Saturday, September 11

Unexpected Endings

We have watched, with some sadness the demolition of a Hotel we once owned.
The demolition is due to the Christchurch Earthquake.

It can be viewed here, if you should wish to see it's demise;
http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_gid=113826&gallery_id=113832

We watched as our former bedrooms, and living space was demolished.
I never really enjoyed living in this old Hotel, but I felt a sadness to see it's destruction, after all this time.
There were a lot of amusing stories connected to this Hotel, and some of them were ours.
There were a lot of sad storied connected to this Hotel, and a few of them were our, though most, were not.

A lot of our former friends and acquaintances from our time there, are now dead.
It seems strange to realise some of them were younger than we are now, when they passed away.

The Hotel had a different name, when we owned it. I am sure the change of name did not change the fundamental personality of the Hotel. It was a Country Hotel, in a village which was close to an Agricultural College.

A lot of wealthy farmers sent their offspring to attend this College for a year or so, hoping they would gain some maturity, before they might assume some responsibility on the Family Farm.
There were also overseas students, often of mature age, who were sent to the College to learn skills to take home to their native countriies.

Many acts of seeming idiocy were enacted by the students of this College. Reason would question the thinking behind much of this destructive and vandalistic behaviour. One would almost question the sanity of these students, whose level of intelligence should have been above such acts of sheer lunacy.

I have always hoped that the students who stole, from our kitchen fridge,  a Roast Leg of Lamb, complete with Oven Pan, and also stole a whole Roll of Dog Meat, ate the Dog Meat, under cover of darkness and lived to suffer the pain, and indigestion such "offal" food would cause!

As to the students who stole a whole toilet,~ ie, cistern plus pan, ~I hope they suffered from lack of 'facilities' in later life, and paid the price of being 'caught short'! I hope it scarred one of the theives as they manoevered it out of the small toilet window. Sadly, we never found any traces of blood on the window, or the garden walls. We always wonderd if some local Cow Cocky found the pan in one of his paddocks, but we never did find out where it ended.


This was one of the most played songs on the Jukebox in that Hotel.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Marianne Faithfull.

16 comments:

ancient one said...

Sad when old buildings have to come down. And so much more so, if you once lived there. I did go and watch the video.

Anonymous said...

Despite everything, I am sure you feel a sense of loss because a significant part of your life was tied to this historical establishment. I am sorry for your loss.

Marigold Jam said...

Sad to see an old home demolished but maybe you can begin to remember just the good times now and forget the bad. At least you were not still living there when the earthquake struck!

Jane

Mary said...

That has made the christchurch earthquake very real to me.

Mike said...

My wife and I drove by where our old apartment building once stood when we were in Michigan a few weeks ago. Sometime over the last few years it has been torn down. It was where we first lived. Sad to see it gone. Funny how we become attached to such things.

Pauline said...

Everything becomes a memory eventually. Glad you have some funny ones to intersperse with the not so funny. Hard to let go of places we once lived, isn't it?

quiltmom anna said...

HI Meggie,
Hope you had a nice weekend- I was away at my folks yesterday for a quick visit- I plan to quilt this afternoon and perhaps do a little more school work.
Sorry to hear about the Hotel being torn down- You have quite the set of memories - wonder if they enjoyed the leg of lamb- as for the toilet- one wonders what they did with it. A friend was in a local architectural clearing house and said she found toilets that were pink, green and lavender for very cheap prices LOL Decorating is the ever changing way...
Thanks for the great 360 photography- it was truly amazing...
Hugs,
Anna

Ali Honey said...

Oh Dear, I suspected it might have been that hotel Meg.
I also saw a red brick 2 storied house on the Corner of Manchester street being demolished. I think I stayed there way back in 1966. I couldn't sleep because of the noise of traffic at the lights down below.
Chch will have a quite changed appearance in some parts.

Thimbleanna said...

Wow Meggie. That's soooo sad. Very interesting video -- I chuckled at the guy who'd been drinking there since he was 15 "even though I shouldna been". Thanks for sharing the video -- I love the internet, where I can see the world that is so far away and different from where I live.

Warty Mammal said...

Stole an entire toilet?! Oh, my.

I'll go look at the video. It has to feel somewhat bittersweet for you.

Floss said...

Its nice when there is something you can go back to visit, (even if you never do) but when thet is gone there alway seems to be a sence od saddness.

The Sagittarian said...

The face of Christchurch will have changed when you next visit, so many of the lovely old brick buildings gone and parts of Sydenham look like a train wreck!

Anonymous said...

So sorry for your loss.

Steve said...

It was interesting listening to the interviews.

Ian Lidster said...

That hotel thing must have been disquieting. Reminded me of the blog in which the writer told of a news broadcast showing her childhood home burning down in a fire that actually took two lives. Anyway, can appreciate your feelings. Nice to see you back.

Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers said...

I missed this post - and i had watched that video after the shake....
small world
Sad to see so many of our buildings gone - many empty spaces in the city now...and still masses of rubble