27th Feb 2008
We went out to our local pub last night, The Ferry Inn. Wilford Village. After enjoying a good few Ales, I retired to bed in a happy mood.
Wow – shortly afterwards the bed was shaking, and those final noisy, climactic 20 seconds were unforgettable J “That was amazing” said Mrs Bill. I had to agree.
The bed, and even the whole room was rocking – I didn’t know that 3 or 4 pints of full-bodied Abbott Ale was capable of producing such a powerful effect!
Little did we know that the earthquake that so rudely awakened us at 01:00am this morning, was the most powerful experienced in the UK for 25 years.
It measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, with its epicentre near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, less than 50 miles away. It was felt through the whole of England, and even across the North Sea in Amsterdam.
If you live on the San Andreas fault, as many of my customers do, you may think "No Big Deal", but here in little old England, it's big news right now.
Strangely enough, a geologist interviewed on the radio today, said this was sometimes known as a “Love Wave”. That’s what I told Mrs Bill.
There’s a follow up to this story……
Crash Bungs – Good or Bad?
Some relatives are away in France at the moment. They got wind of the earthquake, and phoned home for some assistance. They asked me to take a ride out to their country cottage, and check that the chimney pots hadn’t fallen down, and that the burglar alarm wasn’t now deafening the whole village.
I parked my Fazer on the drive, and phoned France to reassure them everything was OK with their house.
While I was talking on the mobile phone, I heard a crunch of my helmet falling off the bike seat onto Tarmac, and watched in horror as a hole opened up in their drive and my bike fell into it! Really!
With the phone swiftly transferred into my left hand, I ran to the bike and picked it up with the other arm (despite my bad back right now). That’s one of the reasons why I prefer my Fazer to a full blown Mega-Tourer.
Unbeknown to me, or the house owner, there was fresh air beneath a thin veneer of Tarmac. My bike’s side stand had punched out a dish-sized piece of asphalt, and the stand dropped through into thin air. *
Luckily there was no damage. The crash bungs, bar ends and Givi rack took the strain, and saved the tank, engine casings and mirrors. Phew!
My bike has never, ever been on the deck before. Not once, since new in 2004. I almost regretted fitting the R&G crash mushrooms, ‘cos frankly, they’re a bit ugly. But I’m glad I did now.
* It seems there used to be a well where the drive is now. The hard core filler seems to have settled, and left a "cave" under the drive. Maybe the earthquake settled the loose rock filler?
PS - It turns out there was some chimney stack damage as well. And a picture fell off the wall, and broke, in my house.
2008 Tours
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