Sunday, January 19, 2014

Christchurch Rebuilding

New Regent Street, surrounded by destruction, but still going strong















Gandalf the All-Black is a fixture there















And his car; fortunately, New Zealand quirkiness is still alive and well, even in
Christchurch; I forgot to ask him if it's called Janus















South Island image


















Resurgence, resilience, etc.




















Many downtown merchants have hunkered down to business in containers...
new meaning for Container Store















Thus















And thus, our favorite NZ outdoor store















Container bank















But life goes on...kayaking and punting on the Avon
















Outdoor sculpture; Christchurch artists have made many important statements
of resurgence















The "Cardboard Cathedral," so-called because of its unusual building materials,
quickly erected to replace the lost cathedral















Facade















Interior















New Zealand orange tree, in a site of devastation















Still a beautiful place; rebuilding plans calls for low-rise structures and plenty
of green space...

Christchurch Devastation

New Zealand's 3rd largest city (after Auckland and Wellington), beautiful Christchurch was devastated by a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The central business district and historic center were hardest hit. Nearly 200 people were killed and some 20-30 billion dollars of damage done. Christchurch was never a great tourism destination, just a wonderful place to work and live, it is said, New Zealand's "most British" city. The devastation, even after 3 years, is heart-breaking. But the resurgence is equally impressive.
Near the city center

"Rebuild Tours"...a bus tour of the devastation and the
rebuilding


Christchurch's cathedral; the tower at its west end collapsed,
and now the whole building has been declared unsalvageable


"Let these stone speak of a love that endures forever"



Cathedral west





Buildings old and new were damaged, including
this modern high-rise, now closed


And this newer building

A high water table and liquefaction has added to the problems


Many of the older neo-Gothic buildings were damaged,
but this bit of Government House apparently will survive


The new-looking central library, damaged and closed;
impossible to tell those buildings awaiting demolition from
those awaiting repair

And yet another high rise

Site of another destroyed church

An historical facade being supported (?)

And an old theater destroyed...


Mode Of Travel

So our mode of travel in NZ will be by rental car, tent, hostel, and motel. Probably a few huts on the tramps, too. Pictured below is our new rig, at our first campsite, at South New Brighton Beach, east of Christchurch. Despite two days at a motel earlier, it will take us some time to get the new routine sorted out. We haven't done much tent-camping in recent years...
In the past, our rigs warranted a name (e.g., the Millennium
Bongo); we haven't thought of anything yet for this one...
maybe something about shades of grey...

Monday, January 13, 2014

Welcome to New Zealand!

Gandalf the All Black does a haka,
welcoming us to New Zealand (on
New Regent Street, Christchurch); note he's
not Gandalf the Grey nor Gandalf the White
...in this land of the Champions of the
World All Blacks, he's Gandalf the All Black

Friday, January 10, 2014

South By Southwest*

So on January 9th our stay in DC came to an end. We had thought we might be able to do more sightseeing in a month's time, but family, grandparenting, Christmas, visits with relatives and friends, helping Rachel and Will with the new house, miserable cold weather (the heralded Arctic Vortex), and the inevitable planning/provisioning/packing, all conspired to limit our travel adventures in Washington. No regrets, however, as we had a great time with all the above. Except the Arctic Vortex.

I did manage to read a bit, Gottfried Wagner's Twilight of the Wagners—Rebecca gave me a copy of Stephen Fry's wonderful Wagner and Me DVD for Christmasand both The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hamett. And, oh yes, we saw quite a few movies, The Desolation of Smaug, in preparation for visiting NZ (and LA); and also Cast Away and Blue Lagoon in preparation for visiting to Fiji. Scenery, you know. So Vicki said. Anyhow, we'll be in DC again, no doubt, and can catch up then on the sightseeing.

January 9th we jetted from National to Atlanta and then to the City of Angels (“I didn't find it to be that exactly, but I'll allow there are some nice folks there...”) and spent the night in the historic (seriously) LAX Travelodge...don't want to miss the next stage of our travels, the January 10th flight from LA to Fiji and then New Zealand.

Catchya further on down the trail...in Christchurch. Bula bula!












*and AirTrans and Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific); the cabin crew on the SW flight was absolutely up to the old standard of hilarity "we're dimming the cabin lights now because we like to go really, really fast in the dark when we take off," etc.

