Shaken and stirred

Well played...

Its been a few years since that Scottish guy was heard on YouTube shouting “Oh my God! Trampoline! Trampoline!” as his neighbour’s one sailed dramatically past his window in a gale.

Since them we’ve dealt stoically with flooding, we’ve endured snow and ice like the troopers we are, and we’ve generally put on a brave face, gritted our teeth, and just jolly well got on with it as much as possible, regardless of what nature has thrown at us.

Until Saturday. Saturday was a game changer. The day that will be remembered for possibly a short while as Quake Day, when unprecedented levels of almost no damage whatsoever rippled forth from deep under somewhere north-north east of Swansea.

This shocking once-in-a-decade seismic event clocked in with a social media-inflaming 4.4 magnitude, with the effects felt as far as the southern edge of the Lake District, where it was easily mistaken for several excited lambs landing simultaneously after some particularly exuberant frolicking.

Through large parts of Wales, the Midlands and South West, the anguished cries of people from London who were gravely affected by it not happening to them so they could be smug about it were heard, long after the mild tremors had subsided.

So alarming was the largest seismic event in mainland Britain since 2008 (mag 5.2 in Lincolnshire, lest we forget) that Port Talbot vs Taff’s Well’s football match had to be temporarily stopped.

It’s expected to take several months for everyone to stop banging on about it. Did the earth move for you..?

This post first appeared as the third piece in my column/page in The Mail and the News & Star, on the 23rd of February 2018, where the title was augmented with "Quake left us..." at the front.

The piece included a seemingly random picture of sandbags outside Millom Community Hospital... presumably because I mentioned flooding. Tenuous? Hell, yeah.

Didn't feel a thing. It's SOOOOO unfair.

(CD A-Z: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds - The New Generation. Spoiler alert! It's not as good as the original...)

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