'Did the earth move for you? Dunno, I was fast asleep!'

I know what you’re thinking: what a worry to have your own flesh and blood in a strange city with little grasp of the local language so soon after a disaster… and the other one in Bangkok!

Apologies, but it was too good a joke opportunity to turn down. And while it’s my eldest Bradley who managed to touch down in Bangkok as an earthquake struck, it’s always the youngest who has me worried.

Isaac’s in Liverpool just as the city’s beloved football team suffered the relative disaster of being eliminated from the Champions League and getting stuffed by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final. Not the best time to be a Geordie in Scouseland!

Naturally, he’s managed to find himself in more scrapes on Merseyside in a few days than his brother has in weeks traipsing through Asia.

By coincidence, my current life-partner was also in Asia, sitting in a picturesque airport on a Thai island waiting to fly out to Bangkok when the earthquake struck. One minute she’s live videoing me shots of the airport, the next she’s telling me that flights are grounded because of the earthquake.

Cripes! It was clear she was in big trouble. I mean, think about it. London Heathrow was shut down for 18 hours due to a fire in a substation. How long would an airport take to be given the all clear after an earthquake? Turns out about an hour.

Guess the Health and Safety guy gave the Bangkok runway the once over and said all was good.

‘The runway’s good?’

‘Well, there’s a few cracks, but no yawning chasm billowing smoke and flaming magma that I can see, so yeah, I’d say all is good.’

‘Cool. Open her up again.’

A quick message to our Bradley in Bangkok was in order to make sure all was safe and well. That message was the first he’d heard about any earthquake. He’ll sleep through anything that lad.

Separation anxiety appears to be a one-way street at the moment. The joys of being a parent, I guess.