Corner Dairy

Last time I was here it was a thriving corner shop, with bright windows and colourful signs. It was crammed with all sorts of food and convenience goods. Now it is being scooped up and packed into huge skips.

This is what it looked like on the day of the earthquake. The dairy is the boarded up part on the right-hand end.

This morning I experienced my first biggish aftershock- a magnitude 4.5- in Christchurch. I had just woken up and was still lying in bed. I felt it coming a few seconds before it hit. There was a quick sideways movement, to and fro several times, and then it tailed off. My daughter tells me that the big one was like that, only it was a great deal stronger.

Now I see why there was so much more damage in Christchurch than at home. My experience of the big one was of a vigorous up and down motion. I had trouble standing because the floor was violently rising and falling. Things were juddered, but not thrown about. My daughter, on the other hand, couldn't stand because she was being hurled from side to side. Things were propelled across the room.

This explains the mystery of the stone sitting on the post. It jigged up and down, but ended up in the same place, just turned a little.

This morning's earthquake explains a lot for me. At home our aftershocks are small jolts. In Christchurch they have that sideways movement and the damage continues.