I always catch myself when I say ‘our home is cold’ because it isn’t. It’s warm. Sometimes a little fiery. We are passionate people after all. But back to the house. It’s open plan. Tiled floors. Glass sliders instead of wooden doors. So last night when it was 3 degrees outside. It was cold in our house.
And then it was dark.
The lights were out. Again.
It was our turn to have load-shedding. For non-South Africans this is a complete mindf@ck. Load-shedding?
Yip.
Random. Mostly last-minute-dot-com announcements, made by the electricity supplier to us, the consumer, that there will be no electricity for a set number of hours on that particular day.
So last night the lights were out from 18h00 to 20h30.
What do you do when the lights are out?
I noticed how dark it was outside. I locked the doors in the house and made sure the security gates were firmly in place. The dark heightened my sense of needing to be safe.
I lit a few candles. More for decoration than light.
I switched on the LED lamps.
I opened my iPad to start reading a book.
My mind wandered.
To the townships in our country. Where living in the dark and cold is more the norm than not.
To Palestine.
I heard my stomach growl.
I thought of cooking for one. Thought of rumbling tummies around the world.
I listened to Ms Habibi (our Bouvier) snore soundly.
I wondered if my new neighbor knew how much of her conversation I could hear.
I started a pro’s and con’s list: to do a MSc or not
I remembered I’d opened my iPad to read a book.
I started a new book.
Got bored.
Opened another.
Thought about how cold I felt. Thought about being alone.
Got angry about inefficiencies.
Thought about turning 56 in a few days.
Started daydreaming about what I would do if I won the Lotto.
I picked up my phone.
Surely it has to 20h30.
Just another 2 hours to go.
Who knows what else I can do for the next 120 minutes?
Solve.
For self. And then for others.