I thought it was a dream until a friend txted me on 2.15 to asked if I was OK early this morning. I was dozing off on my bed, not quite asleep when the sudden shaking happened. Took me 10 seconds to register that it was an earthquake. For the first 10 seconds, my foggy brain thought geez, the neighbour must be doing some 'excessive' activity. The fogginess cleared as I realised the whole house was shaking and I could actually hear deep rumbling from the background. I always wonder how an earthquake felt like. *Btw, I just felt a mini vibration as I was typing the last sentence.* It felt like when you first stepped onto a big swing, the type that can fit up to four people in most malaysian's backyard. It is very brief. Less than 10 seconds I think. When I realised it was an earthquake, I have this crazy thought that it was the second coming of Jesus. And I started to ask for God's forgiveness of my sin because I was not experiencing any rapture yet. Ok ok, I was half asleep so my thinking was a bit bizarre. Apparently the earthquake was 5.2 on the Richter scale. Not strong enough to bring down any concrete building but strong enough to wake up a heavy sleeper like me, not that I'm fully asleep at that time.

You might have seen the fuss that I've made on facebook and msn. I've been robbed (not literally) by the employee/owner of the Hosp Card and Magazine. Here's the story.

Last Monday, I went to topped up my snapper card for $50. For some ridiculous, head smashing reason, I left the card in the store and have totally forgotten about it until this morning. I searched high and low for the card and finally decided I must have dropped it somewhere. Good things about snapper, you can called them and traced it just like a credit card. Bad side, they can't do anything about it if the transaction has been made. So, having that small little hope that most people in NZ are honest and considerate, I called the snapper to check my balance. I knew the odds but still I was shocked when they told me I have only $0.90 in my card. Two transaction has been made yesterday at exactly the same store. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it has to be the shop keeper. I like to believe that they intend to return the card to me one day. There are ways if they care enough to do so, you can call the snapper and they would send an email to inform the whereabout of my card. A so called friend told me "aiya...it's just 50 dollars, if you go to max and buy a dress, it will be more than that." It's true $50 dollars is not that much nowadays. But it is not the amount that hurts me, it's the act. I have been their regular customer to top up my snapper and vodafon ever since I came to Welly. It hurts to know that instead of waiting for me to come back or call the snapper to inform me, they seize the chance to 'rob' their own customer and disguise it with the attitude of finders keepers.

I'm not sure if the outcome would be different were the shop keeper a kiwi european. I am an asian myself. But I have to say at such times, I am reluctant to trust asian shop keepers ever again.

I miss Julia. I miss playing piano and drums. I miss Halo 3. I miss my double bed. I miss Andrew (to my surprise). I miss chicken soup with ginseng.