When the earth moved

The earth moved for me last night. Ah, I hear your salacious little giggle. You are thinking I mean metaphorically but actually I mean, well, actually. There was an earthquake in England and I was wakened by my bed trembling beneath me. A really strange experience. It was quite frightening and had me wondering how terrible it must be to be in those really big earthquakes. When the earth moved beneath your feet and you have no balance, it must be horrendous.

The last time I was anywhere near an earthquake was in New Zealand. I was leaving for the station in a taxi from the YHA where I had spent the night. The driver asked me if I had felt the 'quake. Well no I hadn't. I had slept through it. It gave me a bit of a quiver though, for I had been on about the twentieth floor!

Thank goodness we have not had violent earthquakes in England. I remember the last one. I was teaching then, a group of really naughty boys. If you did not watch them they would escape through the window! We were reading, then the storage cupboard started to rattle. Nonchalantly I said. "Come out of there Gavin!" Imagining that straw headed Gavin had crept in while I was engaged elsewhere. You can feel how shocked I was when Gavin piped up, in a, for him, timid voice. "But I'm here Miss!"

I said it must be the wind and that calmed the kids, only when I heard the news did I realise it was an earthquake. The kids were to excited the next day and could not wait to rush up and tell me that we had shared this nique experience.

So here I am, unharmed, musing on what had happened to disturb my sleep and thinking about those times, long ago, when the earth really did move!

TTFN

Margaret