Holidays in Egypt and New Zealand earthquake.

Very sad for Egypt Greatnan my son,daughter in law and the children visit Sharm for a week every Easter and are now considering changing their plans. It is only a matter of time before violence spreads into the Red Sea resorts too.

Yes, it is very sad, Gillybob, as tourism was already in dire straits and there is little alternative employment. I was the only guest for the first week of my holiday in June, and only one couple arrived in the second week. The coast is littered with half built hotels which have been abandoned.

Greatnan DS2 and his girlfriend where in Sharm just two weeks ago and said whilst they saw nothing untoward you could feel the tension ,speaking to him yesterday he said they would have cancelled if they where due to go out there now as friends who are there now have reported a general feeling of unrest,so sad for the Egyptians and their businesses.

It is so sad isn't it. Our friends in Crete are sad for the Egyptians, Tunisians and so on, but also hugely relieved, as holiday bookings to Crete are increasing, at last

Well we are still thinking of going back to Egypt for 4 weeks in October as we have done for the last 2 years. This is our annual 'flyandflop' holiday as against the others when we do loads of things.

Our hotel is a long way from everything else and we see no likelihood of any trouble breaking out there. We don't snorkel but have been told it is great just a short walk down the beach and they see turtles as well. You can't snorkel from the hotel's beach as the coral is protected.

The only thing stopping us booking right now is that the hotel has a new manager and we are waiting to hear from someone who is there at the moment whether there are any changes.

Greatnan The earthquake at 2.30 on Friday afternoon could be felt here in Richmond and also in Wakefield. (Absentdaughter was at home with a sick child and rang to check that we were okay.) It wasn't as strong as the one three or four weeks ago but seemed to go on slightly longer. I don't think that there have been any report of injury or death but there was some damage in Wellington, outage of electricity and closure of some public services – metro, Te Papa, etc.

My daughter did not feel it, absent, and her cheeky daughter said she must be too old to feel the earth move! She now tells me a crack has appeared in her wall. She says they often have tremors but she doesn't sound overly bothered.

Greatnan Seddon (? I think it's near Kaiteriteri) is the place with the most damage on the South Island. Apparently, there has been a series of aftershocks during the night but I was not aware of them.

I do so hope the earthquakes don't get any worse.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/10246706/New-Zealands-earthquake-caught-on-camera.html

Haven't tried doing a link before - how do you get it to work when you clever lot just put something witty instead of repeating the whole http address?