In which she can has TV!

[zeborah]

Have now three times paw-held Boots through the process of opening the catflap towards her. I'm not sure she quite gets what I'm on about; further experimentation required.

Late afternoon today Dad picked me up and we went shopping for a new television, after ascertaining that the reason there's a gap in my bedroom floor is that the house has probably shifted 1cm or so on its foundations.

Despite the fact that (for some obscure reason) shops seem to be selling out of TVs at the moment, we found a nice new one. In the store it looked tiny because of course it was surrounded by all the big dollar ones, but being a 26" LCD screen it's a significant upgrade on my old second-hand CRT monster (now occupying the cat's armchair for insurance purposes) and will fit nicely in the space I have when I get around to securing it there. This might be some months because it's the space next to the living room brick fireplace which is also not exactly where it used to be and needs to be either repaired or pulled down and in the meantime is rather dusty. So while waiting 4-6 months for an assessment and probably more months for actual action, the TV is sitting safely on the floor, in front of some cupboard doors, one of which is stuck open and the other of which is stuck closed.

We got everything connected up and proved that the DVD player and hard drive recorder are working. So over dinner I played the episode of Queen Seondeok that I recorded on the 21st February. Have located the remainder of the series (which I calculate would have finished airing here last night) online, but looking at the size of the files I'll have to watch my bandwidth and eke them out a bit.

In the meantime, I can watch all the DVDs! I'll just have to pick them up off the floor first.

Goodness, if I spend any more time in this room, I might really start tidying it up. That'd be perilously close to moving on.

I'm being encouraged by Sisters In The Know to apply for a Red Cross hardship grant on account of how I had no water for a week. Originally I'd planned not to since, while this certainly resulted in hardship, it didn't involve any financial hardship and I thought they should keep the money for people who did need it; all I'd do with it would be to redonate it to charity, which seemed needless paper-shuffling. But apparently due to the amount of money they've raised and the ways they get audited and so forth it is not at all undesirable to apply for it and even makes sense to be a conduit to funnel money from that fund into some other fund that's able to help people more seriously affected.

(If I apply I'll almost certainly get it. My Sisters In The Know reckon even if I ticked every box "no" I'd still get it simply on the grounds of living in the suburb I live in. That actually makes sense whether this is how they mean it or not: due to all the cheaper grocery shops nearby being closed, the cost of food here is up.)
Oh Boots, if you chew the powercord to the new television I will be quite unhappy with you.

Comments

[keieeeye]

Well also the forms (I think they've changed them now, but before this) use the wording "at this time" are you without whatever, so you could have only just gotten your sewage/water/power back before filling out the form but still had hardship. Plus certain suburbs are more likely to have actual building damage and getting an insurance or EQC payout on that can be a really long process. But yeah I think they said they had NZ$25 million dollars raised and they operate 100% money-in-money-out so it all has to get to people.

[zeborah]

Yeah now the forms say things like "You remained at your home but without power or water or sewerage services for 7 days or more, caused by the earthquake of February 2011."

[rumpelsnorcack]

The forms said the old thing when I applied and I stuffed it up but apparently this wasn't incompetence on my part and I should be okay.

[cyphomandra]

I hadn't applied for a grant either, for similar reasons, but if it's actually efficient to collect money from them for Canterbury people and then give it back to them for Japanese people, then maybe I'll go for it. Especially as today has involved a series of grumpy emails (insurance, internet provider, etc etc) and still no idea when/if I'll ever get back into my house.

[zeborah]

As I understand it, the money in the Christchurch fund must be used for Christchurch; and as long as you fill out the form fully it's very quick for them to process; so yes, it seems like worth it.

[ajk]

There was recently someone telling us not to donate to specific disasters because that causes problems to the charity when they get more than they actually need and cannot reallocate due to the donor-specified restriction. General donations (forex to the Red Cross disaster fund) were okay by them.

[(Anonymous)]

Becky here. I say go for the grant, you never know, you might need it. I have Queen Seondeok on DVD! I haven't gotten around to watching it yet -- currently enthralled with Dong Yi and waiting for the third set to be released here. As to the junkmail, well it is a sign of returning civilization I suppose... ;)