying and shaking, and things were crashing to the ground in every room. There was no way this could be mistaken for a burglary, or even a car crash outside.

It felt like the initial earthquake went on for half a minute or so, although I can't be sure about that. I was in the corner of our bedroom which seemed to be a relatively safe place, so I stayed there rather than dashing for the nearest doorway. Advice about where to position oneself during an earthquake seems to be conflicting -- should it be under a doorway or towards the outside walls of the house? The doorway might be more stable, but if the whole thing comes crashing down there's a better chance of being dug out if you're near the edge. Anyway, I stayed where I was and that was fine. We don't have much in the bedroom that is likely to fall down, so at least there weren't things falling around me or on top of me. The heater fell face-down onto the carpet and my makeup danced to the edge of the dresser and plummeted to the ground, but that was all. When the quake stopped I turned on the light, grabbed my dressing gown, and went to see what damage had been done in the living room.

I could hardly get through the living room door because there was a heap of CDs lying on the other side of it, topped off by the bookcase they had been stored in.

The television was okay! I had been sure it would get smashed, but a few months ago we bought a really sturdy entertainment unit with a wide top shelf, and thankfully that was enough to keep things steady. But the DVDs and their bookshelf had both toppled over, taking the ironing board with them.

There was some other minor damage -- a pot plant upside down on the carpet, baking trays on the kitchen floor -- but we really got off very lightly.

Just as I was assessing this, another quake struck. This one was a mere 5.3, but still very frightening. I didn't know if it was a proper earthquake or just an aftershock. Anyway, it wasn't enough to send anything else flying, so I calmed myself and continued around the house. The only other real destruction was in the study, where my big heavy bookcase had fallen down, breaking the short bookcase opposite it as it fell. We were very lucky that it missed all the expensive stuff in that room and took out the crappy piece of flat-pack furniture instead!

You may detect a theme here, and you'd be right. We have far too many unstable bookcases in our house. These all need to be screwed to the wall as soon as possible; if we'd done that already the house probably wouldn't have shown any damage at all.

Structurally things appear to be fine. I'm no expert, but I took a walk around the house and couldn't see anything that looked different from how it used to. We didn't lose power or water, and the sewage lines aren't obviously damaged. There have been aftershocks regularly ever since, for the last seven hours, but I'm hoping they will tail off. They make me feel frightened and seasick, and they scare the chickens.

The rest of Christchurch didn't get off so lightly. There has been terrible damage to some of the older buildings in the city centre. You can view photos here and read the current news articles here. I haven't ventured out of our street but I'm sure I'll see plenty of damage on my way to work on Monday.

That's all for now. I will blog more on this subject over the next couple of days.

Musings on handkerchiefs

Handkerchiefs -- or is it handkerchieves? -- are something that I have never used. That may partly explain why I don't know how to spell the word in the plural, so I shall just call them hankies from now on. My dad is the only person I can think of who always carried one and probably still does. I remember a few times when I was a little kid and was trapped in church with a runny nose. Dad would pass me his hanky, I would blow my nose heartily in it, and he would put it back into his pocket. The things fathers will do for their children obviously includes carrying their snot around for them. Nice.

For my whole adult life I have used paper tissues whenever I've had a runny nose or needed to quickly wipe my hands. I wonder how many tissues have gone into landfill purely on my account. Lots, I'm sure -- my nose is almost constantly wet, like a puppy, any time that the weather is cold outside and I'm moving between outside and inside. Temperature changes set it off every time! And most of the time it just needs a quick wipe and I'm good, but that's a whole tissue gone.

Now I'm thinking that it might be time to obtain a supply of cloth hankies and see how those work out for me. Some people think that it's disgusting to carry a used hanky around, and I totally agree with that if it's been used during the throes of a bad cold, but most of time there won't be very much actually going onto the cloth. Just grab a couple of clean ones every day, or more often if necessary, shove them in a handbag or pocket, and that should be it.

Now I just need to find somewhere that sells them. I know the Warehouse does, but they might not be the best quality. I want something soft, durable, and that washes well. Cotton or maybe linen. Actually I have no idea if linen would be soft or not. More research may be required!

