Ready to Rumble

Today the earth literally moved for Charming Calvin. Right under his feet.


Unfortunately I wasn't the cause of it. Swear not even I could make the earth shudder at a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Hell, I'm just not that good. But Mother Nature certainly can make things rumble and she did so just this afternoon in Sichuan Province, China.

Even hundreds of miles away in the northern capital of Beijing, Calvin felt the resultant tremors with the rest of his panicked colleagues who all rushed out of their vulnerable glass-and-metal skyscraper to hurry haphazardly to the open areas below. That - and he sent an urgent message to me.

So how would you reply in the event of an earthquake? I know sentimental folks would sent weepy mushy mawkishness across the bandwidth but I told him to head towards an open area far from any falling debris - and if not, to hide under a sturdy table or doorway. Then I started googling for precautionary measures to take in the unlikely event of an earthquake.


Would hiding in a bathtub help?
Hell if I ever knew all this. We're fortunate enough to live in the Malaysian peninsula - situated on the relatively stable Sunda Shelf a hairsbreadth away from the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire - hence the relative lack of natural calamities such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Turns out I was actually paying attention during those interminably dull geography lessons.

Those mild tremors felt by us in the past few years are nothing in comparison to those felt right up close at the epicentre.

Faced with such an unexpected catastrophe, I'd probably allow myself a moment to start screaming hysterically for a brief second ( maybe two ) before ruthlessly slapping myself alert to start barking orders. Seriously, I'm a man of action. I don't do wailing endlessly like an idiot wringing my hands helplessly - while a huge chunk of brick and mortar falls unerringly towards me. And that's if the earth doesn't crack open to swallow me.

Horrifying thought. There's rumour that another slight tremor might follow tonight so here's a quick prayer to the folks over there hoping that they make it through alright.