Not as enjoyable as NOUF1, but still, in the never-ending attempt to chronicle my life, I'll blog about the good and the bad.
I was sitting in the jamban reading a book when I felt the room move. I thought, 'Oh no, I'm not gonna faint again!' and held onto the sink, ready to slide onto the floor in a practiced maneuver (Backbone Be Gone!) in order to not hit my head (again). Some people think I'm crazy enough as is, heheh. A minute later dad was banging on the door yelling at me to get the hell out because it was an earthquake. He'd already herded my mom, granma and bro out of the house onto the corridor.
It was then that I realised I had a very slow reaction time cos the only thing running through my mind was WTF. The minute I was out of the loo WTF evaporated cos my dad grabbed my arm and left faint bruises as he practically dragged me out of the house and down the stairs.
I also realised that I have a pretty relaxed attitude about tremors and collapsing buildings, which probably infuriated my panicked dad at the time, now that I think of it.
Anyway, we were the first family to reach the ground floor, I think, but it didn't take long for other panicked residents to get there with us. It was then that it hit us how unprepared we were, cos everyone else took their wallets/handphones/bags with them, while my dad didn't even have a shirt on his back. We were a grand sight, dad half naked, mom was okay, granma was also okay, bro's hair was spiked at awkward angles (he has a crew cut and he sleeps weird), and me, I was braless and in fugly blue sweats.
After about 10-20 minutes standing in the badminton court, dad decided we should pack up and leave. Incidentally, the badminton court was still in the range of my flat if it were to collapse, so I really don't see the point in rushing down the stairs like there were rabid dogs on our tail. My parents then went back upstairs to switch off various appliances and get our handphones/wallets and drove my granma to my aunt's place in Subang, while we spent the night at my maternal granma's place in Taman Pertama. Don't ask why, it's complicated.
Spent a half hour calling and SMSing friends in Penang and around KL to see if they were okay, and checking up on my Indon friends. Phone credit habis liao, so I'll not be replying any SMSes until I can manage to raise some money to buy a reload card. Also, I want to say thanks to Angela for updating me about the earthquake while I was still clueless, and for calling to check if I was okay. Love you girl, muaks. Also, I want to mention that Jun either sleeps like a dead pig, or has her handphone switched off before 1am when she's on holiday. Both are decidedly uncool.
When my parents got back, we had the sleeping bags rolled out and slept in the living room of my grandparent's house. Sleeping bags are surprisingly comfortable if you're the type who can go to sleep flat on your back. I can't. Also, very unfortunately for me, both my dad and my bro snores, and my mom gnaws her teeth. I was smack in the middle of the three of them. Don't ask me what I do when I'm asleep, I don't know, but I'm willing to wager that I'm the only who managed to get the normal genes in this FUBAR-ed family.
Now I'm home again, persuading my dad that it's safe to stay here while blogging this. When I fire up PPS I'll probably see loads and loads of eathquake links, but hey, I'm nothing if not a spectacular follower. On the upside my family problems are solved and I'm perky again. On the downside (or upside, depending on your POV) my perkiness is tempered by the fact that I have had about 4 hours sleep in the past 2 days. Exam season wasn't this hectic.
Finally, I'd like to say thanks to Bawang for abusing the comment system in the I Don't Like Whiners post. :) And I'd like to say sorry to Resurrected for going offline suddenly.
The Firsts:
First time I've felt tremors in a building (my first earthquake!)
First time my dad bruised me. First time I've seen my dad this frantic.
First time I've been out of the house bra-less.
First time I've actually shown the world my fugly, mismatched PJs. First time I've slept in a sleeping bag.
First time I've woken up at 7 with no place to go when I'm on a break.
Hope everyone else is okay.
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8 comments:
Hmm. If you live in a flat, you must either live in lensen, segar or pertama, but seeing as your grandmother stays there (hey there is a shop with fish head nice and cheap there) and the quake was bad enough that you had to evacuate the building, it's probably the segar one all the way up the hill rite? good view there.
I could feel the tremors even in my lowly home at the bottom of a hill on my side. In my case though, it was just a small rhytmic vibration and i sort of enjoyed the hum letting it massage my sore behind while i sat on the floor last night
my parents didn't believe me when i told them there was a quake. laughed it off saying that i probably mistook the tremors for the neighbours 2nd floor washing machine (don't ask me why people put their washing machine on the 2nd floor). Well, I let them have their moment. Pity I won't be able to see the look on their faces change once they reach their offices>:D
Good to see that you are back and that mostly everything is fine with you now. :)
My family and I was lucky. We did not feel anything during the earthquake.
whoa whoa... good to know you've survived a "major" natural disaster... "major" by malaysian standards of course.. haha...
Welcome back, and you're most welcome :P Whoa, I just ended a sentence with the same word. Coolness. :) I didn't feel any tremors, but sis did. She tried calling me, but I had already gone to sleep. Curiously my handphone was lying on the floor with it's transparent cover open. [Thanks for those old sturdy nokia 3310]. I still can't decide whether I threw the phone in my sleep or the phone fell from tremors.
Glad to hear that you're fine, Saffy... It must have been pretty bad since it even reached my apartment on the 1st floor, all the way up here on Penang Island... I had just gotten in bed when somehow my bed started to shake... But I didn't realize it was an earthquak until I checked my MSN and saw nicknames like "Earthquake!" and "I FEEL IT! I FEEL IT!" <--- that was Taste's nick, by the way... I mean, after all, who expects a tremor up here in Penang Island? The last time I even heard of tremors here was from my eldest maternal aunt who was working in Komtar when a volcano in Indonesia blew, covering Penang Island with ashes... And that was like years ago when I was in upper primary or lower secondary... So I don't blame your dad for panicking, since when I realized it was an earthquake, I figured it had to be pretty big and pretty close to Malaysia for a tremor to reach my apartment all the way up here...
Oh yes, one thing though... Panic if you like, but umm... You could have just mentioned that we live on the Sunda Shelf, and no matter how close, an earthquake in Indonesia isn't going to cause a Highland Towers like collapse, especially if the building was built to engineering specifications, which is 2 times the required strength... Unless of course the developer stupidly divided by 2 and built it at exactly the required strength, in which case you would be in danger even if there weren't any tremors...
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