Great to hear from you Mac, my heart goes out to you guys.

You know how it is too bro; if we could, we'd all leave what we're doing and get down there...but commonsense tells us that the bosses might not be too happy with no troops around.

I'm on the list to come down there, no doubt to go on cordon but whatever - I'll do it. I just have to deal with the four innocent people I locked up (why do I keep doing that?) who have taken their cases all the way, and I have to attend NG hearings on the 15th, 16th, 23rd, 24th March (all different, all innocent, and two of them self-represented - what a complete waste of time).

Anyway my brother; even though we're not there, our hearts are with you. That sounds so much like a cliche, but it's true. I would rather be there and working to help, even if it is only on cordon.

Just stay strong, look after yourself, get plenty of rest when you can so that you may continue on, and know that our hopes and prayers are for you.

Thanks everyone. Just to top it all off, our 3-legged cat "Grasshopper" just had to be put to sleep after her kidney failure decided to catch up with her in the last couple of days. Pretty sad, but need to keep it in perspective with everything else going on. Have to keep telling myself "she's just a "stupid" cat" but... she's not stupid and still part of the family. I would do the staunch thing and carry on normally, but on top of everything else I've seen and done in the last couple of days I could do with the break. I'm taking tonight off to be sad and regroup myself.

The pressure comes off a bit with the arrival of the foreigners and out of towners too. Thanks everyone who's volunteered. Our roster has changed to E L N X X and just normal 10hr shifts. Back for an early on Monday.

Keep your eye on the news and keep the prayers going. We're going to need them for a while.

And stay safe wherever the rest of you are and whatever you're doing. Unfortunately "our" earthquake won't stop the rest of the assholes being assholes. Give them an extra one for Christchurch.