NOTE: Jigsaw enthusiasts more accustomed to the real-time variety might think a 300-piece puzzle is a push-over.  Not so; just different. At least you do know that you can't lose any pieces!

Phew! I finished three more pages of installation captions from January through to March/April 1997. Put your mouse over the images and the caption will (should) pop up. Let me know if there is a problem. 
It brought it all back to me just how excited we were to watch as each pipe and piece fitted together with the expertise of the Rieger men. It really beat doing jigsaws, and we could only marvel at the clever designs and age-old methods that are still being employed to make pipe organs. We couldn't wait until the opening in May...

My Martin's had a big spruce up; not him (although he did have a hair cut the other day) but I've been slaving away at his new website so much that I've worn the white paint off my keyboard and have had to dig out a new one so I can see what I'm typing. It's a great excuse for typos of course, but..
I digress. Martin's new website is a considerable improvement on the old mish-mash which grew like topsy and which was almost impossible to find your way around - including for me. 
Check it out Martin's website here and let me know if you like it /hate it/ think the cats could do better etc. If I've missed including anything, please do tell me because I think my brain has shrivelled away to the size of a pea and the value of a piece of cardboard. 

Yes, a long 15 months since we last saw the organ as it was being tucked up for the duration. How long? As long as it takes is the usual answer in post-quake Christchurch. 
I wanted to show up-dated photos of the organ, but since it doesn't appear practical to enter the auditorium any more (climbing Mt Cook in jandals would be easier), the nice people at the City Council have sent me two pictures to use on this website. It does look snug and secure. What a party we will have when the wrapping paper comes off. Whenever that is. Notice in the second photo how much work has been down on the lower stage area. Great to see.
If you want to see more photos of the pipe organ being put to bed, check out this page here

I'm trying to transfer across each day at least something from the old site. Today - despite it being a dazzlingly beautiful day and the weeds in the garden poking their tongues out at me, I managed to get three more pages from David Bridgeman-Sutton's wonderful Musings and Amusings series in 2007 copied across. Do check them out- unexpected delights and surprises, and considerable amount of information all presented in a page of reading. 

Slowly, slowly, the transfer of articles from the old nzorgan website continues. I've now covered from the most recent Musings and Amusings back to "An Eloquent Music" in 2007. Blame the riveting cricket matches that have been a characteristic of this year's ICC Cricket World Cup, which is being hosted by Australia and New Zealand. And joy of joys, and against all our expectations, our superb Blackcaps team has for the first time ever, made it to the finals. Great joy and nail-biting in equal measures. The final is today, 4.30pm New Zealand time, in Melbourne. After that, we will have to remember what it was we did with our lives.  (That's one of the aspects of cricket - the games, even the ODI, take so long - it's both a good and a bad thing. ). So please don't try to contact anyone in New Zealand today - they won't answer the phone anyway. Would be a great time to have a military coup, come to think of it...

The earthquake pages are filling up too - so have a wander around those. I found some excellent videos which say more about these underground monsters than I ever could.