Wind In My Head: Swaying
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Swaying
So there I was, lying down, trying to take a nap, in this heat that's quickly replaced the cool, glorious wet weather when all of a sudden, I was taken back to the times when I had spent nights on fishing boats and felt the ground under my feet move, even when I was on land. I opened my eyes in alarm, thinking mayhaps it was in my dreams that this swaying was happening.But even with my eyes opened, my bed continued to sway, as if a giant was rocking it. A most bizarre sensation. Then I remembered reading on a ticker tape just before I switched off the tv announcing the occurence of a 6.6 earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. It still puzzled me somewhat because that was before noon and why would my bed sway just before 2 pm? So what does a bewildered person do in the face of confusion in this digital age? Switch on the tv and find out why the heck my bed felt like it got tossed into the high seas.
And I found my answer. Aftershocks. That had hit round about the same time when I was wondering if I was going to involuntarily be tossed off my bed. For the sake of my offspring, I hoped not and thankfully, the swaying stopped. I did wonder about the wisdom of being some many many metres above the ground with these aftershocks. I also wondered about the civil engineering feat that built my apartment block and thought about how sound that engineer's physics and what not was.
That's my excitement for today.
I must add, however that watching CNA to find out what's going on kills the brain. The news gets repeated ad nauseum and I can rattle off the names of the buildings that were evacuated and I could even tell you that there was one on Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 even though I hardly have a clue where that is. How do people leave CNA on the whole day? It really won't make one smarter, in fact, I think it dulls the brain, kills brain cells all the while deluding the gullible into thinking that they're smarter just by theory of osmosis.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Padang earthquake, CNA
Ondine tossed this thought in at 14:37
2 thoughts...
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At 6:59 pm
Tym said... I caught a little bit of CNA "coverage" within the first half hour of the first earthquake. They didn't have pictures to show from Indonesia yet, so what did they show? Footage from the traffic camera of vehicles moving smoothly along the Benjamin Sheares Bridge --- because that shows that Singaporeans are just reacting normally --- which, of course, is news because we were only 430 km away from the earthquake's epicentre!
/sarcasm off
Actually, what killed me was when the newsreader clarified that the swaying they'd seen earlier was caused by aftershocks but the normal effect of wind on the traffic camera. Ha!-
At 2:37 am
I.V.Y. said...
Dear Ondine,
This comment seems rather irrelevant to the entry but is nevertheless inspired by your post. I have been reading your blog for a while now and just keep coming back for more of such priceless nuggets. I love the way you write—it’s effortlessly witty and casually thought-provoking. Wonderful stuff.
(just a rave from a lurker who decides to come out from the shadows)