Look everyone! It's a Sun-day!

Watch those steps, you might slip on the two centimetres of snow! I woke up two mornings ago to see this sight outside the front window. It's mid-spring here in New Zealand and people are wearing winter coats and long johns... Granted, I'm no different, but when you're travelling you have to try and fit in with your surroundings.

So I got to work yesterday morning and the place was completely dead. By ten o-clock I'd recieved word that all the schools in Christchurch were closing one-by-one, probably in an effort to flood the city with rampaging children gradually, so I thank the city council for that one. By 10.30 the mall was bulging at the seems with school kids, and by 11.15 we were back to normal. Maybe they figured out that being a MallRat wasn't a good life-long job...


Around 11.30 I'd heard through the grapevine that all the city buses were going to stop running for the day, even though the snow had stopped a half hour previous and I'd noticed brief moments of sunshine peaking through the television static sky. About the same time I heard that the buses were stopping I'd also heard that the mall management was giving shops permission to close up early if they wanted. I thought to myself "Well, that seems pretty silly since the snow has stopped..." Then again, I'd been at work for three hours and I hadn't sold anything at that point, so maybe it would be a good idea for me to close up shop.

Which is what I did, after getting the word from the manager. In the end I'd finished on $5.00 worth of sales for four hours' work. At least I had something to show for, however pathetic it might have been. So I picked up a case of beer and got some friends to come over for my first "Snow Day" in nearly three years. "Snow Day" eventually turned into "Kind Of Sunny And Nice Outside Day". I couldn't help but feel ripped off in the fact that I got sent home for just about no reason. There were rumours that the storm was going to come back that night and dump even more snow on us, but mostly it just rained and was cold. I woke up this morning and didn't notice any difference in snow levels.

So in the end I got a little bit drunk, complained about the state of New Zealand Weather Preparedness, and laughed. Here's a couple more picture of what caused Christchurch to come to a stand-still...