Assorted updates

• We leave Winnipeg for Christchurch tomorrow morning, landing Friday morning Christchurch time.
• My travel was booked through the University's travel agent; I still spent an hour on hold with Air Canada sorting out conflicting luggage allotment rules.
• Winnipeg's a great town in summer. What was shabby and dated twenty years ago is now retro-chic. Wait long enough and all that's old is new again. I base my wardrobe on such expectations.
• The Christchurch Airport has been iffy between regular daily earthquakes magnitude 5 and up and volcanic ash from Chile. I hope we don't get stuck in Auckland; we'll see.
• Getting back into the daily earthquake routine fills me with dread.
• Nobody in North America knows squat about what's going on in Christchurch. It was a headline in September and February; everybody reckons that all's back to normal. As update for folks who've lost track:
  • there was another 6.3 last week, there are between a half dozen and a dozen earthquakes every day magnitude 3-5.3, with strong potential for bigger ones
  • Literally 60% of downtown is set to be bulldozed
  • The army cordon around downtown is set to be in place for another six months
  • The boil water notice from the last quake seems to have been lifted, but there's going to be liquifaction silt all over the place, random road closures, sewerage failures.
  • All the normal bits of life you're used to in your town: the places you take the kids on a rainy day; the place you usually go for coffee; your barbershop; the swimming pools for the kids - just imagine that more than half of those are gone for a few years and the others are touch and go. And that nobody in town's getting any sleep. My twitter feed's full of Christchurch folks up at 3 in the morning with aftershocks every damned night.
  • We'd just say bugger it and stay here a while longer: Susan can work remotely. But I've got lectures to give in a couple weeks and NZ / Australian conferences ahead.
• Blogging will continue to be very light while on the road and prepping for the NZAE meetings; I'm now giving two papers there rather than one as a wait-listed paper was drawn at the last minute. I'm only at NZAE on the Thursday as I'll be in Oz for a few days mid July and am trying to limit the number of overnights I'm away from home while the aftershocks continue.