Did the earth move for you ?

Joan asked me , did the earth move for me , referring to last night's earthquake , the biggest in twenty five years , experienced here apparently at around 1 am . The short answer is no . In fact I had no idea about the thing until I found a text on my phone as I sat at my pc at the office and my sister told me that her son who is at Uni in Liverpool had been woken together with his friends by the earthquake . I texted back . Yeah right , in his dreams , thinking it was the usual alcohol induced fantasy .......But then as I read the text out to Tracy she confirmed that she had actually been woken by her bed shaking , and it started to dawn on me that nothing of that nature would register here . We sleep on a water bed and what with four cats changing places , diving on and off , squabbling and jostling for the best / warmest spot , D sneezing repeatedly ( allergy to the cats ? ) , and my good self adding to the mix with my constant sleep talking and commenting , and general insomniac tossing and turning once 4 am is past , we are rocked like a fishing boat heading for the Farne Islands in high winds whatever is going on beyond the bedroom . When one cat changes position far left , this creates waves throughout the bed... we all move ......when one person climbs out we all sink .....

Just as I read Joan'c comment adding that a friend's parrot ( in Peterborough , I think ) had gone mad , my sister e mailed to say she had heard on the radio that a Peterborough parrot had fallen off its perch . Could it be the same parrot I ask myself . I will await Joan's further comment the next time she visits the blog .....

I have experienced an earthquake twice before , once whilst staying in Germany after finsihing A levels and on another occasion whilst working in Uganda . Both were unmemorable events , with a few things sliding off shelves , and a bit of a rocking feeling going on .
But George and his friends in Liverpool thought a lorry had crashed into the side of their student flat , or a bomb had gone off .
I'm now regretting that I slept through it or if I didn't , I put it down to one of our usual nocturnal rumblings rather than anything out of the ordinary .