Turning the tables

It was fun to call my parents in England this evening.

"Did you feel the earthquake? Are you all right?"

Yes, according to the BBC there was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in England in the middle of last night. England doesn't normally have earthquakes - they're one of those things that may well be regular occurrences in those funny foreign climes, but aren't quite the done thing at home. So usually it's Japan that's shaking, and my mother who's on the phone the next morning trying valiantly to sound unconcerned. The quake was apparently about level 3 intensity in my parents' town, so this time I thought it would be fun if I turned the tables for once.

It turns out they'd slept right through it. Not only that, as they hadn't watched the news yet they didn't even know there had been an earthquake at all. In fact, as soon as she heard the word "earthquake," Mum immediately assumed that there must have been one in Japan and I was calling her to reassure her.

It's actually true to form for our family. The only time Dad ever visited Japan, back in 1992, he slept through an earthquake while he was staying with me in Saitama. And I myself must have been the only person in London to have slept through the hurricane of 1989, when I couldn't understand why public transport wasn't running and there were branches and window glass all over the road as I tried to make my way to work the next morning...

I'm very glad my parents are all right. And next time there's a strongish earthquake somewhere in Japan and they call to see if I'm still alive, I'll be able to tell them not to worry as they've actually slept through one just as big themselves.