Last night, there was a 4.5 earthquake in Wellington. It was something we all expected after the 6.3 in Christchurch, but understandably, everyone was pretty shaken by it. It was 40km deep, and about 20km away - but still a decently felt quake. My first thought was 'that's a big gust of wind' then 'holy shit, how's Christchurch' then 'I want a hug'. Yes, instead of getting under shelter, I ran for cuddles. Damn, I would be totally crap in a real emergency!
There was a lot of noise about it on twitter, most people freaking out, then asking 'Chch, are you okay?!'. It didn't take very long for us to be brought back to reality with Chch experiencing a 4.6, but only 5km deep. I think it all brought it home to us about how bad it really is for everyone down there. I think Wellingtonians feel especially deeply for everyone in Chch - we all know that this quake should have been us.
The thing I hate about natural disasters is that you can't really avoid them. Most (floods, tornados etc) you can predict, but earthquakes and fires you really can't. I'm the sort of person who hates being out of control, so not knowing what's going on scares me. How I avoid that is to learn as much as I can about earthquakes. I read everything I can about them, from scientific journals to first hand accounts. I look at quake drums from around the world every day, and follow trends. I wonder if this makes me sane or insane? I have to say, the more I know, the more scared I get. It freaks me out to know that if there was a big one in Wellington, we would literally be cut off from the rest of the country for days, if not weeks.
So what can I do to not be so freaked out? I always have my phone on me. Okay, maybe that's not disaster related, but instead an iPhone obsession. I can't imagine how scary it would be to not be able to reach your loved ones in a quake. Well, actually, I'm there right now, so I guess it's like this. Leaving my phone behind is not something I want to do. I also have 4 emergency kits at home. I have LOTS of emergency water, and I store them in different places so that hopefully, not all are destroyed.
That's pretty much it. That's not much really, is it? I do two things,, and hope that if an earthquake hits, I'm not trapped under hundreds of kilos of rubble.
It's not only earthquakes I'm scared of. I have lots of other irrational fears too. Here are just a few, because we don't have all day:
Spiders. I'm much more scared of small ones that big spiders. Small ones are so so creepy.
Dentists - Sure, I've had some bad experiences, but I've survived all of them. I don't know why I'm so freaked out by them. It's frustrating how scared and pathetic and sweaty I get at the dentist.
Gynaecologists - I think this is pretty common. There's nothing nice about some random stranger peering at my lady bits, even if it is for my own good.
Heights - well, actually it's not so much heights as it is falling and hitting the ground. My fear of heights stems from being pushed off high things, and I don't like them anymore. Sometimes, I even get vertigo looking down, and I'm only 5'1", so it's hardly like I'm ages from the ground!
Hair in my mouth - yes, what you're thinking. I hate it. And I don't put up with it, except in very special circumstances. So if it's you, know that you're special. I don't even like my own hair in my mouth. It really creeps me out. I don't know why it scares me, but it does. It can give me a weird feeling for days!
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