I'm a tea fiend.

Nothing better after a LONG day at work. Sitting in the sun, lazily catching up on some study and drinking from a giant mug of English Breakfast.

Doesn't get much better than this.

My new diet.

Tea and toast.

Break to dream.

The plush red leather seats contour to my arching, aching back. The weight is removed from my feet and they feel light again. Coffee in hand, I relax in the thought of knowing what I can do next. My hands know the way like they've done it a thousand times. They have.

Opening the cover and turning the pages one by one, I relax into my dream. No one, nothing can disturb me. I'm in limbo. Somewhere between reality and the self created dream space that allows me to escape to a place that will soon become my day to day life. Paris.

Falling into my seat each time in my work break, a new Paris travel guide allows me to size up and scope out the overall best places to eat, drink, dance, play, relax, to anything.

I escape from my known, my consciousness and enter a life I will soon own. I admire the pictures, staring at them for ages, burning them into my memory until they don't know how to leave. The blend of french and english words gifts me with a cosmopolitan vibe I will soon authentically experience. I look at the maps, this way and that, believing that if I stare at it long enough I can walk the streets in my mind. Know the direct route from the Moulin Rouge to the Latin Quartier. I read the list of gardens, cafes, bookshops and boutique stores of every arrondisement until my eyes can barely focus.

Break time is over.

Me = 0. Earthquake = 1.

What began as something scary turned into something rather exciting. The devastating earthquake that I (unfortunately) experienced turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This was a well disguised blessing, I'm talking hat, gloves, parka, gumboots, the whole works.

But when our two week holiday became three weeks and more resulting aftershocks led to four weeks I wondered when it would stop. And how the heck Uni was going to pick itself up.

"We'll have a 5 week term" they decided. This is where I thought maybe I shouldn't have relaxed quite so much. Maybe I should have done a little more work with this ample free time. But no, I meandered through the holidays with little thought to the consequences this would place on my workload.

Now, in the brunt of my first week back, I'm starting to get rather nervous.

I think I'll go make myself a pot of tea. That always seems to make things better.

If only I could bloody well train it to study the french language for me.

Believe.

I don't know about you, but this makes me want to sit in the middle of the road as a cute boy plays his guitar to me.

When you're not doing what you really should be doing.

Indulging in a little bit of Almost Famous. Kind of a little bit in love.

I wonder if watching one of the greatest movies of all time is a legit excuse for not doing my french speech?

I really should be doing some study.

Spending the day watching Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies.

My life is complete.

Loooooove

Penchant for reading.

Please return.

Oh so cute.

www.weheartit.com

Crush intensifying.

Life lessons.

It was an interesting night to say the least. You know how the nights where nothing is planned turn out ot be the most eventful of them all? This was no exception.

Looking back though, we all should have seen it coming. But we didn't. It was an alternative part of town, and I liked that. We hipped and we hopped, we bipped and we bopped. We did it all in this bar, and much more. There was even a man there that was over 7ft. Not that its amazing or anything. Not at all.

We met a gaggle of boys (bird related metaphor wholely intended) and it just went from there. There was even a bit of ping pong involved. Ping pong in a bar? Yes. It was up there with one of the coolest bars ever. Thats before we even saw the foosball table.

The boys were nice, but a made up birthday, a round of tequila shots and a couple of pints later, (so dreaming of Ireland right now), and the mood was..... wild. The no holding back attitude seemed to catch like wild fire. (Read: that incident. The one thats hard to forget. Etched into my mind and refusing to leave).

I didn't even plan to stay, I swear, I should have left when my flat mate did. But I didn't. Choosing to stay on with my friends, the night got darker and blurrier as time passed by faster than we were able to count. Even the aftershock inducing falling rubble couldn't get us out of that bar.

An uncomfortable night on the floor of a flat (though thankfully not winter so no snowmen (snow women?) and a walk of shame later, I was home. Very tired, very dehydrated and not ready to face the day. But home.

Moral of the story: Have a LOT of fun in life. You can deal with the consequences another time.

Seriously, heaven on a Tuesday.

I will tell you a story, you may not believe it as it is really quite delightful. Deliriously so.

I am currently residing (temporarily, despite the havoc of the earthquake) in a leather bean bag. All my own. It is leather. And the leather is fantastic, really. It is neither too cold, nor too hot. Not too hard, nor too soft. It is unequivocally perfect. (Note my penchant for using words I like, sometimes scattily with my inability to decipher their true meaning, instead inventing my own).

The rain beats on the double glazed windows (truthfully, not a lie designed to further the impact of this story). And I only feel warmth. This is in part (or rather, completely) due to the heater inches from my outstretched, uncovered feet. I am also on my 3rd cup of EB, which may be of some importance. The delicious brown covered liquid seems to slide down more easily as the number rises.

I am currently blog stalking, a little obsessively, getting carried away at this time of night.

I can always study tomorrow.

......or the next day.

Blur.

Its frustrating. It's all so fuzzy. Houses have merged into the mountainous landscape, becoming one big smudge. The horizon is hard to differentiate. Where does the sky meet the sea? Its all one to me.

I don't need to clean my glasses. I think I'm going blind.

Extended holiday.

The earthquake changed a lot of things in this city. Least of all, University.

I have already had 3 weeks, this starts my fourth.

I almost don't know what to do. Almost.

There's still daytime television.

Forgotten happiness.

So did I forget to mention?

I am going to Paris to live next year.

70 percent likely.

Holy. Cow.

I. Am. Excited.

Road to recovery.

I never realised that fear is completely perpetuating. It doesn't leave you. It refuses. A human backpack of disruption, its hard to ignore.

When your safe haven, your place of refuge and comfort becomes a inescapable reality of fear, its scary. Its surreal. Almost impossible to imagine, to prepare for.

After shocks continue to haunt this city. Out of place and unavoidable, they ravage the city. Our last total was 270 though this has undoubtedly grown since. A potential animal of destruction, fear can control you. This city was unprepared, it was beyond impossible to predict.

But our city has come together, supported each other. Arms are outstretched like I never knew was possible. Mine included. Or so I like to think.

Its scary to think what Mother Nature can do, but it can bring humans together. Show us what we are capable of. A picture of resistance.

I don't yet feel safe, the ground continues to rumble below, unhappy and teeming. Teeming with destruction. But I look at people on the street, people in my neighbourhood, people everywhere, who prove that humans can do good, in the hardest of situations.

Earthquake!!!!!!

Undulating fear awoke me. Having the whole ground shift beneath you is not a normal 4.30am morning wake up call. Scrambling for the safety of my door frame, I stumble as if intoxicated. Struggling to open my door for the forces jolting this way and that, I manage to balance myself against the frame. Aware of the lack of safety this provides in a earth shattering movement, I focus on steadying myself, staying safe.

What feels like hours later, though really over a minute, it stops. The deafening roar of the earthquake subsides, though rattles on in my mind, refusing to let me forget.

Aware disaster has arrived, it presence ever present, we scour the house for signs of damage. We are lucky.

Some are not. The city is in ruins. Buildings gallore have collapsed, completely crumpled. Central city is a war torn disaster zone. State of emergency declared.

The city stumbles into activity, people beginning to respond to what was the worst earthquake in decades. Almost a century.

Sleepily coming to grips with the event,people flock into the streets in pyjamas, draped in blankets, assesing their houses and others, checking everyone is okay. Offering help, assistance, company.

This disaster has changed the city. Completely.

It's no longer my Christchurch.

It's Mother Nature's.