Beautiful Thing

It's just a beautiful, crazy old world we live in, isn't it?  Yes, don't worry, I haven't gone completely off my rocker, I know it's dangerous, ugly and uncertain too, but it's times like these that you can't help looking around at your fellow humans and thinking, "You know, you guys are alright".

Perhaps I'm just writing this in a flood of good feeling - I finally heard from my friend in Christchurch that she and her husband (and even their cat!) are all okay.  Ma had already contacted me about the family I have living down there, and so everyone is present and accounted for.  I only have an email address for this particular friend, and of course, with the power situation, email and stuff like that is mostly out of the question.  But I was holding out hope that today would be the day I'd hear from her, and lo-and-behold, there was an email in the old inbox when I got up this morning to do this post.

There are still lots of people in Christchurch who are not alright though, so here are some things that Wellingtonians (and people who live elsewhere) can do:

Bake on Sunday: You heard right!  There's going to be a massive bakesale on Monday the 28th of February in Civic Square in Wellington.  I don't know who organised it, but The Great Sunday Bake Off is a freakin' awesome idea.  They've had so much interest that any extra goodies that can't be transported to Christchurch by their team will be sold from 10 - 2pm.  Follow the earlier link for more details. 

Donate to the Red Cross: Easy as, you can text a donation, slap it on the credit card, whatever the amount.  There is lots of information on their website, so follow that link for more of it. 

Drink Coffee, Eat Cake:  Seems a bit of a weird option, right?  But the glorious Caffe L'affare in College Street (opposite Moore Wilson in the central city) is donating all their proceeds on Sunday the 27th (which is tomorrow) to helping out the people of Christchurch.

Of course, there are a few... well, dickheads is really too kind a word for them, but you know where I'm going with that, who are trying to make a buck out of this horrible event.  Please, please, when you're making an online donation or whatever: make sure that whatever you're donating too is for real.  There have been reports of scams which say that they're charities wanting to help out the people of Christchurch, when really, they're just wads of dog poo wanting to help themselves.  So please be careful about that.

Moving on from that bring down, there are still lots of other ways to help.  TradeMe (for overseas readers, it's like a mini-version of eBay, which is often a pain for New Zealanders to use because of the shipping) has masses of ways you can help, things like volunteering labour, if you have a spare room that you can have someone stay with you, volunteering transport.  There are also links to resources like Civil Defence, the Red Cross, the People Finder and the Salvation Army. 

Phew! So three posts in one week!  My typing fingers are near worn out... hope that where-ever you are, that you're safe and happy and enjoying life.  Because that is the most beautiful thing.