geek analysis

Following the earthquake, I was dogged by a persistent dizziness for most of the afternoon, and I think I have found the answer here: http://www.borderlands.com/newstuff/research/infra.htm

An extract from the link above:
"Earthquake infrasound manifests only at intermittent intervals, producing drastic and sustained negative modifications of consciousness. The human organism continues to reel under intermittent infrasonic assault for numerous reasons. After less than a five minute exposure to low intensity infrasound of 10 cycles per second, dizziness will last for hours. Infrasound of 12 cycles per second produces severe and long lasting nausea after a brief low intensity exposure." (emphasis added)

Most interesting phenomenon, albeit highly uncomfortable.

lunchtime excitement

I was merrily doing my work late this morning, when the whole office started shaking. I thought it was some renovation work or something, but soon realised that the whole building was shaking.

The secretaries flew into a mini-panic, grabbed their bags, and fled the office. The lawyers stood around discussing what to do, until the funniest initial announcement was made by the building management over the P.A. system:

"Attention please. We have unconfirmed reports that an earthquake is striking Singapore. If you feel uncomfortable, please evacuate the building."

That brought some laughter to break the tension, but for safety, we soon left the building via the stairs. Headed off to meet Ad, since RP was also evacuated, and we bumped into Nav & ET, and decided to lunch at Coffee Club Express.

All went well, till I got back to my building, only to find that everyone was downstairs. Apparently there had been a second quake and the building had been evacuated again. Sat at Lau Pa Sat for a while, and eventually went up when we got the all clear.

Thank God everything is ok. I must admit that, this being the first time I have felt an earthquake, I was quite shaken (no pun intended) by the first tremor, and had a bit of an internal panic as to what to do if the building was going to collapse. A prayer shot up to God instantly, and well, the prayer was answered! :)

Oh, just FYI, here's an "official" report of the quake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007zpah.php#details