Welcome back
Welcome back to those, like us, who have returned from their Christmas Holiday to start a new business year. Although 2011 ended with more shakes (which experts say could last decades!) we hope that 2012 will be more positive for those businesses that managed to make it through 2011.
Looking at the website visitor statistics for www.lostchristchurch.co.nz it would seem that earthquakes were very much the topic of interest. Our post on the history of quakes in Christchurch received 4000 visits over the Christmas period.
It is great to see that Christchurch’s “World Buskers’ Festival“, which played out for many years around us when we were located in the City Mall, is still going ahead – this time in Hagley Park. What a wonderful space for it.
Facing the inbox and the Christchurch Startup Weekend
One of the downsides of returning to work is going through your inbox. I’d managed to clear mine twice during the break but there were still 153 waiting for me! Most went quickly into the trash, but one that caught my eye was for the Christchurch Startup Weekend. This event, to be held at the Westpac Business and Community Hub on the 22-26 February, is described by organisers as “54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups!”
It’s hosted by a not-for-profit organisation and helps kick start new ideas in a weekend. Ideas are pitched, worked on and judged at the end of the event. They’ve been held all around the world, with Auckland and Wellington holding their events last year. It looks like it will be a great way to kick off the business year and inspire loads of new ideas. For more information, check out the Christchurch StartupWeekend website.
Successful Campaign to provide Christmas Gifts for Women’s Refuge
In the lead up to Christmas Hot PJ, along with budding young social entrepreneurs ‘Crafty Kids’ and the ‘Craft Collective’, banded together to provide Christmas gifts and cards to some of the families supported by Women’s Refuge. We were thrilled to receive the generous support of the following individuals and organisations that enabled us to deliver 12 Soft Toy Kits and 10 Cardmaking Kits.
Jane Sherriff- Sharon McIver
- Valerie Wright-St Clair, New Zealand Association of Gerontology
- Newhaven Perendales
- Search Engine College
- Hot Pyjama Productions
Thank you so much to these kind people for their support. Pictured are the Crafty Kits team delivering the gifts to Julie McCloy from Christchurch Women’s Refuge.
Posted on January 11th, 2012 by Wendy Riley-Biddle
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The added stresses of a year full of earthquakes has meant the Christchurch Women’s Refuge has been busier than ever. Every year at this time, the call goes out for donations of gifts suitable for families who find themselves needing the support of Women’s Refuge over the Christmas holiday period.
Hot PJ, in association with the Craft Collective and Crafty Kids, have put their heads together to come up with a plan… but we need your help.
Your gift will be delivered directly to Women’s Refuge on Wednesday 21. We’ll also make sure that the Women’s Refuge know that the gift has come from you.
One of my favourite views was looking out onto the Venetian Gothic facade of the Guthrey Centre, (built originally as shops and offices for John Anderson of Anderson’s Foundary) as the setting sun warmed the red bricks. For a moment I could fool myself into thinking I was somewhere in Italy.
I was surprised to read that donkeys were a regular feature on Sumner Beach in
In an update to our post “
This time we accessed the building via the loading area next to Murray’s Chemist, climbing over abandoned boxes of stock and taking care not to skate on magazines that had formed into sludge where they lay. We made our way into the centre of the Whitcoulls store, where I saw that June’s major shake had brought down bricks through the roof from our old office next door in the Weekly Press Building. It didn’t feel a particularly safe place to hang about in.
It was still a mission to find our office again, but this time we succeeded, but not without ending up in the wrong places all over again. Our equpment was covered in thick plaster dust but fortunately very little had fallen over and been damaged. Actually damaged or not, it didn’t really matter as the whole lot would be demolished in the coming days.
With the help of the two engineers who accompanied me, I was able to take out some files, a bit of equipment and our precious collection of retro orange glassware.