Spring is in the air

It has been a long, wet winter, but things are starting to look up at last. The mountains are still covered in snow and we are forecast some icy wind and rain for the next few days, but at least today was warm and sunny. The daffodils are showing themselves, the cherry trees are in full bloom, and the weeds are growing like crazy.

We have what I believe is a greengage tree in our garden. It is attracting bees at the moment, which I love to see. Bees are great.

We also have some variation of box tree which smells like cocoa butter when it's in bloom. Yum.

This chocolate-smelling-tree (as I call it in my head) is a real indication for me that summer isn't too far away, and if I get the chance to sit out on our deck in the sunshine and smell it wafting over me then I'm going to do just that. I've managed it for the last two years so let's hope I manage it this year as well. I can hardly wait!

A self haircut

My hair was getting very long and scraggy, but I hate going to the hairdresser. It's so painful getting my hair washed at those basins where you have to lean backwards and put your neck onto that rock-hard porcelain. So I thought this time I would do it myself.

I didn't have the wit to take a proper "before" photo, but here I am with my hair parted (badly, it seems!) in various places, ready for snipping.

Snip snip.

Ta-da! I look cross, don't I? Think the light was in my eyes or something.

I was very cautious with this haircut because I hadn't tried anything so complicated before, but I'm really happy with it so I will cut it again soon and put in some more layers around the back.

I Love Egg

A friend of mine sent me a link to a silly cartoon video for a song called I Love Egg, which discusses the virtues of egg eating. Here's a link if you want to see it: I Love Egg video on YouTube. He specifically requested that I play it to our chickens and capture their reaction, so I did.

I lined up the song and took my laptop out to the deck. The chickens were all milling about, and of course they were interested in what I was doing, so I thought they would crowd around the laptop and perhaps peck at the keys. I couldn't have been more wrong.

As soon as I hit 'Play', two of the chickens scarpered. Sean Henn was the only one brave enough to take a closer look. As soon as the music got going, she recoiled with a look of shock visible on her beak. Now, if you've ever spent time around chickens you'll know that they always look shocked. Things like daybreak, egg-laying time, feeding time, and dusk take them by surprise every day. But this... this was shock in its most genuine form.

Within a fraction of a second Sean Henn was legging it away from the laptop and the song.

She regrouped with Beulah and Cluck Norris, and the three of them turned their feathery backs on me. The song played forlornly to itself as the chickens retreated to the safety of the water tank.

I think it's safe to say that I Love Egg is not on their Top Ten.

A few photos for you

Here are some random pictures for you to look at.

It was feijoa season not too long ago. I'd never heard of feijoas before moving to New Zealand -- apparently they don't travel well, which is why they weren't on offer in Ireland. They are soft on the inside, eaten with a spoon, and taste like medicine. Germolene or something. I don't like them much...

We had a "Christmas dinner" at the end of June. Christmas in summertime just doesn't feel right to me, so we moved it to winter instead. Much better. There was a tree with tinsel and fairy lights, Christmas music, friends, gifts, and of course brussels sprouts.

This is a terrible photo of just about everybody (and doesn't even include two of us), so I probably shouldn't put it up, but it's the only group photo I've got. Sorry, folks!


The chickens dined well on leftovers the next day. They enjoyed the dinner, and ate most of the dessert but left all the strawberries that were in the trifle. They ate every scrap of cream and custard and jelly, but the strawberries remained whole and untouched. Weird little birds.

The weather has been very mixed recently. We had an unbelieveably wet June, but it seems to have perked up a bit recently. Yesterday was almost like summertime, and I enjoyed a walk past the Heathcote river.

This morning we woke up to thick frost. The chickens don't quite know what frost is, and kept pecking it.

Oh, and here's a beautiful gramophone that I found in a shop yesterday. If I had space for it (and the requisite $950) it would have followed me home. I did buy some gloves, but that's not quite the same, is it?

My antique sewing machine

It has occurred to me that I never blogged about my other main sewing machine, a Singer 28 which was manufactured in 1899. It is operated by a hand crank. Isn't it lovely?

