un pensamiento para ti...
"He aprendido que todo el mundo quiere vivir en la cima de la montaña, sin saber que la verdadera felicidad está en la forma de subir la escarpada. He aprendido que cuando un recién nacido aprieta con su pequeño puño, por vez primera, el dedo de su padre, lo tiene atrapado para siempre. He aprendido que un hombre sólo tiene derecho a mirar a otro hacia abajo, cuando ha de ayudarle a levantarse..."
~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
In my one-month stay in Melbourne, I have survived....
- Scorching 'first-time-in-Melbourne-history' temperature of 48 ⁰C, with gale winds that are equally hot, as though a gigantic hairdryer is blowing right in your face.
- Erractic weather patterns that even Melbourne locals are baffled about, where it can be 32 ⁰C one moment then 13⁰C the next.
- Being near to some of the most severe bushfire in the history of Australia. One of the most badly affected areas, Whittlesea, is just an hours' drive away from Bundoora, where I currently reside.
Now, I have just survived an earthquake that registered 4.6 on the ritcher's scale, with the epicentre being very close to Melbourne. The online news reports stated that earthquakes are "extremely rare" in Australia.
Oh yeah, it was a minor earthquake with tremors that lasted a mere 10 seconds...
BUT IT WAS STILL A FRIGGIN' EARTHQUAKE!!
During that 10 seconds I watched the water in the tumbler vibrate violently as it sat on the kitchen counter with full concentration, grabbing on to the sofa I was on, wondering what the hell was going on! My housemate and I knocked on a neighbour's door asking if they had a similar experience, and the bloke gave an interesting theory of how the soil is probably moving cos of the intense rain after a long period of drought, and that "it is normal and has happened before...". Yeah, right....
Yup, the breaking news slot during the movie Old School confirmed that it was indeed an earthquake.
With all these "Melbourne's-firsts" I am experiencing, it's no wonder I had to celebrate with some Nando's chicken after I confirmed my flight back home for the June holidays.
Yup... I feel the earth move...under my feet... I feel the sky come tumbling down...tumbling down!
3 comments:
Pearl, can't decide if you're the luckiest or unluckiest person.
Anyway the bush fire was horrible. So many people died.
Indeed... Unlucky or lucky...
Yes, the bushfire was such a tragedy! I suppose this has been a wake-up call for the authorities to really take a more serious view of their busfire-fighting policies. Just yesterday I heard on the news that they are finally gonna insist that houses built in the bush areas are constructed using fireproof material.
How fireproof? Ridiculous. Just make sure people leave when there is a warning instead of saying you can go OR you can stay, up to you.
Post a Comment