Scenes of a quake zone!

In due course to the new events i'm posting news from Christchurch.

Today at 12:51 nearly five months later than the big quake we had here of 7.1 on the scale, we were hit yet again with another big one, the 6.3 quake that happen today might not have been as high as the previous but for the shallowness of only 5 km depth it felt much bigger.

I was at my house when it happen and as i opened the kitchen door to run out of the house, i could actually see trembling waves on the very solid ground, bottles and other objects were flying out of the benches, fridges and cupboards, fortunately there seems to be no real damages, and the only losses in the house were a few jars and bottles that smashed on the ground, unfortunately i can't say the same for other parts of Christchurch.

As i left home to go and check on the Restaurant that i work Hay's, i could see the extent of the damage caused by the shaking, one of the main roads called Papanui, had several points of liquefaction, large cracks and houses severely destroyed.

Upon arrival at hay's i could see that my colleagues and friends were fine, but the internal breakages on the restaurant are far too great to keep us open, until we get all the mess cleaned it will be a good few weeks in order to pick it back up, and with the next few aftershocks, police was forced to enclose the entire block, without knowing if there was any major structural damages on the building we cannot even start to think of what to do.

The overall look of this disaster is of a city that has been through war, buildings crumbled down, sirens and screams are the sounds u hear, shock on people's faces, dust clouds, choppers flying, reports of people missing and dead, despair everywhere, much like a post apocalyptic scenario.

With much sadness i report all of this to you, and with a sense of relieve i can say that i'm safe and sound!      .

Challenge set, challenge done!!! Part 1

Kia ora everyone,

   Pretty much since the first time i came down to Akaroa, I've been wanting to take a bike trip from Christchurch to here, it's this most amazing scenery all the way, and it's the proper "road trip" on a bike that I've been wanting to do for a while now, pretty much since me and my best friend Yuri  started "biking around", the road is great, there's trails, rest stops, refreshing wind, pure mountain air and even though some people might say that New Zealanders are bad drivers, in comparison to Brazilians they are pretty respectful to cyclists.

   If u are ever in New Zealand and enjoy biking in the outdoors then I advise u to take a road trip somewhere here, it's truly worth it, I promise that u will enjoy!

   The trip from Christchurch to Akaroa is a little less than 85 km, but together with the way out of my house to the outskirts of the city i rounded up to 90 k's, it's quite a hard trip to do, not so much for the length but more so for the headwind that builds up to 80 km/h during the crossing of Taitapu, Motukarara, Ataahua and Birdlings flat, these are all flat areas, with very far and low mountains around, that creates the perfect "desert like" winds, making it that much harder to pedal  all the way to Little river, which was the place i had in mind to do a good lunch break, and by the time i got there which makes up for 2/3 of the way i was very tired and already sore from top to bottom.

   I considered that a good strategy though, cuz there's a few cafes and a couple of stores, to pick up some extra goods and refill the water supply, plus the Little River old train station, is a beautiful historic place worth to stop by. After having my lunch, i got in one of the stores to get me some powerade,  i was craving an ice cold isotonic drink, and asked the guy from the store how long did i had to go, even though i had a good idea, i wanted to know in km, he replied:

"it's 28 k's but so far you've done the easy part, from here it's uphill"

   Man he was not kidding, as i said i knew what was coming having done the road by car before, but it is totally different to do it on a bike right?! After leaving the store it took me about 15 min to reach the beginning of the hill, the first feeling of excitement had vanished from me within the first 3-4 k's as the steep hill was revealed ahead of me, the sun in New Zealand is very strong for the whole in the Ozone Layer above this country, and is no lesser of an adversity, you'll need a lot of liquid to boost your way to the top.

Challenge set, challenge done!!!

 As I pedaled up and up, i felt like it was an endless hill leading up to one of the highest places on earth, the summit is only about 476 mt, but it goes all around the mountain range, and it creates the illusion of an abrupt end, when u look up and you see no more way up, but actually it turns to yet another side with more and more incline planes.

