B.

You can't polish a turd – or so they say, but full credit to the Christchurch City Council for trying.

The Old Provincial Council Chamber, Christchurch

The title of Jim Speers's sculpture rang true yet again the other night. But this time it wasn't aftershocks keeping me and half the neighbourhood awake – it was a roadwork crew.

1. NEVER go to bed in anything you wouldn't want to wear in the middle of the street.

2. NEVER put the cornflour at the front of your pantry and ALWAYS close the pantry doors.

3. DON'T drive down Madras Street north of Bealey Avenue (contender for The Bounciest Liquefaction-enhanced City Street award), but if you do...

Here in Christchurch, some motorists seem to be counteracting the challenges of earthquake-affected roading (bumps, potholes, closures, detours, decoratively-configured traffic cones) with a nifty new driving style.

That's the name my son gives to the aftershocks that regularly shake our St Albans home.

Cycling is still one of the easiest way to get round the inner suburbs of Christchurch after the run of recent earthquakes, but you have to have your wits about you.

When re-construction and 'business as usual' collide...

We Christchurch folk have probably always been a bit smug about our delicious artesian water...

Cycling into work along Ferry Road each morning I pass one of those new ads perkily announcing that 'The Christchurch We Love is Still Here'. And each morning I imagine getting off the bike and performing a firm correction. Something along the lines of, 'The Christchurch we love is still here, but some very big bits of it are being knocked down.'