My first earthquake...

Natural disasters fascinate me. When I was younger I liked watching documentaries that were about earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. I found it particularly interesting about how Japan design their buildings to withstand an earthquake. I lived through a bushfire nearly every summer.

Last night, at 8.53pm, I was wanting to watch the final of Packed to The Rafters, but got distracted when we were bathing Luke.

Poor Luke was there with his pants off ready to have his nightly bath when I noticed the house was shaking. It wasn't shaking on the floor, just the walls. At first I thought it was something noisy going past the house, like a truck or motor bike, but then it intensified.

This had never happened before. I asked my husband what was happening. He thought there may be something wrong with our ducted heating and began inspecting the roof in different rooms. I shouted out that I think it may be an earthquake, but he told me not to be silly. In Indonesia, when they have earthquakes they don't feel like this, he said.

After about 20 seconds the shaking stopped. Luke looked as confused as I was. I'm not sure if he noticed the shaking or was just amazed by how we were reacting. He wasn't bothered by it either way. I wondered if it really was an earthquake, Hendrik still telling me it wasn't. I too had a little doubt that it was actually an earthquake, as I didn't feel anything in the floor, just the walls rattling.

I picked up my phone to message someone in the same suburb and ask if they felt it too. My phone was already logged into my facebook and already there were about 10 statuses about an earthquake. Delighted I cheered that I was right and it was an earthquake. It had been felt all across Melbourne, up to Castlemaine, in Traralgon, in Geelong - very widespread.

Read about it here.

Damage under our verandah from last nights earthquake.

I then went outside and noticed that there was a big crack in the cement. It got me thinking if our insurance does cover earthquakes.

I was excited. All of my life I've wanted to feel an Earthquake. The only time one has happened in Melbourne while I've lived here was when I was in Singapore. I was on fire for the rest of the night and up until this morning. I was checking twitter and Facebook constantly because I wanted to know more about it.

In the meantime some people were updating statuses about how lame it is that we all turn to social media when things like this happen. Yes, I updated my status but I am genuinely excited about this. But while I'm excited it makes me think of places where this is much more intense and catches you, like last night, by surprise. For me, and many of those in Victoria, this was a novelty. But sadly for so many around the world, earthquakes are a scary reminder of the reality of the dangers of where they live.

Did you feel the earthquake? What were you doing and what was your reaction?