The Secret Life of Bebe

Now that the weather is warming up and it’s lighter at night, I’ve been running more. I love running. It’s my “off” switch – the thing that allows me to unwind and keep my emotions and stress levels on an even keel.

So tonight my run route took me past the Palms (our local shopping mall). When we decided to buy our house, we smugly noted how close we’d be living to the Palms – only a couple of blocks away. Well, it’s been closed the whole time we’ve lived here. It was badly damaged in the February earthquake, and then again in June. It was so disheartening. We didn’t realise how much we took it for granted, just being able to pop down for coffee, or for groceries, or to pick up this or that from K-Mart.

Anyway, the point that I’m getting to is that the Palms is finally reopening! Tomorrow! It feels like a huge step forward. As I ran passed the security guards stationed all around the carpark entrances (about 10 of them, not sure why) I was grinning from ear to ear. They all smiled back. They know what it means. We are moving on. Things are getting better. Not the same. Not normal. But better than they were.

I continued on my run, and noticed that the portaloos that usually lined the streets around our house are gone (most of them anyway). And the septic tanks that stood in the street for people to empty their chemical toilets into are also gone. It made me really happy.