We hear a lot about people finding reasons to leave Britain these days and a start a new life elsewhere.
Personally, I love living here and can think of plenty of reasons why.
But I didn't think I'd include earthquakes in that list – until early yesterday morning.
Our baby daughter had woken just moments before the quake struck and my wife was roc
king her back to sleep when the whole house shook.
It was disorientating and alarming for a minute or two afterwards, but we soon guessed it was a tremor when we found no evidence of intruders.
Once our suspicions had been confirmed on the TV news, we realised just how terrifying it must be to be in the middle of a really big earthquake.
Years ago, a friend of mine was excitedly awaiting a university placement in the Japanese city of Kobe when a massive earthquake devastated the city, killing thousands.
His face was ashen – he hadn't figured earthquakes into the equation.
As I tried to get back to sleep on Wednesday morning, I could hear no sirens, no screams, no aftershocks, only the murmur of my neighbours' TV with Sky News reeling off the UK earthquake stats.
The fact is that in Britain, not only we are blessed by great countryside, vibrant cities, fascinating history and a wicked sense of humour, but the geological forces beneath us are even quite benign.
Granted, sometimes natural forces do wreak tragedy here – and we get more tornadoes in the UK per area of land than anywhere else on the planet – and I don't seek to belittle those incidents at all, but they are never on a scale that many other nations encounter.
I don't think I'll be knocking on the door of anybody else's embassy just yet.
Rob James, sports editor
The full article contains 305 words and appears in Matlock Mercury newspaper.
