I repacked the getaway kit last weekend (we used it in this emergency) In the getaway kit (this is grab and go....seconds only to leave) 2 blankets 1 litre water/per person no cook food + chocolate + boiled sweets a solar garden light a wind up torch that also charges a cell phone (although not very well as we found out this time...wind for 5 mins, send a txt) a battery radio and spare batteries woolly hats, gloves, socks First aid kit flannels (we found this time a plaster is useless in an emergency, you need something large and absorbent) 2 sarongs (fold up small, can be used as sheets, bandages, sun protection etc etc etc) Photocopies of contact details, passport no's etc. This is in a small backpack I can take on my bike if necessary. In the house we have: Water, min of 20L per person. I am currently building this back up again. I have 3 20L containers, one in the shed, one in the garage and one in the laundry (in case one collapses) Plus a number of refilled juice bottles stored all over the place. I have 12 L stored right beside the getaway kit. This sits by the french doors in my bedroom, it does not look messy to me it looks reassuring. Then a weeks of food, and after this time it will be 2 weeks of food, stored in a special cupboard along with a can opener, a camping gas stove and spare gas (now 5 ) cylinders. Cup a soups, whilst not what I consider food normally are good as they only need hot water pouring on. Also instant noodles. Add hot choc and canned milk for the kids, cheers them up no end! All this I check every 6 months when the clocks change. Willow.

Such wonderful news. There are no words for the joy.

Praying for you and your family and friends, Jean. Many hugs Kia Kaha Willow, in Christchurch, NZ

Oh yes, that is it, and if your house is built on a concrete foundation, and this cracks, then the stuff comes up through the floor inside. (that happened at our Meeting House). It can get quite deep. For the interested, apparently liquefaction is the process and silt is the product. Many thanks to the army of students and farmers who have come to christchurch to shovel the stuff away. It is being piled in a field near Bromley, close to where I live and there is an aboslute mountain of silt, it is huge. Willow.

Please can you thank your husband for coming down Deb. The people of Christchurch are so grateful to everyone who has come/is coming. Our prayers are for Japan now. Kia Kaha. Willow.

So good to hear you are safe. Take care, I will be thinking of you. Kia kaha. (stay strong) From Willow in Christchurch East, NZ

Congratulations! And just follow NZ school terms We don't go back after Christmas until February! ;)

There is a young man in the next street I have been avoiding for years, He has tattoos, rings and studs almost everywhere, and he wears only black. He has his head shaved. The morning after the quake I met him as I was walking down the deserted street. He saw me and came straight over to me. I froze. A big beam crossed his face and he shouted, grinning all over with joy. "They got my mum out of the CTV building last night! She's going to be OK.!!!" Well, we hugged and cried for joy in the street right there and then. I do not know this boy's mother, but I do now know her son loves her, I know she is safe, and I now know her son! We say hello when we meet, and I ask after her, and he asks after my family. We wait together at the end of the road for the water tanker and pass the time of day. Just one of the little things that have changed since the quake.

Liquefaction is dreadful awful horrible...there are not enough words. you have the quake, everything is falling around you and you don't know when it will stop. And then the water starts, first water runs down the road, everything is flooded, then the liquefaction starts everything is covered with grey silt, holes open up in the road, and it just keeps coming. Then eventually the water drains away and everything is covered with grey silt mixed with sewage. It come up inside houses too, but thankfully not in our bit of our street. The telegraph poles fall down too, as the ground cannot support them, and it cannot support the weight of cars on the road and holes open up. I talked to a teacher at a badly affected school. She thought their kids would DROWN in liquefaction. They were outside in the playground and the playground cracked and it started coming up, so they rushed the kids onto the field, and it kept coming up on the field too and they kept trying to find higher ground.... Thank you for all your kind thoughts and prayers. I am sorry it has taken so long. My daughters got word out to wider family and friends, but it is only today i have managed to sit down at a computer and answer the several hundred emails in my inbox, and to visit here. And thanks to my friend Ellen for the loan of her laptop! Willow.

