Bring it on, Melbourne

The day started off alright.

Woke up. Did my 7.30 mediation from the comfort of my bed. Got up. Fed Lucifer. Had a shower. Got out my work computer and went along to my 9 am stand up meeting with my colleague.

And then, at 9.15, just as we were talking about bringing the compliance department into line, my screen starts to shake and there's a lot of banging and other noise. The cat runs under the bed. My colleague and I look at each other over the camera.

It takes a few seconds to recognise the rattling is being caused by an earthquake.

My desk is in front of two large book cases. On working out what I was going on I moved to the nearest door frame, continuing the conversation with my colleague who was experiencing the same thing on the other side of town.

The shakes lasted for a good 20-30 seconds, but it felt a lot longer.

It was incredibly unnerving.

I've been in earthquakes before. On my birthday in Bali, we were subjected to a number of small quakes and significant aftershocks. But you expect them in Bali. Not downtown Melbourne.

It was verified a few minutes later that my colleague and I weren't going through some collective menopausal glitch. The quake, getting a solid 6.0 on the Richter Scale, was based around Mansfield about two hours away.

There appears to be some damage about, but thankfully there are no initial reports of injury or death. I've heard anecdotally that the Westgate Bridge was swaying like a swing. A friend who was in a lift at the time thought he was going to die.

The meeting was wrapped up quickly. I grabbed my wallet and mask and went out to get a coffee - a very Melbourne response to something like this. Get a coffee and ring mum. It's what you do.

Two hours on, I'm still a bit rattled. Pardon the pun.

As we are good little Melbournites, the memes are now coming thick and fast.