I hear you about needing to keep your chops up on sop. Got a gig tomorrow and just hope my sop chops are up to it as I haven't practiced much. Have a rehearsal tonight, so hopefully that will bring them up a little.
I'm in the North Island near Auckland. Christchurch is in the south and undergoing a remake after their earthquake. Much of the downtown area and a few suburbs are write-offs. I guess he has something to do with the re-build? Good for those who want the work, but it's all kind of strange to re-build in a place that is subject to liquefaction which intensifies the effects of earthquakes. They built the town originally as though it was part of jolly old England, bricks and mortar. Worst possible materials for earthquake country.
There's one of the world's worst faults that's not too far away from the city (which is not the one that caused the damage). Sort of equivalent to or worse than the famous San Andreas Fault in California. They never had a rigorous building code that took any of this into account. The town is only a 100+ years old but the attitude was like they had been there for thousands of years without an earthquake so all was OK. Well, it wasn't, and still isn't. They are rebuilding without engineers or the city taking any responsibility for saying that what's rebuilt will withstand any future earthquake. Insurance may be impossible. Mother nature is boss, always has been. They still don't get it in Christchurch.
(actually, probably not...)
