Otaki earthquake (NZ) .... ....

24th May 2020 (Sunday)      07.00 .... There’s a brisk breeze and

Harbour road.

“precipitation is not expected” ;  it much calmer that’s for sure, but I’m not sure about the precipitation .... some of the clouds bumbling over are awfie dark.    I’ll have a cuppa then go for the paper .... by that time I’ll know if the dark clouds are going to ‘precipitate’, or just look threatening.

09.00    I’ve been out on the bike for the paper and nearly down to the harbour; but there’s a heap of sand on the road at the end of the Toft and I couldn’t be bothered wading through it.    It’s a nice morning and much calmer than it was yesterday;   I should get out on the bike after morning coffee;  I’m not sure where I’ll go I need some exercise.

Elie Estate.

19.00    It has been a bonnie day but breezier than I thought it would be;  however I did get out in the afternoon... round the villages, Kinneuchar and Elie Estate.    Trees everywhere are at their best just now;   fresh green leaves of all shades.... though a few of them (leaves not trees) are on the ground after the gales of the past couple of days.  

 

I see that the bloke that looks like Gollum did everything quite legally according to the Government spokespeople.     Dr Calderwood should get her job back going be the example set by him... what is his name again?... oh aye Dominic Cummings.

      

We had another power cut this afternoon.... I know this because when I woke up ..... went into the kitchen to put the kettle ‘on’ I noticed that the cooker and microwave clocks were flashing.   They’ve been reset.

20.00     The four Olsen cruise ships are back in the Firth (off Aberlady Bay);  I can’t

Grange/Grangehill - Earlsferry.

imagine cruising being a popular holiday this year, so whether they will be ‘parked’ in the Firth until cruising restarts remains to be seen.... if they do sit there over the summer they will be a tourist(?) attraction for cruises on Maid of the Forth from South Queensferry... I assume that she (Maid of the Forth) will be doing sightseeing cruises sometime this summer.

We are supposed to have a ‘wall to wall’ blue sky tomorrow.... with lighter winds and higher temperatures;  sun cream weather for ‘the boy’.   Tomorrow will be a ‘play day’ though I will do a washing first thing.

21.30    I had just broke off speaking to ‘M’ on Skype when the strongest and most frightening earthquake she has experienced, since going to New Zealand in 1959, hit Otaki:  5.8 on the Richter scale with the epicentre about 42 miles from Otaki.   It went on for a couple of minutes with ornaments rattling and falling over.    She came back on Skype to tell me about it.   I imagine she is now having a cuppa;  or something

Jacinda Ahern - Prime Minister of New Zealand.

stronger .... she certainly looked like she needed something.    She (and everyone) is on tenterhooks (and drinking another cuppa), waiting for aftershocks, which may or may not happen.   The tension must be awful.

    New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ahern was being interviewed ‘live’ on television when the earthquake struck, she said  “we’re having an earthquake here” and continued with the interview.     She is the kind of leader you need in an emergency and she has had her share of emergencies.