Snoopy's Christmas

I head off early to do some gardening while there is shade in the back garden. I pull out weeds along the back of the house. Essential as they are seeding and, if left, will be a mission to get rid of. When I get to the electricity box I put the big fork down. Mowing is essential too and I call in a few favours. The neighbour across the road is happy to mow the berm and, when I visit Greig and Anjie for a coffee, Greig agrees to mow the back. Loose ends tidied up for Christmas.
I visit the Cardboard Cathedral It's a light, airy building and feels churchy but chilled. Designed by Shigeru Ban pro bono in collaboration with Warren and Mahoney in 2011, it was intended to be a transitional home for the ousted Cathedral Anglicans. It incorporates 86 cardboard tubes of 500 kgs each atop 6 metre containers. Construction began in July 2012 on the site of St John the Baptist Church, the first church to be built in permanent materials by Anglicans in Christchurch in 1864, but demolished due to earthquake damage in 2011. Once the decision was made that the building would remain for the St John parish, the CC achieved permanent status. Ban, characterised as a disaster architect, asked that the Cardboard Cathedral be available for community use. I've attended Pecha Kucha and an interview with Elenor Catton there. The pervasive white light and peaked ceiling reminds me of a tent and it is an easy space from which to contemplate life.
On the drive home RNZ features an interview about the mysterious popularity of Snoopy's Christmas in New Zealand and virtually nowhere else. Released in 1967 by the Royal Guardsmen, it became world famous in Aotearoa and reached No 1, charting again in 1987, 1988. 1989 and 2013. It was also voted the worst Christmas song of all time in 2007 by readers of the New Zealand Herald.  I have a 7 inch vinyl copy somewhere but am a little over it myself now.

Anjie and Greig

Merivale Mall