Never had disaster felt so near

Today is a public holiday for the King's Installation ceremony, and the children and I are at home. 爸爸 is away on business trip since Tuesday. Both children are taking their afternoon nap as 姐姐 had tuition replacement early in the morning.

First time I felt the tremors was when I was waking up 姐姐 around 4:30pm as she need to get ready for ballet class. I felt the bed shaking and asked 姐姐 not to shake her legs, to which she denied of doing. Then my head began to get dizzy and spinning, and the blinds in the bathroom was shaking. It feels a little like being in the water too long and "floating". The spinning is definitely not a pleasant feeling at all! I quickly changed out of my house clothes and also asked 姐姐 to change out of her pajamas. 弟弟 is still sleeping in the next bedroom. I asked 姐姐, did she feel the house shaking or spinning? She said, no. I thought it might be due to my lack of sleep, but the feeling did not go away.

Then panic starts to strike, and I was looking outside if we should make a dash for it? This was playing in my head - run, or don't run? Run, or don't run? But no one was running out of their houses in our apartment block! Those who are at home seem to be keep looking outside like me, and not taking much action yet. Then it hit me, if it's God's will that we go, at least the children will be with me. Gosh, it's not a good feeling. We want to live!

Still in order not to be late, I started waking up 弟弟 and prepared our simple dinner. 姐姐 was still dazed from being woken from her nap. Life goes on and pray for everyone's safety. We saw from 6pm news that there was an earthquake off Aceh on the west coast of northern Sumatra.

At night when ballet class ended, we were stuck in a jam along Green Lane or now known as Jalan Masjid Negeri. Later just realized that a lot of people were at shopping malls and they had to go back early due to tsunami alert. It was later lifted. Phew!

From this experience, I found we are so unprepared for disaster. Lots of work to be mentally prepared so we know what to do in the future. It's different from the 2004 incident as that lasted only a short while, and this one which I felt long minutes ticking by and still feel the aftershock.