   Finally after what it felt like hours and much road up, i had reached the summit, and the prospect of stopping for a drink at the Hilltop restaurant remained only an idea, i did stop for a couple of pictures for the view was too precious to not be appreciated specially after the effort done, but after five minutes there before I could think of anything else I felt a surge of energy towards the BEST part of the whole thing... Downhill !

   Ohhhh bless gravity with it's law for the way down was a rush of positive feelings that reanimated my damp spirit after the though way up, in terms of energy i was pretty good the worst when it comes to long distances is the mental state, and my strategy is to think of "rewards", such as ; "if i make to that part i'll stop for a drink" or "after going up, i'm going down!!!", but more than anything the feeling of accomplishment after setting yourself a challenge like this.

It was a 4 and a half hours trip, i'm thoroughly sore, got sunburns that makes me look like i'm dressed when i'm naked, but i made it!

C ya folks

Pondering about life! ...as usual!

Lately i've been working for my current employer in two of her business, one is the Restaurant Hay's which is in Christchurch and i'm doing 3 to 4 days, and the other is the Duvauchelle store and cafe, down near Akaroa which i also do 3-4 days a week.

Akaroa is a very charming country place, small little town, a couple hundreds of people, if that much, and i was thinking being a city kind of guy, how funny is that i'm all the way across the world working on a country town, and how that makes me feel a bit like i'm part of "Smallville" the tv show, haha it's so funny that i've always thought of living in big cities around the globe, and never in the past i actually thought of New Zealand, what's to say about the country side of a 4 million people country?!

The city of Rio by itself has 10.000.000 people, and i've always been raised surrounded by skyscrapers, people in suits, traffic jams of kilometers when u don't get to go past 2nd gear, malls everywhere, movie theaters for 150 people in places that the hot movies would be displayed in 4-6 rooms, so u'll always find a session that agrees with your scheduelle, bars, restaurants, night clubs, public transportation 24 hours, the list of commodities in a big city like Rio is seriously immense, hence me finding funny being on a small place like Akaroa!

But u know i find that for the simple fact that i've seen myself in various scenarios like this, i can sort of grasp how amazing the world is, and that's why i love travelling so much!

Anyways that's about it for now, later this week i come back with a recipe or something!

cheers!

It ain't easy being away!

                                           Bambino and I
Well folks I'm very excited to say that from now on i'm a Premium member on the amazing DeviantART community hehe!

Fact is I've been a free user of so many websites, and have always wanted to be able to do things i couldn't for not getting a subscription, and DA has been the website, that i payed the most attention to and sometimes in life u gotta do something to cheer you up right!!

At the moment i'm living in New Zealand and it sure has been hard to be an immigrant, as though  as I've been travelling over the past six years, this is the first time that i am actually living somewhere outside of my country, and it has been a quite stressful experience for me, it's hard to manage your money between having control over the household expenses, social life aspects and saving some for things u want to buy, and that puts me in a rather uncomfortable place in terms of sitting down on my free time to just sit and draw or work on photos i shoot, I've been having tons of ideas of things i want to draw, but for all the worries I've got on my mind, sitting down to do anything takes me to a place in my mind where all of this thoughts invade even my inspiration, therefore making me lose my time with more brainless activities!

Well at least now with a premium upgrade on DA i'll feel a bit more compelled to sit my but down and do the things i really like doing to be able to share with ya!!!

Also recently i moved out from my friend's place (Kamilla) due to some differences we had, all cool cuz my NEW place is reaaally nice, and my new flat mates are awesome people, as far as i noticed, plus the internet connection is great and BAMBINO the amazing joyful dog that i use to spend a lot of my time playing with has stayed back (as he was Kamilla's dog) : ( , i'll miss him dearly, so i'll have to find things to do on my free time!

Cheers

Nothing leads to more nothing!