Here's the hand crank that drives it. I thought it might be difficult to sew with only one hand to guide the fabric, but that really hasn't been a problem at all.

The bobbins aren't like anything else I've ever seen. Rather than being squat circular things, they are long pins which fit into a bullet-like "vibrating shuttle" that goes where a bobbin case would normally go. It's a bit of a pain to use because you can't look in and see how much thread is left without actually unthreading it, but the pins hold a surprisingly large amount of thread.

This is the bobbin winder. It flips up to touch the hand wheel when in use. There's a little cog mechanism that guides the thread back and forth across the length of the bobbin pin.

Here are two bobbins full of thread. They really do hold lots! It feels like they hold more than my modern bobbins on the other machine, but maybe they just last longer because the sewing process is slower on this one.

Obviously this machine does no fancy stitches because it's so old, but it can sew in a perfect straight line and that's really all I ask of it.

The beauty of this old Singer, apart from the fact that it is portable and requires no electricity or cables of any kind, is how much control it gives me. Because I'm cranking it by hand I'm obliged to sew slowly, and this gives me more neatness and precision than my electric machine. If a single stitch is out of line I can correct it before things get any worse. I use this machine for decorative top-stitching and any sewing that requires great accuracy, such as undersewing facings or repairing damage within an existing seam line, or sewing something very small such as a credit card wallet. I wouldn't be without it now.

Sewing patterns

We haven't had a proper frost yet, but it's getting very close and I've seen my breath on more than a few mornings. Our lawn is covered with fallen leaves, and we're taking in apples by the truckload from the big old tree in the back garden. Unfortunately many of them are bird-pecked or diseased (by what, I have no idea) so we are trucking them out to the organics bin quite frequently as well.

I am going through a clothes-making phase. Right now I'm trying to get a good fit from this (Simplicity 2917), which involves learning how to adjust it for my shape, sew princess seams, and make facings. I hate facings. Grrr. How do you make them so they don't flip outwards and just sit nicely on the inside of the neck opening like they're meant to? I have the theory, just not the practice.

It's obvious that this could be a very flattering shape on me once I get the pattern adjustments perfected, and my sewing techniques of course. Although I still love my old Singer sewing machines, I do think longingly of zig zag stitching abilities and wish I had an overlocker. That would make finishing off the seams so much easier...

I also dream longingly of being able to sew something like this (Vogue 2903) and have it look good on me. In my head, wearing a dress like this will also give me a figure to suit. Isn't it a pity clothes don't really work like that? Still, I'm buying this pattern and might give it a go at some time in the distant future, when I have become skilled enough to put it together without wasting the 10 metres of fabric it requires!

Oops

I haven't finished updating you about our trip Up North, but work has been really busy and it went clean out of my head.

To amuse you while you wait, here's a photo of our chickens eating watermelon.

A trip up north (Part 2)

While we were in Napier, we got acquainted with Don and Liz's pet mantises. These are very cute little creatures, but as they are kept confined in tanks it's up to Don to catch flies with which to feed them. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the flies as they buzzed around inside the tanks, inches from something intent on eating them and with no hope of escape. And I was quite revolted when one mantis caught a fly by the wings and then began to eat it from the tail end up. It may just be a fly, but it was still horrible to watch it struggle to free itself while its abdomen was being eaten away.
Having said that, they were certainly interesting to watch when they weren't eating - like little green aliens. I don't think we could keep them as pets - I wouldn't be willing to feed them live prey, and if we let them out they themselves would probably become live prey for our chickens - but they're very photogenic.

A trip up north (Part 1)

Skry and I took a little holiday last week - a trip to Napier to see our friends Don and Liz, who moved there from Ireland not too long after we moved to Christchurch. It was great to catch up with them, and great to have a week off work as well!
While we were there, we took the bus to Gisborne for a couple of nights. The bus journey was about four hours long, but it was very scenic so the time passed quickly. These are the things we saw most of:

Trees

Cows

Sweetcorn

Palm trees

Logs (on the road and piled up waiting to be transported elsewhere)

Gisborne is a fairly quiet place without much by way of entertainment, but we amused ourselves quite nicely and enjoyed the perks of our "executive suite" in the Emerald Hotel. Bedroom, sitting room, and massive bathroom, use of the swimming pool and spa, and a ginormous breakfast each morning, for $135/night. Not too shabby.

