Quiet Times

Late last year I was focused entirely on my trip home, so I stopped travelling. I actually lost 4 days of holiday last year that I never used. And it carried over to this year. From January to April, I didn't have a holiday. I was in a bit of a rut.

But although I haven't taken trips, I have done a few things. After the second quake, I've had a bout of Kiwi nationalism.

I saw Brooke Fraser in London. You'll have to take my word, because my photos were too crappy to post. I'm luke-warm on her music in general, but it was a good show.

I went to check out the former Roman town of Silchester, which is south of Reading. Silchester is interesting because, unlike most Roman towns, it was never built over. They have excavated quite a lot, including the former arena and the walls of the city. I took a bunch of photos, but I appear to have deleted them. Bum.

My touch rugby club held a Christchurch fundraising quiz evening. The organisers did a great job. The mood fluctuated wildly: Mostly it was a happy social evening, but when stories of post-quake life in Christchurch were read out, it would go very quiet.

I went to Twickenham (the home of rugby) to watch the Crusaders play the Sharks. I thought the crowd would be all Kiwis, but it was actually nearly all South Africans. As I sat down, it occurred to me that the whole thing might have been a trap set by the UK immigration service to round up 35,000 of us in one go.

After the Minute of Silence

I think that's my fourth minute of silence now.