Manila Shake

A few of us went to a gay bar last Saturday and we all got a tattoo.
Alright, it wasn't
a real one. It was Henna ink and would last for about 2 weeks. We got
back to the
hotel at about 2am and we would never have guessed what were to take
place
next.

I closed the door behind me and walked towards the desk. All of a
sudden, the
floor started to rumble and then it got louder, and then the whole
floor started to
shake. I had to place my hand on the bed to regain my balance.

"Hang on, I only had one beer. The floor shouldn't be shaking."

(I was beginning to grow concerned.)

"Oh no, this must be an earthquake."

(Fear set in.)

"Shit! I am on the 18th floor."

(Intense fear set in.)

At that point, I looked around the room and noticed the concrete walls.
Their
weight and strength was never a consideration for me before, but all of
a sudden,
they seemed awfully heavy, particularly if they ended up on top of
me.

"F*&;k, could this be the end?"

(A moment I wouldn't want to go through again.)

"What are other people doing?"

(Finally, some sense got back into me)

I staggered to the door to look for other people. A hotel staff was
nearby with fear
sculpted all over his face. By then, the rumbling had stopped and it
was all quiet.

Staff: "Mam, are you alright?"
Me: "Yeah, and you?"
Staff: "Yeah."
Me: "Should we be evacuating?"
Staff: "Yeah, let's get down via the Exit"

So, we bolted to the exit and ran down the steps. There were a couple
of slightly
oversized women in the way, so we overtook them. I wasn't proud of that
but I was
scared.

At the bottom of the steps, I saw Mah and Renee (my colleagues). It was
a relief
to see them. But how they managed to beat me to safety was beyond me.
They
were on 3 floors above me. (They probably didn't take the time to say
"excuse me"
as they pushed past the women!). We had to hang around the lobby until
4:30am
before we were allowed up. It had turned out to be a Richter scale 6.8
earthquake
which lasted 23 seconds. The epicentre was 180km NorthWest of Manila.
What
a night!

Just thought I would share that with you. You know, I couldn't find a
mention in
the Sydney newspaper about this Manila earthquake. Not that I am
complaining
however. Really, no news is good news.