Well, it’s been a week. A cyclone blowing through on Monday and an earthquake on Wednesday. But here we still are.
Nonetheless there has been loss of life and of livelihoods across a significant part of the North Island. In the midst of that, we have escaped relatively untouched. We spent a lot of time on Monday night through to Tuesday morning on edge, expecting the promised gales – but nothing. Over the next couple of days – still nothing, even though there was some damage among the higher suburbs further in towards Wellington. Then Wednesday night – a few buffets from what was called the ‘sting’ in the cyclone’s tail as it moved east across the Pacific. But nothing particularly out of the usual – for a location prone to winds, this was a fairly normal week. It was the wettest this year by a substantial margin, though.
By then we’d had the earthquake – a little jolt that didn’t quite stop, and kicked off a bigger, longer roll. 6.3 on the scale, some kilometres out into the Tasman, and some kilometres deep. Startling, and leading to a degree of cat-herding, but nothing that hasn’t been felt before. If that fault has now blown off some steam, so much the better – the aftershocks have been more or less negligible.
I learned this week of a forthcoming book on Stephen Sondheim and puzzles. You have to scroll down a long way in this article to find its mention, but it’s there, and looks slated for next year. The link is to an Instagram page. (I don’t have an Instagram account – perhaps I should, though not sure what I’d put there – but it seems less inclined than Pinterest to throw non-members off almost immediately.)
This time round we have a BBC Music Magazine puzzle from January 2009. As to what is forthcoming – after a busy February, including two appearances by the pseudonym someone has christened my ‘evil twin’, March looks to be quieter. There are still two puzzles in February – the usual Friday Independent next week is joined by a Church Times puzzle, also on the 24th. And there is a Times Quick Cryptic appearing the same day as the next Independent Friday puzzle on 3 March – and that’s all the news for March that I have at present.
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