Although we don’t live in an earthquake
risk zone, we’ve had some small ones in the past. They usually strike
overnight. The first one I every experienced was in the early eighties. My late
husband and I were living on the fourth floor of an apartment complex, when I
woke up in the middle of the night from the noise of one of the ornaments in
our glass display case falling over. I heard a faint rumbling sound and the bed
was shaking ever so slightly. It didn’t wake my husband though and I turned
over and fell asleep again. It wasn’t till the next morning, when I heard the
news on the radio that I realized that I had awoken by an earthquake.
My second earthquake experience was more
frightening. I occurred a few years after my husband had been killed in a car
accident. I was still living in the same apartment, on my own, when I woke up
one night because the bed was shaking violently. Still semi-unconscious from
sleep, I cursed the young couple next door for making such violent love that it
make shake the walls. However, I soon realized that the newlyweds had nothing
to do with the noise and shaking. This was an earthquake! I jumped out of bed
and did what I had read in a magazine: positioning myself in a doorway, because
the concrete beam over it would protect me from falling stones and rumble … if
or when the building decided to come down on me.
Okay, it was silly of me and can hear and
see you, the people who live or have lived in an earthquake zone, rolling on
the floor with laughter! But we are such novices on these matters. Well,
nothing happened, except for the same ornament – a primitive wooden African
statue with a wobbly base – falling over again. The next morning I learned that
the centre of the earthquake had been located near Liége, a large town in the
East of Belgium. Several houses in Liége had suffered damage, from falling
chimney stacks to crack in walls. A house under construction had completely
caved in and a few people had been injured by falling debris.
Why am I telling all this? Because we had another
earthquake? Not that I know of. However, last night I thought we had. Around
8.30 p.m. when I was watching TV, I heard a rumbling sound … approaching. A few
seconds later the floor and the walls started to shake and … the same African sculpture
fell over again (Maybe I should get rid of it! What do you think?)
Let me reassure you. It wasn’t an
earthquake. This is what caused the rumbling and shaking …
A huge truck pouring hot asphalt over the parking strip
in front of the apartment building.
in front of the apartment building.
Two men and a devilish machine spreading
the hot asphalt over the parking strip...
the hot asphalt over the parking strip...
They are three by now by the machine, following the truck.
And here comes the guy with the steamroller (steam-less nowadays)
flattening the new layer of asphalt.
flattening the new layer of asphalt.
So, just in case you are wondering ... we now have a seamless and 'dandy' parking strip. A nice change from the quilt-like pattern we had to live with since last year's roadworks!





























