Brownie Points?

Another Tuesday UFO Night has been and gone, Egyptian Tablet saw the light of day after a two week absence and reasonable progress was made. It helped that, on checking the chart, I spotted that the top five bands of the collar are backstitched in good old DMC cotton, not metallic thread, which cheered me up no end. I was so happy about it that I continued with the backstitching on Wednesday and completed all five bands on one side. Am hoping that Mr Stick is now happy with me and I've regained some of the Brownie Points I lost by not touching ET the previous two weeks! Am planning on making a start on the metallic on the same side of the collar next week.

I stayed up watching X-Files whilst stitching on ET but missed the end of the programme when it was rather rudely interrupted by what turned out to be an earthquake! Measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, the epicentre was in Market Rasen - in the same county and not very far away from us.
It started with a low, deep rumble that I initially thought was a big tanker going past on the road outside but it quickly developed into actual movement, with the house shaking. That made me wonder if there'd been a blast furnace explosion at the nearby steelworks. The house seemed to give two huge "wobbles" and then the shaking and rumbling rapidly diminished - it actually only lasted around 8 to 10 seconds but felt longer. Oddly, nothing actually fell off shelves or tables. I shot upstairs to DH and DS shouting "Did you feel that?". DS was asking what the hell was it and DS was heading to look out the window. My comment was that we had two options: it was either the steelworks going up or it was an earthquake. We discounted the first, as there'd been no bang - that's when realisation hit us! I went outside to look up and down the road but couldn't see or hear anything and no one else had come out but when I turned back to the house my neighbour Emma was looking out of her bedroom window. She'd felt it and said her DH thought it was an earthquake too - we were scared and shaken up but unhurt, thankfully. Back in the house DS had turned the TV onto the 24 hour news and DH had got the radio on, I headed for the computer. It wasn't until we tried the US Geological survey site that it was definitely confirmed it was an earthquake, at that time believed to be 4.7 - Radio Humberside had been about to go off air when it struck but decided to keep broadcasting to give people info. It took at least 45 minutes to an hour for the BBC to cotton on to what had happened and start giving out details.
DH went back to bed immediately, it took DS and me a bit longer to go up: having been watching an X-Files that mentioned Armageddon when it all kicked off hadn't helped - at the same time DS had just finished watching the latest Resident Evil film! LOL that'll cure us!
It was the scariest and weirdest thing I've ever felt/been through and certainly don't want to repeat that experience in a hurry! Realising that the good solid ground under your feet actually isn't that solid is pretty unnerving. The little sleep I had was full of dreams about the roof falling off the house or the house collapsing - not nice!
My DSis had felt it over in Doncaster: it woke her up. Her house started shaking, the radiators rattled and stuff fell out of the airing cupboard. She'd been watching Most Haunted DVD's before bed - she thought a poltergeist had moved in and started wreaking havoc! When she got to work she was relieved to find out it was only an earthquake! LOL
Have checked round and don't think the house has suffered any structural damage but guess we'll find out for certain when the next high winds hit us!

After all that, when it came to bed time last night I was somewhat reluctant to go up. >rolleyes<
I continued stitching on Night Watchman (rather appropriate, eh? LOL) whilst watching Bram Stoker's Dracula (Gary Oldman as Dracula: phwoar!), then the end of a film with John Travolta in it (double phwoar!).
To say I spent a reasonable amount of time on this it doesn't seem to have grown that much but every little helps, I guess. :0)

Today's plans are to make a Mothers Day card for MIL and get it in the post then make a start on Part 2 of the Ozark SAL. Oh, and have an earlier night tonight! Weird how things carry on as normal after such an abnormal event, isn't it?

I hope those of you in the UK who also felt the earthquake are all OK and that your homes and property haven't suffered any damage. Take care all and thanks for visiting. :0)