"Paddy's Pig" wrote in message
...
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

I had my camera in the garden while Spouse went onto the roof to check
the security of a chimney pot after last night's 'quake, it seemed to be
leaning. It was firm, phew!


Oh yeah --- I read about that! 4.7 Huh?

Well, the reports have varied btween 4.2 and 5.6 and seem to have settled on
5.2 or 5.3. Still not great in global terms but for England, where we have
very few noticeable ones and building isn't geared to cope with them, it's
quite something.

Or so you'd think to hear the way folk and especially journalists are going
on about it :-)

Mrs Next Door (a large Italian lady) was sitting on the .. well, sitting at
1 a.m. when most folk were in bed (as we were) and you'd have thought it was
Armageddon come to get her.

It woke us with a start and I, for some reason, immediately thought,
"Earthquake" but wasn't worried, nor have we been since. This morning I went
into the garden and prudently looked at the chimney (the most vulnerable
part of a house under the circumstances) and one pot looked to be at an
angle so Spouse went on the roof this afternoon to check the flaunching and
repair it if necessary. It wasn't. What's more, the pot looked as straight
as its partner - perhaps I should see my optician :-)

We once slept through a much bigger Earthquake, in Iceland. We were under
canvas, sleeping on barely grass-covered lava and the evidence was all round
us the next day but we weren't disturbed. There was a lot of noise for a
short time this morning at 1 am though, I can't understand why we slept
through the Icelandic one.

Pretty good one. Here in California we get them all the time & it's not
too frightening

We, the Fishers, weren't frightened, just puzzled. Spouse said it was the
wind rattling our bedroom door, the wind (which had been very strong during
the day) had dropped though so it wasn't that and there were no intruders so
....

but our building codes are pretty strict and under most circumstances we
don't expect our houses to fall down.

I don't think anyone's house fell down, a falling chimney pot would be the
worst I reckon. But I know that people will make all sorts of insurance
claims for pre-existing conditions to their house. We don't approve of that
but it won't be from our pockets, we don't have house insurance. No doubt
the Elfin Safety people will insist on Earthquake-proof houses in future.

Hrumph.

Glad you came out okay Mary.

Thanks, as I said, there's been little real damage anywhere. One chap
apparently broke his pelvis or something when a chimney pot fell through his
roof but if that was the only injury it's pretty good, I reckon. Far more
people were damaged on the roads yesterday. We ought to get such things into
perspective.

The garden shows zero damage, the few flowers are still shining through
today's gloom, the hens are unaffected it seems and all's right with our
world :-)

Mary