For those who don't know, I live in Christchurch East. NZ I am sorry it has taken so long to get in touch and let you know we are OK, and i don't know if there are any threads about the quake as I haven't yet had time to look. We only got power back two days ago, and my computer did not make it through the quake, so I have borrowed a laptop. Water is intermittent, and the toilet is a chemical one that arrived 12 days after the quake (before that it was a hole in the garden!!!!!) Although everything inside my house is broken, the house itself stood up well. It is an old wooden house and although it has shifted and settled it is still here and doing well. My family was scattered all over the town, but we all managed to get in contact with each other by 7pm (about 6 hours after the quake). Everyone was fine, although some were in the town centre when the quake hit. One daughter in her 20's has had to move out of her house, but she is now living with another daughter on the comparatively unaffected west side of the city, as she had power and water and we didn't. My son (14 and the only child now at home) was away from me at a class at the time. It took me two and a half hours to reach him, with liquefaction, bridges impassable, floods, holes in the road etc etc. He is OK but we have all been sleeping in the one room until the power came back, just 2 days ago. He needs a night light, something he has not needed since he was 4. Now Japan has had such a dreadful quake and Tsunami and I have spent the whole night awake, thinking of them and watching to see if the Tsunami will come our way, as I am quite near the beach. And the Japanese were so wonderful after our quake, coming so quickly, with expert searchers and other help. I cannot bear this for them. Willow.

Sure, books, DVDs, the internet, whatever, just not real life people who know the language. I was recently given Winnie Ille Pu and have set myself the challenge of learning to read it. :)

Really, well enough so you could read things written in latin? With no outside help at all? And if you do feel it possible, what would you use as an adult? Thanks, Willow.

Thank you. :)

Hi Lane, I am trying to put together a self education programme......although I am not sure I can commit to 7 years! I was planning on getting Well educated mind out of the library, so I could put together a programme. I have just started "How to Read a Book" (Adler and van Doren) and was going to start with the Epic of Gilgamesh. This list is new to me and looks interesting! Were you planning to read the books in the given order, or jump around a bit? And why this list not the Well Educated Mind one? Or are they the same? I only decided I was going to set myself a Great Books course this weekend, so I have not done much research yet, but I have signed up for a maths course via the NZ correspondence school. I am afraid I spent most of my High School years truanting, but now at almost 50 years of age i have decided to put things right! Willow.

Sorry I missed the question of life after death. I don't know if there is life after death, but I hope... Most Quakers leave this question to God, but also most don't seem to worry about Hell. Sufficient unto the day etc. I don't worry. I'm with Julian of Norwich (writing in the 14th century) who asked God how things could be well if 'many creatures will be dammed'? and who received the reply from God "What is impossible for you is not impossible for me. I shall honour my word in everything and i shall make everything well." Willow. (again only speaking for herself, and not Quakers in general.)

