I wrote this some three months ago and it has languished – somewhat deservedly – in my drafts pile. However as I’m a bit busy this week I’m going to post it anyway as a reminder of the summer Melbourne has (NOT!) really had.
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What’s the best way to describe C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E?
How’s about when it’s 37C (100F) and at 5.45pm there’s a blackout. Right in the middle of tea time. Sometime before kids are due in bed.
Pros: Because we’re so close to summer, it’s still light outside here in Melbourne until 8.30pm (soon, that will be 10ish-pm). So I knew we had time before we needed to crack out the candles.
Cons: Sweating was an issue, but after two tepid baths and one fantastic water-fight the kids remained cool.*
But as the time ticked by I started to feel somewhat anxious. What if they don’t get it back on? Will we have to sweat through the night? I don’t ‘do’ summertime-stinky-sleeping well.
This was on top of an afternoon of hearing and balance tests, for the Meniere’s Bitch Disease. How does it feel to have a microphone-probe placed right next to your eardrum, and then a headphone over that, which then constant, repetitive beats are blasted, making you feel like you’re going to puke?
Surprisingly, not that fabulous.
So all I wanted to do was crawl into bed; though it would’ve been more comfortable to take my blanket into a sauna at that particular time.
The power eventually came back on at 8.30pm. And in those almost three hours, we witnessed something funny. People actually got up and went walking in the streets. Stopped and chatted to each other. Keira got dressed up as Bob the Builder (could she fix it? Alas, not.) and waved to all the cars as they passed, whole families having retreated to their only source of air-conditioning. So all the carbon we were saving in not having power was then rediverted to all the toxic exhaust fumes put out by the cruisers. But never mind. We survived.
And it was kind-of fun.
But I can live for a little while before another one!
*and stuffed the water-restrictions, but hey, I think we’re excused just this once, right?
