All Shook Up

At 11.16am yesterday morning, I felt my 1st ever major earthquake. It was numbing, panicking and extremely terrifying.

We've felt tremors quite a number of times before while living here, being located where we are. But they're normally quakes from far away like Java or Sumatra that we only probably felt it like for a second. Shocked me at first, but when Michael assured me of how common it is, I started to sort of gotten used to it. There's like 60 quakes reported in Indonesia from July to Oct this year alone!

But this time, I knew it was different. Ayisha & I were downstairs, playing with a pouch of coins and when it happened, everything started to shake and the coins were scattered around. The house was shaking noisily from the glass sliding doors & windows surrounding us. Things on the table were moving around too and it kept going on and on. We looked at each other, with me just shocked and not knowing what to think and what to do. When the shaking didn't stop I grabbed Ayisha, my phone and the keys that were on the table and ran towards the door. Ayisha was very calm, until I accidentally bumped her head on the door while rushing to get out of house (my bad!) So that was the only time that she cried,  just for a little while. It broke my heart nevertheless, both from causing it & from the scariness surrounding us at the time.

Once outside in our garden, the shaking was still going on, with the glass door still rattling. I looked around and saw the water in the pool was doing major waves & splashes. That was when it occurred to me that a tsunami might follow after the quake as I felt this was a pretty major one. I was freaking out.

At the same time I called Michael who's at work. No answer at first which just freaked me out more! Tried again and I got through and he asked me to get out of our house area in case anything fell off it. So I rushed out the back door into the clear area next to our skatepark and waited for him to drive back from work.

While out there, a neighbour of mine was running back to her house, to check that everything was ok. She told me the  others were panicking too and went straight to pick up their kids from school. I was just so relieved that Ayisha was on holiday as I couldn't imagine not being with her at times like this.

Another neigbour, who is taking care of an elderly, walked around to the open area as well and we shared our experiences of the quake. She told me that she managed to call her husband who's in Java and he said nothing was going on there. That was pretty scary cause I knew it must've been really close to Bali.

While waiting for Michael and not knowing what would happen next, I managed an sms to my eldest sister to tell her about the quake and send my love to all. That was when I got a bit sad and emotional.

Michael arrived soon after and we hugged like crazy. He told me the quake was in Nusa Dua (FREAKY!) but there's no potential tsunami (PHEW!). Michael went quickly inside to get the notebook for updates on the quake. I followed him in, silly cause I know it's safer outside. But at times like this, all you can think about is to be together. We stayed outdoor for quite a while and went back inside when everything's calm again.

We received calls & smses from family & friends and we're glad to tell them that everything's ok.      I called my mum to tell her we're ok and she told me my sister had called earlier - I knew I could count on her.

Michael went back to work soon after. Then a second quake happened. It was milder & shorter but still pretty scary. I went outside immediately with no bumps (dah expert konon-konon :p) and called Michael at work. He said the alarm at work did trigger and he ran out but some of his colleagues didn't even move because it's quite mild. They used to work in the Padang office before where quakes are pretty common. So they're quite an expert. 

Everytime we felt tremors, we would always talk about how we'd need a plan of attack ie. what to do, where to go if we get separated etc. But we never really did have any. Maybe we didn't really think or actually accept the fact that something could happen so very close. 

Last night, we did. This weekend, we're putting in the alarm to help us especially at night when we're all asleep. And today, I started packing our emergency bag.

We are all ok now and would really like to thank you guys for all the thoughts, love & prayers sent our way. Truly appreciate it.

Life is precious, God is Great. Love to all!