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| Jemima mimicking my post training pose |
Managed to get all my training in successfully last week with some reduced working hours and good time management. I admire people who train for Ironmans and have to juggle young families, 40 hour work weeks and the rest- I just cannot conceive how they get enough sleep!
Tuesday morning I made it to swim squad but the pool was still at 50m (is usually set to 2 x 25 m pools on Tues, Wed+ Thurs) which meant we had about 10 of us with a much wider variety of speeds in the lane. I don't enjoy squad when it is like this as I am generally the slowest in the lane and have to keep skipping some of the intervals to stay in the same sets as my squad mates. However, I tell myself that it is good to push out of my comfort zone a bit and hope that I am swimming faster than normal just to hang on! I was a bit sluggish tho; my shoulders were tired from Monday's set so I was glad when the hour was up and I could get out. Headed back toward home and did the groceries en route as had had a couple of cancellations so wasnt starting work til later in the morning. Ugh I find grocery shopping a tedious chore but when a pocket of time becomes available it has to be used!
Anyway, in the midst of my last morning patient and suddenly the lights go off and the building starts shaking like crazy and drawers are opening, stuff is flying off the shelves and the work surfaces and I hear the hiss of pipes and the rumbling noise of a shuddering roof combined with the banging and crashing of items falling off surfaces throughout the practice. Once the worst subsided we all went outside into the car park ; standing around like stunned mullets in a bit of disbelief. A few minutes later we could feel the rolling and rocking of the ground as sequences of aftershocks came.Went back inside to get my bag and couldnt even see the floor of my surgery! Shame I didnt take a photo to record it but didnt want to linger in the building for too long. We lost a few roof tiles but otherwise the structure of the practice seems to be ok. Took forever to get home; the building across from work by the large intersection had a collapsed roof and the traffic lights were out as well as silt and liquefaction pouring out from the gutters and craters appearing in the road.
Got home eternally grateful that the house was still standing and that Brett was there, also unharmed. We had some broken mugs and glasses; all the photo frames had fallen over as well as the shelves in the spare room. We still had power on thankfully but no water. Next panic was about Jemima but I stood in the garden and called out to her and lo she appeared from underneath a bush. Phew! I missed all the action in September when the first earthquake struck; the subsequent aftershocks never really bothered me but on Tuesday afternoon I spent feeling mildly traumatised and terrified at the slightest wobble.However, when we turned the TV on and saw the mass devastation in the town centre we felt exceedingly lucky.Needless to say, it was a bit of a sleepless night. Wednesday seemed a little surreal; thankfully internet connection was restored so was able to track down some people I hadn't heard from via Facebook. We had a few friends come round who were still without power to charge up cell phones and lap tops and it was a relief to talk to other people and hear their experiences.
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| What earthquake??!! |
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