Well let's see...

 The reason for that tittle is that lately while i was waiting for my visa to be approved I have been doing nothing,  and folks nothing can only lead to more nothing, a lot of people complain about having a routine, i can only complain of a routine when the routine gets boring, if you only do the exact same things for a long period of your life they will eventually become boring, it's necessary for the human being to change, for some of us a lot is needed and for others not much but for all, and let me say this again, FOR ALL of us changes are necessary!

To exemplify, working on ships was a huuuuge part of my life, that I dedicated almost six years of it, and hell yeah it was amazing. The routine of a Crew member of "jumping" from island to island, or country to country day after day really is as interesting as most people think, but when it comes to working it is, as it has to be, a very well disciplined way of life, otherwise you'll fail miserably on many of the good aspects of being there! 

Therefore i had a Routine that was great but got old after the six years and that's why i ended up here in New Zealand now, to search for new horizons, to get me a new ROUTINE.

I finally got my work visa and on Monday the 4th of October i'm starting to work at the Antarctic center,but to cease my last weekend being a jobless person (YAY!) me and my flatmate took my roller blade and her bike for a ride to Downtown Christchurch, and watched an AWESOME movie called "The girl with the dragon tattoo" . Tthis a great crime/thriller novel that was turned into a movie, and a job very well done, is a Swedish production, and i really love watching different foreign movies like this, i pretty much grew up watching american movies, and there is nothing wrong with that, but nowadays it feels fresh to watch something with a different take on how to shoot a movie, plus as i got used to read subtitles, feels a bit nostalgic to go a to a movie theater and have to read them again cuz it's not on any of the 3 languages i speak now, hehe! 

To finish this post, i had a few ideas of things i would like to draw after watching the movie, but since i don't have more than sketches i posting this Police investigation scene that i did last year!!!

cheers mates!

Lift yourself up!!!

What up folks?!

Had a nostalgic day last Tuesday, roller blading was a big part of my childhood, and being able to do that again has been awesome.

About a week ago I was riding the bus with a friend going to Riccarton mall, when we passed by the Jelly park where I noticed this street park/ramps and since then I've been constantly thinking about getting there and trying to get back with the thrill that I once felt when i was teenager. 

So early morning on Tuesday 21st of sep. I woke up around 9am had me breakfast and got ready to go and hit the ramps, roller bladed my way to the park, and BTW the streets and sidewalks of Christchurch are amazingly smooth to ride on, got there sat down on the bench overlooking the ramps and all, thinking on how to approach it better, thing is folks that certain times in life is better not to sit and think but rather actually go and do it, I'm a pretty straight forward guy regarding things ah wanna do and I truly believe in a sentence i sign my emails with, quote:

"I rather regret for things I've done than regret not trying" 

Anyways I got down on the ramps and spent about 3 hours amidst pain and joy, it was so much fun, didn't do anything much regarding moves, and fell enough to be sore up till now haha. The pics from above where screen shots from the videos I made by putting my camera on top of my bag, after travelling so much by myself u'll come up with ideas to shoot yourself when there's no one around, i reckon they came out good enough to play with this collage.

SOOO folks the message on this post is basically the same from the tittle of this blog simply LIVE your life the most u can, amidst the pain of the falls u'll see that picking yourself up will make u a better one.

Cheers mate!

The earth shook but i'm still here!!!

It was around 4 in the morning, deep in sleep i felt the earth shaking though as i was dreaming i thought that was just a part of it, surprised i awoke to see the house trembling and my friend shouting "doorway, to the doorway" it was not a dream but a very real natural disaster on the happening, a EARTHQUAKE of the magnitude of 7.1, bigger than the one that destroy the country of Haiti, and yet i feel fortunate to say that i'm now here writing to thee for no harm came to me or any of my beloved friends.

Now more than a 100 after shocks have hit us, and yet here i stand happy to have been through something like this and live to tell on!