A Piece of Old Christchurch History - First "Jade Garden" Location

Many people know this old building as the old "Canterbury Public Library" building

For me, this was and always will be: "The Original Home of 'Jade Garden' - Dim Sum Chinese Restaurant"  (although apparently, they may have been in one other location before this one IIRC)

 

I was inspired to write this little oral history down for posterity when stumbling across the photo below earlier today (complete with the caption that showed below it). It was one of the first times I'd come across a decent photo of the place, so thought it was a good chance to write this down. 

Canterbury Public Library 19 December 1981. Exterior of the former Canterbury Public Library building on the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Hereford Street. Christchurch Star archive photo

(NOTE: Once again, am reposting this long-form post from my Mastodon for archiving - though this probably means the AI's will now ingest this too... sigh)

Saturday Photowalk - Recent changes around the Arts Centre...

With fine sunny weather today (sandwiched between two days of chilly, showery, wintery weather) it was a great day to get out and about, and away from my desk for a few hours. It ended up being a nice afternoon to take a walk around the Arts Centre for the first time in ages - between the first wave of Omicron, and our very own "Camp Covid" from the rabid "Freedumbs" crowd just around the corner, it's been a while since I've been to this part of town. 

 

Here are some highlights from the afternoon. Unfortunately, I only had my phone with me today, though things turned out relatively ok in the end I guess...

SOFIA Flying Observatory Visit

It was great getting the chance to tour NASA's SOFIA flying observatory this weekend on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing!

3 Pieces for Christchurch - March 2019 - #WeAreOne

A month ago today on 15 March 2019, a deadly terrorist attack was unleashed upon two mosques in my hometown, Christchurch NZ. Inspired by and in response to the outpouring of emotion in the wake of this horrific event, I wrote a whole bunch of music during this time - I guess partly as a coping mechanism in the wake of each day's events. From these pieces, I've picked the following three as they fit well together under the general theme of healing for a broken community.

Port Hills Fires - Violin Layering Tracks

Last week, a series of out of control wildfires raged across the Port Hills to the south of Christchurch, destroying houses, sending massive plumes of smoke billowing into the sky (and visible from space), and leaving thousands of hill-suburb residents temporarily homeless (after often getting only minutes to evacuate).

Feb 22 - Violin Layering Tribute

Today marks 6 years since the devastating Feb22 quakes here in Christchurch. Here are a bunch of tracks I recorded to commemorate the event this year.

Seagulls up Close

A few weeks ago, I had a lovely walk around the CBD for the first time in ages. Along the way, I found a nice shady spot on the riverbank to sit and watch a flock of gulls preening, sleeping, and otherwise doing a whole lot of interesting things you don't often get to see them doing. For instance, who would've known that aside from squaking aggressively and trying to steal your lunch, these things can also look kindof cute - especially when they stand on one leg looking like a moggy with a bad case of fleas!

From certain angles, there's a bit of cuteness in there... Somehow, this shot reminds me of Piper. (I think it might be the rounded head and the placement of the two dot-like eyes on there that does it)...

Kite Day 2017

Over the weekend, the annual "Kite Day" was held at New Brighton beach, on a warm but overcast summer day.

While in previous years, there would be large displays of a variety of massive novelty kites, this year, they were in short supply... As I later discovered, there was apparently too little wind to get them up into the air that day (despite the day before, and day after being really windy...). However, in place of the large display kites, it was fun to see so many families out and about having fun trying to fly their own kites :)

Regarding the recent quakes...

In case you haven't heard, there was a massive 7.5 earthquake north of Christchurch (near Hamner Springs) that struck last night just after midnight.

Unlike the previous ones we've had, this one went on for a very long time - for some 2-3 minutes by our rough estimation... much much longer than any previous quakes we've seen (and we've seen literally thousands in several years at this point). It was also relatively gentle (comparatively speaking): instead of any sharp jerking, shuddering, or horizontal shunting (i.e. the most destructive type of quake motion), we were instead treated to a "lost at sea in a heavy swell". The ground seemed convulse beneath our feet in wobbly waves of undulating motion. Combined with the gentle swaying of all the walls, light fittings, and other free-standing objects, the flickering lights (which threatened to blink out at any moment), and doors banging open and closed, it was quite a sickening feeling. I can only image how bad sufferers of motion sickness find travelling to be...

