The Well Travelled Spatula: SHAKEN, and Stirred by AR, or YOU Rock My World!!!

The last four days have been bumpy, scary and thought provoking. On Saturday morning at 4:36 AM, we were awakened by what what felt like someone thrashing our bed-frame. It would ease up and then come back with a vengeance. On about the third wave, we started to hearing crashing. Yes, it was an earthquake, and it was a big one, 7.1 on the Richter Scale.

We jumped out of bed and noticed the power was off. Poor Bessie was barking and confused. We made our way to the kitchen where we have a wall mounted torch (flashlight) that glows in the dark without power. We quickly surveyed the damage in the house, and in spite of the crashes we'd heard, very little was broken - at least nothing of importance, and the house seemed to be okay. We got dressed quickly and then hooked up the hard-wired 'land-line' we keep handy for power outages. I called Chef Vojta on his iPhone -- the poor kid was at the Hilltop; he'd climbed out his bedroom window and was sitting on the fire escape in 3 degree C weather (about 37 F?), scared to death.

We arrived at the Hilltop about 15 minutes later and quickly surveyed the damage. Impressive, but not as bad as it could have been. We sat in the car, listening to the radio for the next few hours waiting for the light of day and eager for news about what was happening. Aftershocks kept coming every few minutes. It was also very windy and we tried to convince ourselves that the aftershocks were wind. But, wind gusts don't make the car go up and down... Or make the chimney on the building sway...

So, this was the beginning to a long and terrifying day. We cleaned up as much as we could without power. It was a stunningly beautiful spring day, and had we been able to open (No power = no food or coffee) we would have been very busy. Our catering event for 100 that evening was cancelled. So, we came home and worked in the garden, which was good for the soul, plus we didn't really want to be inside listening to the rattle of aftershocks. As we weeded the soon to be veggie bed (Flo & Myrtle were happy help, of course!), we discussed how fortunate we'd been, how much worse it could have been and at the end of the day, all would be fine. About 3 PM our power came on. I'd already phoned my sister in California, but I was eager to get an e-mail out and post on Facebook.

Imagine my surprise when I found e-mails not only from my 'real' friends, but a number of AR peeps! Then, when I got to FB, it was alive with "Are you OK? We are worried." and so forth. I felt touched. Then I saw a post that referenced 'talking' about me on the Recipe Exchange. Sure enough, I went back and found a thread where everyone was wondering about me, as well as Chicken, who lives right in Christchurch. Now, I was really feeling the emotion! I kept telling The Man, "These guys are really concerned about us!" He was impressed.

Now, by this time, I was tired, I was stressed and frankly, I needed an 'earthquake free' five minutes. So, I decided to look at the blogs for a few minutes. First blog I see? Mike Harvey: New Zealand Earthquake. Okay, that's when my heart quaked, my water mains burst and as I'd long suspected, YOU GUYS rock my world!

Thanks to each and everyone of you who thought of us, posted on AR or FB, sent me an e-mail, or wrote a blog of concern for us! During difficult times, your love and support has been a huge help! (And The Man now 'gets' my obsession!)

Here are a few of the pictures from the Hilltop that morning...