My new sewing machine

I got a new sewing machine yesterday! Well, it's new to me anyway. A quick glance at the photos will tell you that it's not actually a new machine - it is a Singer 201K, made in Kilbowie in Scotland in 1950 or 1951. (Fact fans: this was once the largest sewing machine factory in the world, at one point employing 12,000 people.)  The serial number on this machine allows me to trace it to part of a batch of 50,000 machines which were allocated to a batch on December 18, 1950, but I don't know if that was the end date or the start date.

This is a beautiful sturdy piece of machinery. It weighs a lot, and I'd struggle to carry it for any distance, but I firmly believe that it will outlast me and still be in working order when I'm long gone. This is in stark contrast to my modern sewing machine, which was fairly lightly used for three years and then broke. A small plastic tab snapped on the handwheel, rendering the whole machine useless until I can get a replacement, and none of the repair shops here seem hopeful of getting a spare for that particular part. In any case, although I loved that little machine and learned to sew properly on it, it's incapable of anything beyond light duty. Two layers of denim or suchlike would leave the little motor whirring in futile desperation as it tried to force the needle through the fabric and got nowhere.

In contrast, I am pretty sure the 201K would pierce bone if I was foolish enough to stick my finger under the needle when it's at full speed. Gotta be careful of my hands around this one! According to what I've read from various sewing or machine enthusiasts on the internet, this was the finest model that Singer ever produced and I should consider myself lucky to own one. It can't do fancy stitches - I can go straight forwards, or straight backwards, and alter the stitch length using a lever, but that's it - but what it does do, it does perfectly. The mechanical parts can be serviced by anybody, and the instruction manual gives details on how to do that. Singer makes the manuals readily available (it's great to see a company still standing by its old machines), and of course it churned out a lot of this model at the time so the parts can be found online.

The machine comes in a large lockable bentwood case, which I'm hoping to restore a little to hide the scratches. It has been fitted with an electric motor and light, and the motor itself is controlled by a curved metal bar which is fitted into the hole on the bottom right of the case, and moved by the user's knee. This is a change from the foot pedal that I'm used to on my other machine, but apparently it's easy to work with once you're used to it. The motor can be removed, too. The 201 was mostly an electric machine, but the 201K (made in Scotland) was catering for a European market where many homes were not yet fitted with elecric sockets. Because of this, the machine is belt-driven rather than gear-driven and that means it can be fitted with a hand crank or a treadle and used without electricity. Have to say I find that very tempting! By all accounts treadling is very soothing, and of course it's free to use and burns up a few calories too.

I'm short on bobbins at the moment, so I probably won't be able to get much use out of this machine just yet, but I've tracked down a couple of people who might have spare ones that they'll part with. Right now I just have one bobbin wound with emerald green thread, which is better than nothing but perhaps not the most versatile of colours!

An emigration update

We've been in New Zealand just over two years now. With that two-year anniversary came the expiration of our returning resident's visas (RRVs) - the visas that allowed us to come back into the country if we left for any reason. The expiration is a standard thing; everybody who arrives on permanent residency gets two years to start off with (the residency permit itself is indefinite, but the returning visa is limited).
We didn't like being in a situation where we could find ourselves having to fly back to Ireland for some sort of emergency and then having trouble getting back into New Zealand. So, once we had accumulated some cash again following the Christmas splurge, it was time to apply for indefinite RRVs which do not have an expiration date.
Turns out this is a very easy thing to do. We each filled out a form, added our credit card details (the current charge is $140), and handed it to the immigration office in Christchurch along with our passports. Less than a week later the passports were couriered back to us with indefinite RRVs stuck inside them. We easily met the residency requirement - at least 184 days in New Zealand in each of the previous two years - so it was really just a formality. Now we can leave for a holiday or a visit home secure in the knowledge that we won't have to jump through hoops to get back to Christchurch again. That's a comforting thought.