Earthquake
I feel like there's this need to blog, since there has been a earthquake in NZ. Well, maybe in a sense, to tell you people that I'm safe and sound and still fretting over my assignment (typical Singaporean, yes), but it feels surreal to be at a place that had such a sudden natural disaster. We've always been so sheltered in Singapore that you seriously wouldn't expect such things happening. It's really quite frightening.
I didn't really feel the tremors last night because I was asleep (yes, tired and shagged from my report), but Fel felt the tremors: her bed was shaking and her door was shaking. The tremors were pretty huge, apparently. And you can imagine how it would have been down at Christchurch. Unless you're still confused over the geography, Wellington is right down at the bottom of the North island, and Christchurch, the central east coast of the South island, and the north/south island isn't very close either -- that's 3hrs of ride on the Interislander.
I woke up and bathed like any normal day, and then Fel asked if I had felt tremors. She told me there was an earthquake in Christchurch so I hurried to go read the news. It's so scary, that overnight something like this happens. There are tremors every now and then in Wellington and I've gotten used to it, sometimes with my chair shaking a bit. But a 7.1 magnitude one is freaky. They say, this is NZ second largest earthquake after the 1931 one in Napier.
I'm in awe though, every time something of such a large magnitude happens and then I see tourism businesses/organisations responding so quickly in terms of using social media (i.e.: twitter and all) to get messages across so fast. The tweets came in constantly, but Tourism NZ and Air New Zealand in terms of sending information of road closures / airport reopening etc. One particular car rental company even tweeted on the treading news, saying something like if they had trouble returning their rented car in Christchurch, there was "no problem" and they could hang on to it for a day or two or drive up to Auckland to return it. Seriously, the amount of support they give is extraordinary. Same like previously when the volcano erupted in Iceland, so many Kiwis volunteered to 'help' tourists who were stranded. I think we need more people like that in SG.
Other than than, I've been pretty alive and stressed. The past 2 weeks were spent mugging, marking and working. The only day I rested was the on my birthday, which I didn't do anything much except to have 2 icecream cupcakes bought by my little darlings at home, and a wonderful home-cooked dinner by the darlings again. :)
I've also been down to the waterfront on a nice day, did baking and went out to eat heaps of times. Lol, like just yesterday, we went to eat hotpot at this Chinese restaurant. Super shiok. Well, photos will be uploaded here sooon (major backlogged for photos, I know), if you desperately need to see some colours, then head to my FB page, and check out the photos. ;)
Otherwise, I love you guys (whoever is still reading this rather dead page of mine.) <3
I didn't really feel the tremors last night because I was asleep (yes, tired and shagged from my report), but Fel felt the tremors: her bed was shaking and her door was shaking. The tremors were pretty huge, apparently. And you can imagine how it would have been down at Christchurch. Unless you're still confused over the geography, Wellington is right down at the bottom of the North island, and Christchurch, the central east coast of the South island, and the north/south island isn't very close either -- that's 3hrs of ride on the Interislander.
I woke up and bathed like any normal day, and then Fel asked if I had felt tremors. She told me there was an earthquake in Christchurch so I hurried to go read the news. It's so scary, that overnight something like this happens. There are tremors every now and then in Wellington and I've gotten used to it, sometimes with my chair shaking a bit. But a 7.1 magnitude one is freaky. They say, this is NZ second largest earthquake after the 1931 one in Napier.
I'm in awe though, every time something of such a large magnitude happens and then I see tourism businesses/organisations responding so quickly in terms of using social media (i.e.: twitter and all) to get messages across so fast. The tweets came in constantly, but Tourism NZ and Air New Zealand in terms of sending information of road closures / airport reopening etc. One particular car rental company even tweeted on the treading news, saying something like if they had trouble returning their rented car in Christchurch, there was "no problem" and they could hang on to it for a day or two or drive up to Auckland to return it. Seriously, the amount of support they give is extraordinary. Same like previously when the volcano erupted in Iceland, so many Kiwis volunteered to 'help' tourists who were stranded. I think we need more people like that in SG.
Other than than, I've been pretty alive and stressed. The past 2 weeks were spent mugging, marking and working. The only day I rested was the on my birthday, which I didn't do anything much except to have 2 icecream cupcakes bought by my little darlings at home, and a wonderful home-cooked dinner by the darlings again. :)
I've also been down to the waterfront on a nice day, did baking and went out to eat heaps of times. Lol, like just yesterday, we went to eat hotpot at this Chinese restaurant. Super shiok. Well, photos will be uploaded here sooon (major backlogged for photos, I know), if you desperately need to see some colours, then head to my FB page, and check out the photos. ;)
Otherwise, I love you guys (whoever is still reading this rather dead page of mine.) <3