Matt Wilkinson's Blog

Was that a quake... or something else? 

So THE event of 2008 has happened. Last night.

I’ll bet the majority of your water cooler conversations today were along the lines of ‘Did you feel it?’, ‘Where were you when it struck?’ Everyone has usually got a story, here’s mine...

I was in bed watching my Family Guy DVD (as you do!?) when my bed shook and the wall of my room gave off a little creak. Now I live next to a railway line so it’s not uncommon to feel a little rumble once and a while, but I looked out the window and saw no train. I was a little freaked out... still unsure I decided to check downstairs. I’m not sure exactly what I expected to find. Maybe I’d peer in my living room and see a bunch of hoodies collectively having a PS3 Dance Mat party, or perhaps Rick Waller practising his Olympic belly flop on the kitchen floor. Needless to say I saw nothing. I concluded it was possibly an earthquake but for a moment wondered if I was the only person in London to feel it. So when I woke this morning and stuck Heart on it was nice to know I wasn’t alone in the shake stakes.

I’ve always wanted to experience an earthquake. I remember, as a kid, my trips to the Geological Museum in South Kensington, standing on this large metal square that was supposed to replicate the effects of one - whilst watching a film of a building in Japan collapse.  My first real experience was, on the whole, average.

Average is a word I would use to describe a lot about the UK. In the summer when it’s hot and we’re peeling off layers in Regents Park – it’s never really that hot. When it rains for weeks-on-end in the summer (and we complain) it’s not exactly monsoon style downpours that they experience in the Philippines. Even when the snow clogs up roads for a couple of days it’s nothing compared to the daily routine for a lot of Norwegians on their daily commute to work. So when the morning’s headlines are filled with the news that an earthquake has struck the country it seems only fitting that it is distinctly average.

Incidentally this is no rant; I think we’re quite lucky really. True I’d love it if we were regularly basking in scorching sunshine but the chances are that would come hand in hand with persistent and torrential showers. I’m equally quite happy that when an earthquake does hit the city it is not even a fraction as catastrophic as what might be experienced in such a place as say San Francisco. So, in all honesty we’ve got it pretty good really. Average maybe, but we love it.

Posted by Matt Wilkinson on February 27, 2008 at 16:07PM

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