The deep rumbling was intense, raw and thunderous and the explosion woke us from a deep sleep. The whole building viciously shook and we leapt from the covers, racing to the hopeful shelter of the nearest doorway in record breaking time. Some frenzied, giant hand was swatting the Lilliputian structure! As the building continued to shake violently he cuddled each other and just hoped for the best. As the shake lapsed to a roll, then a milder quiver, we let out gasping sighs of relief and tried to still our wildly racing hearts along with thoughts of building collapses, trapped in rubble, or even worse scenarios.This was by far the worst earthquake experience yet, even if, mercifully, quite short. The aftermath was paltry, almost imperceptible. Apart from wildly skewed paintings and objects moved a few centimeters this way and that, there was little else to indicate that we'd experienced such shock. The building's basic steel interlocking structure had once again rolled with all the punches, although the cracks in the bedroom's plaster appeared to have further widened.
It wasn't a coincidence that in the next few days (it happened earlier in the week), we started making plans to do a little traveling in our spring break, as our mortality had reared up alarmingly close in our psyche's rear view mirror: let's make sure we live life to the full and accelerate away from that looming danger!
The Lantern Festival ended on the weekend and somehow we missed nearly all the festivities this year apart from some flashing images of lit-up streetscapes down the other end of Chung Shan Road. We did however hear the guttural booms from some of the most powerful firecrackers we've ever experienced and after our earthquake experience earlier in the week, they were enough to give us further heart palpitations. The bridge over "Sulphur Creek", quite near our house, seems to be the launching pad for all sorts of pyrotechnics, and although the growing tree cover means we're now shielded from errant rockets, it does little to muffle the ear-splitting gunpowder howls!
Cass got us some calzones from Oggi on Saturday after our taste buds were still pining for some more authentic fare after last week's feast. We decadently went out again on Sunday to Eatburger and had blueberry muffins for dessert when we got home. The Sunday outing was a chance to debrief after watching the hugely entertaining hedonistic romp of "Wolf of Wall Street". Wow, what a dizzy dance that film proved to be. One of our friends commented when we left the theatre that he felt like he needed to go home and have a long shower....it was a bit like that! I think I liked it a little more than Cassy, but the three plus hours certainly flew by as we were watching. Leonardo DiCaprio plays these larger than life characters so effortlessly these days: he really is an actor who has come of age. On further reflection today, we both realize we really despised the main character and everything he stood for...it certainly got us thinking.
The damp cold has remained through the week and weekend and it has been rather dreary. This week doesn't look much better: looks like we'll be waiting a bit longer yet for some warmer weather when no doubt, we'll be wishing this weather back! You can tell by this week's photo roll how little we've actually done...I'd straightened all the pictures before I realized it would have been an interesting photo. Photos: Virgy does like sitting close to her best friend, the heater: we don't need a thermometer as the closer she sits the colder we know it is! We saw a weird,exotic looking small tiger/leopard in a pet shop window and our neighbour sent us photos of our newly painted building back home(we picked the colours!) and the improvements in front of the surf club. So, this is really shipping coals to Newcastle!