Our First .. - April 28, 2006
I was in bed, watching TV, in our eighth floor hotel room. Mr. X was at the dresser, gleefully making full use of the free WiFi in this Taipei hotel. We had arrived Taipei earlier that afternoon from Nantou and had time to rest before sound check and the gig in the evening at Taipei's Riverside Music Cafe.

The bed began to move. Not too much but enough to feel a little dizzy, you know what I mean?

Mrs. X: Do you feel that?
Mr. X: (turns around slowly, watches me and stands up)

..we stare at each other, speechless.....

Mrs. X: So, er, did you feel that? The shaking?
Mr. X (cautiously): Yes...
Mrs. X: So, er, what do we do now?
Mr. X: ....

We flipped TV channels, just to check if anyone else felt that. Boy, Taiwan has many, many TV channels! Finally, on one of the 100 channels, we spotted a map of Taiwan. On the map, there was a circled area, somewhere northeast of the island. And there were some Chinese characters and the number 6.4. A split second later, a woman reading the news, talking about something totally unrelated.

Now, here's the thing. Neither Mr. X nor I can read Chinese.... But we deduced from that news flash that an earthquake had probably just happened. But the shaking's stopped, and when we looked out of our window, noone was running frantically, traffic was still flowing, no phone call from the operator (do you really think they'd stay back and call every room if a major quake was happening?).

We decided, after 10 minutes of unease, that we could probably stay in the room.

When he picked us up later, Huang confirmed that there had been an earthquake, a "small one". "Run out of the room if you're tossed up and down. Don't need to panic if the quake just shakes you from side to side. That one not dangerous."

Awwwww......Our first earthquake as Mr. and Mrs. X.

Sweet.

p.s. Here I am, waiting for Huang. Very early in the morning. Very, VERY early in the morning