Earthquake!

Unbelievable, today I experienced my first earthquake. We were sitting at our desk, chatting on the messenger, discussing lunch. Suddenly, I felt the walls of my cubicle shake. That idiot John must be shaking the cubicle wall. I was about to shout out to him to cut it out when I realize that he couldn’t be shaking the cubicle, because my chair is swaying! The Chinese New Year ornaments hanging around my cubicle walls were swaying gently while I gazed at them, transfixed.

The office immediately broke into excited shouts across cubicles. What was that!? Did you feel that too? Is someone doing equipment testing? It suddenly dawned on us, it’s an earthquake! The rest of the afternoon was filled with excited chatters of each other’s experience, friends and family called each other. Feigned sickness, excuse to eat chocolate (to calm the nerves)… Haha...

Apparently we weren’t alone. Many parts of Singapore felt the tremors too. My sister was screaming over the phone on why we didn’t evacuate. Duh… the tremors would have stopped by the time we walk to the entrance of the office. It only lasted a few seconds.

The evening news was flooded with news on the quake. As I switched between Channel News Asia and the local Chinese news, I can’t help but feel a little embarrassed. In Indonesia, there was chaos, destruction and death in the wake of the quake. People were screaming, children crying in distraught.

In the local news, some companies evacuated the whole building. Everybody, including their fancy cars, was unhurt and well. There were smiling faces around too as some schools and companies decide to let the people go home early. But even with such efficiency, safety conscious actions taken (overkill if you ask me), instead of thanking our lucky stars, people even complained about how poorly their management handled the “crisis”. Hello…

Looking at the news coverage of Indonesia, the reality of the situation hit me. Thinking back, I can’t believe that I actually felt disappointed that I missed the second quake because I was standing when it happened. I even joked about hoping another quake would hit again. I quickly changed the channel to some art program, hoping to cover my guilt. I actually hoped for another wave of natural disaster to strike for my own enjoyment!

I’m sorry I felt that way; I really hope that things would turn for the better in Indonesia. At least today I learnt to count my blessing, so all is not lost.