Blackout for an Hour (or two) at Blacktown

"A candle loses none of its light by lighting another candle." Unknown

During Earth Hour 2008 (actually made a booboo and had a "dryrun" Friday, 28 March, or so I justified... anyway doubly good for the Earth's carbon footprint and my electricity bill!); lit a couple of candles. Above is one and took a photo; I was bored... ;D . Obviously we did another Earth Hour the next day, on the actual Earth Hour night. What the...?

It was weird not watching TV, as we are big fans of travel-food-leisure-stand up comedy TV shows on Foxtel. We did managed to get some conversation going after dinner by candlenight, and it was raining. Hang on, this is a deja vu moment: been in this situation before... any flood water coming into the house?

Oh...oh... that was from a past life while living in Olongapo and Cavite in the Philippines. Every rainy and typhoon season, we would have strong winds and rain and before you know it: blackout; no electricity, wind howling, no TV and flood waters starting to creep in the house. Experiences I don't really miss much of my childhood.

Blackout I can tolerate but flood waters in the house is a lot of work. You have to salvage furnitures and anything on the floor or within reach of the flood waters. And cleaning is a bitch afterwards, all those mud!

The only redeeming thing is that you can play water inside the house! That was fun, paper boats and sometimes you can catch a fish or two (I kid you not!) that somehow managed to swim past the door. Cool ha. You can also take a shower in the rain, what bliss.

Going back to the present, with no TV and computer; it was weird but in a good way. You can think and meditate and after that, converse among your housemates. With the proliferation of mobile phones, and other technological gadgets, it seems one is on a 24/7 "on call". One is always "available" whether you like it or not.

Perhaps technology and the advent of electricity has its drawbacks, other than the huge electricity bill and environmental damage we do. Maybe this Earth Hour is a good thing after all. We should do this at least every month, if possible every week or every night.