Did the Earth Move for You?
We had quite a strange day today. I think I’ve mentioned previously how Ottawa has two sides to it: the capital city of the second largest country in the World side and the small town side where you feel you know everyone else and everything that is going on. Today was a small town day because we were invited to go ice skating at the Governor General’s house. The GG being the Queen’s representative in Canada, so of course we should be invited.
After we’d given the password to the security office at the gate, we parked up and then I put my borrowed skates on in the little wooden hut next to the private rink. There were about 10-15 young families at the party. Some adults skated with the kids, whilst others had spanakopita and hot chocolate by the fire place in the hut. It was wonderful even if my skating wasn’t.
There was second reason for all the password and security at the party. The new Prime Minister’s children go to the same school as the children from the young families. The Prime Children obviously wanted to join their friends at a party and so I found myself stumbling and sliding around as the Prime Minister’s son and daughter skated rings round me and their personal, undercover security guard watched me closely (you could tell he security because you could see the curly communication wire behind his ear). I wasn’t concerned about the security man though because I had Sarah, dressed all in black so as to blend in, to keep a close eye on him.
I just can’t imagine ever being invited to Buckingham Palace to play football with the Blairs. Very odd.
The day hadn’t finished being strange though. After the party we headed home because Friday is take-away dinner and DVD night. We were tucking into our curries and were half way through Americas Funniest Home Videos (DVD was for after that) and all of a sudden we felt the room start to shake. Only a little at first, like when a bus or large lorry goes passed, but this continued and the shakes got stronger. Sarah and I just looked at each other, not knowing what was going. A huge convoy of trucks outside? A plane flying a bit too low? An Earthquake? In Canada??
The rumbles died down and the ceiling stopped moving in the opposite direction to the floor and after a couple of minutes there was a news flash on the TV saying that the station had had hundred of calls about the ground shaking, they did not know the reason but were investigating and would have a full story in the 11 o’clock news. Crikes! I felt like an extra in a sci-fi movie. One of those people who has no idea what is going on and you know is about to crushed or eaten or zapped.
We managed to stay awake until the news and found out that the tremors were an Earthquake! 4.5 on the Richter scale and centred about 45km East of Ottawa. Having survived it and found out what it was, I was excited as it was the first Earthquake experience for both Sarah and I.
But what could cause a quake when the nearest tectonic plate edge is thousands of miles away? I’m don’t think this was caused by the US invading Canada to ‘protect’ the oil reserves and I’m not going to jump on the global warming band-wagon. No, it is clear that this another anomaly (how many before they are normalies?) like the Birmingham Tornado and the only cure for them is to remove the wings of every butterfly in Tokyo.
After we’d given the password to the security office at the gate, we parked up and then I put my borrowed skates on in the little wooden hut next to the private rink. There were about 10-15 young families at the party. Some adults skated with the kids, whilst others had spanakopita and hot chocolate by the fire place in the hut. It was wonderful even if my skating wasn’t.
There was second reason for all the password and security at the party. The new Prime Minister’s children go to the same school as the children from the young families. The Prime Children obviously wanted to join their friends at a party and so I found myself stumbling and sliding around as the Prime Minister’s son and daughter skated rings round me and their personal, undercover security guard watched me closely (you could tell he security because you could see the curly communication wire behind his ear). I wasn’t concerned about the security man though because I had Sarah, dressed all in black so as to blend in, to keep a close eye on him.
I just can’t imagine ever being invited to Buckingham Palace to play football with the Blairs. Very odd.
The day hadn’t finished being strange though. After the party we headed home because Friday is take-away dinner and DVD night. We were tucking into our curries and were half way through Americas Funniest Home Videos (DVD was for after that) and all of a sudden we felt the room start to shake. Only a little at first, like when a bus or large lorry goes passed, but this continued and the shakes got stronger. Sarah and I just looked at each other, not knowing what was going. A huge convoy of trucks outside? A plane flying a bit too low? An Earthquake? In Canada??
The rumbles died down and the ceiling stopped moving in the opposite direction to the floor and after a couple of minutes there was a news flash on the TV saying that the station had had hundred of calls about the ground shaking, they did not know the reason but were investigating and would have a full story in the 11 o’clock news. Crikes! I felt like an extra in a sci-fi movie. One of those people who has no idea what is going on and you know is about to crushed or eaten or zapped.
We managed to stay awake until the news and found out that the tremors were an Earthquake! 4.5 on the Richter scale and centred about 45km East of Ottawa. Having survived it and found out what it was, I was excited as it was the first Earthquake experience for both Sarah and I.
But what could cause a quake when the nearest tectonic plate edge is thousands of miles away? I’m don’t think this was caused by the US invading Canada to ‘protect’ the oil reserves and I’m not going to jump on the global warming band-wagon. No, it is clear that this another anomaly (how many before they are normalies?) like the Birmingham Tornado and the only cure for them is to remove the wings of every butterfly in Tokyo.
posted by Ian @ 8:30 am
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