Funny, yes we are waldorfy! Dh is a Waldorf teacher....but we are the only Waldorf family at Meeting As people have pointed out already, it is very hard to say 'this is what Quakers believe' simply because we do not lay rules or forms upon ourselves or others. I am going to copy some quotes from the front of Questions and Counsel (the NZ version) "The historical basis of friends practices lies in 17th-centuary England. George Fox, the principal founder of Quakerism, sought religious truth through prayer and Bible-reading, and was grieved by what he saw as the failures of professing Christians of his time. After much traveling and listening to priests and preachers, he lost all hope of help from men. Then one day, when sitting alone, he became conscious of the presence of God's Sprit within himself, directly answering his needs and giving him hope, power and understanding. When he spread this message that the divine Spirit was active within all human beings, his words spoke to the experience of other seekers. With their keen response, the Quaker movement took form in the 1650's." Questions and Counsel (also called Questions and Queries) has the first sentence from an epistle issued by elders at Balby, Yorkshire in 1656. "Dearly Beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all, with the measure of light that is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light walking and abiding, these things may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." There then follows a number of questions to help Quakers in their daily life, the answers, of course, come from listening to the promoting of the Spirit. Many are long but some are short. To give an example; "Do you always use the guidance of the Spirit when seeking the truth?" " We have a testimony to honesty and plain speaking. Be utterly scrupulous both in personal relationships and in dealing with business firms and government departments. Taking oaths sets a double standard of truth: ask to affirm instead." These are 2 at random, and are not rules, but rather guidings. I've not counted them but there are maybe 30 or so. We also have a book Quaker Faith and Practice, this is huge and there is an NZ one as well as the UK one and I expect Americans have their own version too. This is a book containing writings by Quakers since the 17th century about how they met and dealt with situations. Again not rules, but extracts that say...I met this problem and was led to deal with in in this way. It also covers Quaker business including finding consensus. We have been trying to build a new Children's room for almost 15 years...... So rather than rules we have questions and counsel and the writings of those who trod this path before us. All we can do is consider those things and do as we feel led by Spirit to do. On another tack, my father is seriously ill (esophageal cancer) and I am leaving the southern hemisphere in its mid summer, to travel half way around the world to North Yorkshire in the UK, in less than 24 hours time. So i do not expect to be on this forum again after today for several weeks. So I will not be able to update this thread after today. If you feel led to hold me in the light, whilst I travel, and my father who has lost his faith, and pray he may be lead back to the light, I would be very grateful. Willow.

Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you all, the time difference means that things move on when i am asleep. Great to 'meet' other Friends on here too. Hello Friends! :) And for those not Quaker or Quaker attenders we say Ffriends to include everyone, Quakers or not. We were actually Methodist when i was born, Baptist when my older sister was born and Quaker when my younger brother was born. As there are only 3 years and 9 days between us all in age you can see how quickly my parents rotated through churches. As we were growing up i attended (in no particular order, and some we were with for maybe a year, others only weeks, some we cycled back to or attended another church of the same denomination in another town...we moved a lot too) here goes....Methodist, Baptist, Quaker, Catholic, Church of England, Congregational, Congregational fellowship, Buddhist temple, Raj Yogi, 2 different home groups/house churches, United Reform, Salvation Army. Phew. I may have missed one or two, but I am sure this gives you an idea. All this was a lot of Church 'noise'. Each church was different, in services structure and even in what God or gods, they worshiped. When I grew up I didn't feel I had any particular faith, but my favorite church when growing up was the Quakers. My memory was of quiet friendly people, and yummy lunches. I was a kid remember. ;) When I was in my mid 20's I contacted the local Friends and never looked back. The main thing that brought me back was the acceptance of all. All contain the light of God, all are equally valuable, and also the fact there is no creed or articles of belief. I had no idea what I believed! I feel that some of the churches I had attended had an us and them feeling. If you join us and believe this creed then you are 'in'. Being 'in' is nice but by its very definition it means others are 'out'. I never had this feeling with Quakers, all are welcome. Yes one may join, but this does not make you more or less 'in' or 'out' (but it might make people ask you to do more jobs ;)) Yes, I too have noticed some Quakers drifting away from God. But this is OK I expect God isn't drifting away from them. And sometimes Quakers spend so much time being accepting and inclusive they begin to loose their integrity, which is an important part of being a Quaker. But then don't we all make mistakes? A friend got up in our meeting recently and asked if 'Jesus' was becoming a banned word in meeting, as He was so rarely mentioned in testimony. This led to several other thoughtful testimonies that morning. In general Quakers i have met seem to be more God and Holy Sprit centered than Jesus centered. But that is OK too. I love the silence in Meeting for Worship. I love listening for God. Sometimes my mind wanders of course, and sometimes, of course, people get up to speak seemingly just to hear their own voice. But if you try to listen for God in what they say He is usually there. Sometimes I get cross when it seems that Quakers have a concern for everyone (prisoners, their families, people in war torn areas, work for peace, work for justice etc etc ) that they seem to forget the children right there in meeting, under their noses. This is getting long (we Quakers are a wordy bunch!) In peace, Willow. PS Willow is not my real name, and therefore not in line with the Truth testimony of Quakers. Speaking the truth and the internet may be an interesting debate for Quakers!

