earthquakes

I carpool with my friends Sian and Loi during the weekdays and it’s always enjoyable. Currently I’m subjecting them to me reading my MS aloud (great way to spot errors) which shows off my lack of ‘reading aloud’ skills to a tee… I lose my voice, rearrange sentences without even blinking and frequently ‘cross pollinate’ lines (read bits of say three lines as one sentence) which results in plenty of cursing. Not particularly original cussing just lots of it ; p They love the story cause two of the characters share their names and were inspired by them. So totally biased to the book.

Last night (Friday here in NZ) I couldn’t read though cause Siany was staying late so I’d be driving the car home. So Loi and I were to make our way to Sian’s work for the keys and to the parking lot from there… Ahhh normally such a simple thing.. Cept last night Wellington got hit by a ‘weather bomb’. Sounds exciting huh! Basically a thunderstorm charged on in just as I was coming down the lifts. My lift jerked to a stop the lights blinking out. Cue stomach hitting feet. The lights flashed back on and I started pounding the 1^st floor button like mad. When the doors finally opened at ground I leapt out scaring some poor kid waiting for their dad – oops. Then I did a mad dash outside because I LOVE THUNDERSTORMS!! We don’t get the really impressive ones here, you have to make the most of these ones that zoom through. I got outside just as the second flash of lightening hit and then that heart stopping BOOOOM hit. I started cackling and laughing and sprinted to Sian’s work with hail pelting me the whole way..

So she opens her door to a very damp but excited Nicci doing some crackling (I create static electricity in droves when excited ;p) and gesturing of her own ‘Loookkkee! Weeeeee!!’

*giggle* The drive home was fun! I only wished it lasted longer *sigh*

Then I woke at 4am this morning cursing my stupid body clock. Lay there for 15mins debating as to whether or not I should go for a run.. Then the earthquake hit. An oddly soothing swaying like on a boat at sea while the house creaked madly. Glenn snored on oblivious. Didn’t actually realise till I rung him at work (yep he had to work on a beautiful Saturday – normally I’d be bummed but after the dry spell cash is most welcome ;p) that it had been a BIG earthquake.

Christchurch was walloped with a 7.1, 10km deep quake this morning. So far no causalities (though they suspect one guy may have had a heart attack during it) just lots of crumpled buildings within the city centre. All the brick ones. Our newspapers are swamped with it. Will be interesting to see how long the recovery period is. Here in NZ we’re just waiting for the ‘big one’ to hit cause we’re apparently overdue. Don’t know yet if this counts… It’s a freaky thought for us Kiwi’s as NZ is literally divided by fault-lines, we sit between two tectonic plates. So I’ll give my parents a ring tomorrow and see how shook up they were. They’re in Blenheim at the moment which was rocked about as much as we were in Wellington but living in a fifth wheeler would add to the sway effect you’d think..

Have a great weekend everyone! Stay safe : )