Pyne Gould Building Collapse Simulation Video - Blender Bullet Addon Demo

What strange times we live in: I just came across a video for a Blender addon for simulating building collapses using the built in Bullet (rigidbody simulation engine) tools.  What I didn't expect though was to open the video link, and be confronted with was this:

Woah... I know this place...

This is the Pyne Gould Building, that collapsed during the Feb 22 2011 Christchurch Earthquake. It was one of the two worst hit buildings that collapsed that day, killing and trapping people. The other one was the CTV building (also in the CBD), where over 100 people died (including the mum of a classmate from primary school) when it pancaked. In other words: not really something us Cantabrians want to remember/dwell on...

Sighted in the Night Sky

Over the past two nights, I've noticed a reddish-pink dot in the night sky about 1-2 inches above the moon. This got me thinking: What is that dot? Could it be Mars? Or is it Jupiter instead? Today, I finally figured it out with the help of Stellarium (an awesome Open Source planetarium):

Answer: It's Mars!

And the secondary (weaker/dimmer) spot nearby to the right of the moon was probably Saturn.

I've never really been terribly into star gazing, but wow! That's the first time I've ever been able to actually see one of the other planets in the solar system with my own eyes.

Leap Day and Quakes

Yay! Today is "leap day" - a day that only comes around once every four years, and which poses some unique challenges for kids born on that day :P  To celebrate, Google put up this awesome cute doodle on their homepage  :D

https://g.co/doodle/fsgbcs

5 Years On - An Eerie Day of Parallels

It's that time of year again - a day on which we Cantabrians reflect on a traumatic event which caused immense death, destruction, pain, and anxiety... the deadly February 22, 2011 earthquake at 12:51pm which forever changed the face of the city. This year marks 5 years since that event (a milestone of sorts). Somewhat morbidly, there were quite a few eerie similarities between that day and today...

Power out in Lab 2 just after 12:50!  (Feb 22, 2016... )

Burnside High '08 - Reunion 2016

This evening, I attended a small gathering of former classmates from high school who graduated in 2008. For quite a few of us (and particularly in my case), this was the first time that many of us had seen each other since the "leavers last lunch" in 2008, so it was quite interesting + exciting to see everyone again.

Santa Parade 2015

Just a few photos from the Christchurch Santa Parade held this afternoon.This year I didn't stay for the whole parade, but just popped by for a short time in the middle.

 

Snow!

Woohooo! Tonight we've got snow for the first time in years! :D

Yay! Yay! Yay!  This epic weekend is already off to a freakin' awesome start! :D

Christchurch CBD - Signs of Rebuild

This weekend was a long weekend (Queen's Birthday weekend) here, and an eventful one at that. Yesterday (Sunday) saw the old central police station tower "imploded" (I've got before and after photos for this to come in a later post), followed by some nice warm weather today (20 degrees for the first day of winter!). Here are some photos I took during an impromptu trip late this afternoon  to check out the rubble from the implosion...

Sunday Afternoon Drive - Halswell, Tai Tapu, Lincoln Farmland

Travis Wetland Park

After hearing about the Travis Wetland Heritage Park for years, I finally visited it for myself on Saturday. It was a really nice warm day, with a gentle breeze blowing, making this a really nice visit. If you're at all keen on seeing birdlife up close, this is definitely a place to check out! It's got pukekos roaming around all over the place, like, literally, just idling strolling along beside picnic tables, and so on. There are also swans, paradise ducks, big ducks, small ducks, some geese/waterfowl, and many more that didn't show their faces that day...

Oh, and for some reason, there were quite a lot of sheep around... a lot. I'll definitely be back again, but hopefully with a longer lens next time ;)

4th Anniversary of Christchurch Feb 22 Quake

Lo and behold, it's been four years since the devastating Feb 22 quake struck Christchurch, killing 185 people, flattening a large number of buildings (including the majority of those in the CBD), and terrorising the rest of us to no end. How time flies!



Here is a recording I made yesterday afternoon while having a bit of a thump around on the piano. (As usual, this is non-rehearsed, unplanned, and unedited - it is what it is). Listening to it again, I think it's quite fitting for today and the events that we are commemorating. Enjoy!