Powerful Lessons

We were left 'powerless' two days ago by a blackout which affected the whole suburb. That's when we felt the power of electricity and its importance in our lives.

It was around dinner time, the sky was raining and I was preparing to have a warm soupy dinner of Shabu Shabu. The stock was prepared, enoki was washed and the table almost set when the whole house suddenly went dark. My first thought was it's just our house and probably something we did tripped the circuit. But on 2nd thought, no one was using any electrical equipment then. Hubby looked outside and saw that the whole street was dark. The whole stretch of houses along our street had no lights as well.

Thank God the kids were quite calm in the darkness, only KK mentioned something about being scared of ghosts. My mind went into an emergency alert mode and started to think of our next steps.

Torchlight. We only have one and it was upstairs. Even that, the battery was a already quite weak and we have no spare batteries for it. Lesson #1 learnt. Always have a set of spare batteries for your torch. Lesson #2: Have another torch downstairs.

How about candles? I remembered we bought some aroma candles but am not sure of its exact location. Lesson #3: Always have a specific location for such emergency items such as torchlights and candles.

Finally found the candles, but there's no lighter. I went to the gas stove, thinking I could start a fire there to light the candle. Damn! There was no spark to light the gas cos the starter is electrical. Lesson #4: Have a box of matches or a flame lighter to light the candles.

No choice, we had to rely on our one and only dim torchlight and light from the laptop screen to get around. Being new here, we had no idea who to call if such an event happen. We called our friend who advised that if the whole street was affected, our neighbours would probably have alerted the responsible parties so all we had to do was wait. He said that blackouts are quite common when it rains. Welcome to Australia. It would probably take about an hour for the power to be reconnected.

Without any sustainable light source, our next best alternative is to abandon our Shabu Shabu and go out for dinner. Luckily the weather was cold so I guess the meat and all the stuff in the fridge should be alright if the power comes back in a few hours' time. But wait, the car is in the garage and how do we get the car out when the garage door cannot open electronically? Thankfully, Hubby has a solution to that. There is a way to open the garage door manually. Lesson #5: Learn how to operate the garage door in the manual mode.

So we packed the kids into the car and ended up with a dinner at MacDonalds instead. As we drove along, we realised that the power outage affected not just our street but nearly the whole suburb. Many traffic lights were not working as a result.

With these powerful lessons in my mind, we dropped by our local supermarket that night to stock up on extra batteries, torchlight, candles and a flame lighter. The most important lesson for me, Lesson #6 was: Always be prepared and never assume such things will not happen. "Be Prepared" was the motto for Girl Guides. I wonder why I never learnt it to heart before?

The biggest casualty as a result of that blackout was my HP laptop. Already handicapped with spoilt speakers and miraculously resurrected once from serious "disk error", this time, Hubby tripped on its wires in the dark and the poor fella plunged to its death from the dining table. It wouldn't respond to resuscitation efforts and Hubby finally decided to let it R.I.P. We went shopping for a new one and here I am, writing this blog on my new Acer 5920. Comes with more power!