I haven't mentioned the dreadful earthquake in Christchurch. Its almost been to painful to contemplate. Yet I am thousands of miles away and in a part of the world that doesn't suffer from the horrors of devastating tremors so why should it be so painful.

Sadly its like any disaster these days, the continual access to images and firsthand tales is so prevalent it is hard not to get caught up in the enormity of the unfolding tragedy.

I'm sure this earthquake was and still is made all the more real because I have an ex and a current flatmate who come from New Zealand and my current flatmate has a sister who lives in Christchurch. One of the links he sent me was so unbelievably harrowing it was difficult not to burst into tears of genuine grief.

The link was to a news report from a local paper that recounted the last text messages and a frantic phone call of a daughter to her mother and father. The daughter, still a child, their child, was a qualified nurse who was studying to improve her English at the language school. So she knew about the advancing pain that was wracking her body. She told them exactly where she was in the building but the destruction was just too great - she would not have known that - and her parents were on her native island in the Pacific.

I just cannot begin to imagine myself in that same position... its too appalling. They told her to pray... they shared their deep love...

I'm not sure I'd have the strength to face what they had to, I pray fervently that I will never have to...