The Little Things

Yesterday, as we neared home after dinner, we were surprised to see so many red, yellow, and white trucks around the corner before we turned towards home ("oh... TNB...?"). Hui Yii then eagerly related her story about the car knocking into the lamp post and "turtle-ing". But as we turned, we began to feel a slight dismay. Why was it so dark in our area? No lights? No electricity?

My reaction was, "Oh noooo. The poor pets. They'd be so scared."
Hui Yii's reaction was, "Oh noooo. We can't watch tv..." Hahaha. Parents and Hui Yii are following a HK drama and they wanted to know the fate of the lady who was about to be hit by a motorbike.

To be fair, in the back of my mind I also went, "Oh no... Cannot charge my phone..."

It's also ironic that earlier in the week a friend posed a question on twitter asking whether we rather no electricity or water, Hui Yii and I confidently replied that we rather no electricity over water.

As we reached the front gate, another wave of dismay hit us - we couldn't open our auto-gates. We parked the car outside and out came Oreo from the darkness wagging her tail. Tommy appeared from the drain at the same time and mewed. So cute in their bewilderment.

Someone had to climb over the gates so I volunteered to do "the climb" and let my family in.

I used my phone flashlight to light the way and my dad asked later where was it on his phone.

Got our Christmas candles out and lighted our house pretty and warm.

Was feeling quite contented and happy
and then reality hit me:

Cold water shower.

For a person who takes warm showers even on very warm days, I was pretty stubborn for refusing the hot water my mum said she would boil for my bath. Too "action" for my own good, I went upstairs to have my cold shower. I took the cold shower and regretted because the water pressure got lower and lower. No electricity to power the water pump... I didn't even manage to soap myself.

"Defeated", I wrapped myself in my towel and went downstairs to wait for the water to boil for my second bath.

It turned out to be my favourite experience of the night:

In the semi-darkness, I scooped lukewarm water from the tub and poured it over myself. The tactile sensation of water pouring down felt new, felt different, and felt really nice. It reminded me of childhood, of my mum, of being happy, of being given a bath.

We got our electricity back at 1.48am when the fan started buzzing.

This experience made me count my blessings -

Electricity
My family
My pets
Light
Love
Water
My bed
A home
Sleep

Just to name a few.