National Gallery of Art, 2014

So one day a bunch of us rode the Metro over to the National Gallery of Art, on the Mall. For all the times I have visited DC over the years, I don't think I had ever been there before. It was to be a shorter, toddler-appropriate, visit, but it was enough to convince Vicki and me that a return visit was highly warranted. It is definitely world-class. As one would hope. So here are a few pix, mainly to remind us to go back.
Despite getting to ride the train, Penelope
let her lack of aesthetic enthusiasm be known
early, and often





















The Dying Gaul, whom we last saw at the Capitoline















Panel from Duccio's  Maesta; or possibly something else















A very famous Botticelli, an Adoration; note the classical
as well as Christian themes; 1470
















A Rogier von der Weyden portrait of a lady; there is an
exquisite van Eyck there too, which I missed: next time!
















Rembrandt selfie #17,925




















Obligatory Monet




















Ditto















Van Gogh selfie




















At this point, Rebecca had given Penelope her
phone, with its toddler drawing programs, and
we all noted that perhaps at this age Penelope
is more into the production rather than
consumption side of art























Jean Joseph Constant's The Favorite of the Emir, 1879, a
striking painting, anticipatory of some later developments
perhaps; Klimt?
















Renoir's Odalisque; Renoir before he was Renoir?















"Are we done yet?"
















In the impressive sculpture garden, Barry
Flanagan's Thinker on a Rock

Friday, December 27, 2013

Fun Old-Fashioned Family Christmas, 2013*

Penelope with Grandma and grand aunt Marie














All the Sehestedts, Wohls, and Sherouses...dessert course
of the traditional Christmas eve fondue extravaganza















Christmas morning and Santa has delivered the requested
Rapunzel doll as well as the rest of the cast of Tangled















All documented on the new toddler digital camera























*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/quotes

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Urban Outfitting In DC

On December 4th, Southwest Airlines carried us and our considerable luggage to Washington's National Airport and our new temporary abode, at the Truxton Circle home of daughter Rachel and her husband Will, in DC. The walk-out basement, which we helped to re-model, financially, is ours for a while, a really nice little 1-bedroom unit. Except for a bed, it remains to be furnished, however, and so, after considerable e-research, we set forth to the MD Ikea and bought a variety of bedroom/study items. Will and I spent a Saturday assembling a chest and desk and bookshelves. As a 30-something, he takes to it naturally. It took me hours to decipher and execute the Ikea-speak pictograms. I've built quite a few items of furniture this way over the years (perhaps a dozen Doxie bookcases, e.g.), and I acknowledge that Ikea has really refined the process to the nearly fool-proof. By my standard, anyway. The chest of drawers and bookshelves I assembled came together and work, and the process is therefore fool-proof. You have to be a very patient and methodical fool, however. And have a magnifying glass in your tool-kit to decipher all the little pictures of all the little parts.

Anyhow, we are settled in for the holidays. Vicki took the mega bus over to Knoxville to visit her sister Marie and family for a few days, and I spent those days acclimatizing myself to the urban environment. It is very different from the Silica Suburbia environment of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Googlopolis. Not intensely urban like, say, Istanbul or Naples, but urban enough. Truxton Circle, where Rachel and Will live, is a neighborhood in transition, as they say. Renovation and new construction going on all over. But much of the old neighborhood remains. Last week, we inadvertently became part of the grand opening of DC's first Walmart, a few blocks away. Well, we bought some soft drinks and milk and housewares there. Compared with the usual suburban or rural Walmart, it is much smaller, has a parking garage beneath it, but, seemingly, much of the usual merchandise crowded in and with aisles just wide enough for two shopping carts to pass. We rarely shopped at Walmart in bygone years, but this one felt different...nearly European in its density. Sadly, a city council bill to require the big box international corporations to pay employees a living wage ($12.50/hour) was vetoed by DC's mayor. He was concerned not only with losing the projected six Walmarts but also the Targets, Home Depots, Macy's, and other biggies already here. At least some more jobs and tax money will stay in DC and not the burbs of MD or VA, who enjoy representation with their taxation. A few nights later we shopped at the DC Costco, which is exactly like the Costcos of Middle California and everywhere else. The giant bottle of Bombay Sapphire--my index of consumer prices--was $28.99, just like in Redwood City. It is good that there are some constants in life.

When not doing the usual (for us) unpacking, re-sorting, re-packing--we have a half dozen different destinations to plan and pack for in the next eight months--we have taken a number of exploratory walks, to Rachel's office downtown and elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Welcome to Walmart! Maybe you won't be trampled to death
in the annual Holiday Season Retail Stampede...















At Union Station, the Norwegian Christmas
tree...



















Decorated with 87 gazillion images of Munch's
Scream (it is the 150th anniversary of Munch's
birth)...right in there with the Christmas spirit




















Urban scene














Urban outfitting


















One day we took the Metro to Pentagon City and its mall;
rather sparse...I assume most people are at home or at work
shopping via Amazon
















Downtown; there's got to be an interesting story here, with
a new office building going up over and around some old
buildings...