Biggest event, a 7.1 earthquake! Thankfully no one was killed.

You may have heard of David Albert, homeschooling dad and author 'Skylark sings with me' 'Have Fun, Learn stuff,Grow' who is also a Quaker.

I am a Quaker. In America there are two types of Meeting, one type with a pastor, the other unprogrammed. In NZ we have unprogrammed meetings. We meet in silence and anyone may speak if they feel led to do so. There is no creed or articles of faith, but the majority of Friends believe or at least support the 4 basic tenants (although one is not required to do so) Peace Integrity Equality Simplicity. What would you like to know? I will do my best to answer, but I can only speak for myself. Quaker experience is collected in their writing in a book called Faith and Practice, and refers to how a particular Friend may have dealt with a particular situation or how they felt God in their lives, but Quakers believe in not imposing their beliefs upon others so the writings may or may not speak to you. It seems like I am rambling, but if anyone is interested i will try and answer questions. Willow.

Thanks for the ideas, off to check them out.

New years resolution. Get on top of the house keeping. Does anyone have a good suggestion of a book that teaches the 'housekeepingly' inept how to keep house. I was brought up amid piles of clutter, and whilst my house is nothing like that I struggle to keep it nice. Obviously I did not get taught this as I grew up, and I seem to rush from crisis to crisis in the housekeeping department.....clean kitchen as surfaces are getting cluttered....clean computer desk.....oh no, the the bathroom has gone to pot....... What says the hive?

BBQ, Several different salads homemade bread pickles and dips Ice cream broken biscuit cake Christmas cake.

I think it best thing to do is to decide on a market price and stick to it. i have even done this with houses. "hello buyer. My house is priced at $******* Please understand we find haggling boring. We have researched the market carefully. We think it is fairly priced. obviously it is your choice not to offer this amount, but we will not be doing the offer/counter offer thing." We then price our house at the very low end of the market as obviously most people price expect to drop. We have found the majority of people really appreciate this! In at least one instance we could have had a bidding war and got more for our house, but we stuck to our principles and sold to the first who offered the asking price. The reason i do this is because I was born and brought up as the dd of second hand dealers. We were offered low ball prices and subjected to aggressive haggling on a daily basis. It is boring and time consuming. it also insults our intelligence. Do people think we had no idea of the value of an item? Yes if stuff did not sell we repriced it, but it didn't often happen as we priced fairly in the first place. I just wish people would price an item fairly, then folks can take it or leave it regardless of their own wealth status. Instead we have given ourselves a ridiculous system where what you pay often depends on the amount you are prepared to bully a seller (oh yes we have been bullied and verbally abused by people 'just out to get a good deal')

I expect the OP has gone to ground, but I see her question not as 'should one get a good deal if one can?' (by low-balling or whatever) but rather as 'is it ethical to take advantage of your knowledge of a persons desperation?' I am the dd of second hand dealers, and we were always offered low ball figures day after day, week after week, year after year. It is very boring but we just said no, the items were fairly priced, take it or leave it. We were often verbally abused by the buyer after refusing a silly low figure. Did people think we didn't need to eat? However my parents also brought this stuff, often from desperate people, and I KNOW they often gave more for an item than it was worth, and we would sell at a loss, simply because they WERE desperate. I don't think my parents would have considered themselves Christian. Certainly not born again. They did this because they thought they could help people. Obviously we were not rich (not financially anyway,I remember being sent to the market after it closed to pick up the fallen fruit and veg from the ground, but we were certainly rich in other ways). Oh yes, i do know how the market works, but I still don't believe in ripping people off. Re Dave Ramsey, I didn't see this in the one book I read, but I would have been very disappointed to see pride in taking advantage of the desperate as opposed to information on how to haggle.