Dah lah panas

Yeah… I will have to save my discussions at Subway’s entry for another time.

I had a more pressing story to share.

Semalam, di zaman-zaman moden with teknologi yang canggih ini, kami dok dalam gelap malam semalam.

When I saw the gate opened oh so slowly dengan lemah gemalainya, I figured that the electric was off. It happened sometimes when it rained. Old house and not 3-phased yet but I had taught Bibik how to deal with it if the main switch ever kicked.

But it turned out the whole jalan was experiencing power cut. Called TNB or whatever they are called currently, and lodged my complaint. I am one of many I was told. Okay that was about 6.30 right ?

Then saw a fire truck passed by. Complete with the little Bomba van. My anak-anak (plus maknya sekali) was macam beruk mak ye, excited giler nengok fire truck. We nosily looked at where they go but didn’t see any fire.

Hmmm………

Kamil came home with candles. Since it was nearing Maghrib, saw that Aunty kat depan ada lampu although just one source which is quite funny. Neighbour sebelah kiri pun pasang satu lampu aje. Sebelah kanan the whole of his ground floor is lit up but their second floor remained shrouded in darkness. Kami punya ? Gelap ataih bawah kiri kanan.

Aunty kat depan kata luckily she has one socket that worked so she depended on that. Hearing that I quickly tried our sockets but none worked. Cess.

Called TNB again after 1 hour. The hour they promised that things will go back to normal, the hour that they claimed we would be catapult back to civilization. But the answer remained, “Dalam tindakan, ya puan.”

“But… neighbours saya semua ada lampu… Saya aje tak de….”

“Puan… puan dah check main switch tak ?”

Haram. Have you been talking to my husband ? Was he the one who told you I am such a ninny ? I am a bloody engineer tau dak ?

Hmmmm…..

Went out to have dinner, leaving my freshly bought dory melting in the sink. Before that bathed in candle light with very, very low pressured water because no electricity means no water pump. Damn ! Kids were crowding me. I was bloody rimas because of the heat.

Balik and the house still gelap. WAAAA !! Sat lagi Mark Harmon nak mai !!!!! Plus it was too hot. I don’t mind not having light but I really need my fan at least.

Called TNB again and I was informed that one tiang letrik caught fire on our street so that was why we were experiencing this madness. “Kerja-kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan, ya Puan..”

“Tipu !” I answered.

“Saya tahu ada kebakaran, tadi bomba dah mai… Tapi kalau awak kata kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan… tak ada pun. Saya baru aje round satu jalan ni… check neighbour mana yang ada lampu tapi tak nampak pun orang korang. Lori takdak, motor pun tak dak… Jadi macam mana awak kata kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan sebab saya tak nampak pun !”

Terkedu jap mamat tu. Sian dia. Bukannya dia yang doing the repairing kan ? But it was almost 10 and it was very hot and sticky. Badan rasa belangaih semacam. Kamil sat outside to try and grasp any kind of wind that passes by, no matter how little but I cannot tahan bau taik Gizmo ! Menusuk hidung dan kalbu ! Dengan gelap nya, dengan panaih pastu bau taik kucing pulak. Sapa yang tak angin ? Sapa yang tak sasau ?

I started my tirade on TNB and aku bising kat Kamil sebab tak reti train kucing dia. Adalah sekali dalam gelap-gelap tu aku tersepak Gizmo. Tak nampak kan…? Last time I checked, I cannot see in the dark. Gizmo menjerit aku menjerit. Si Kamil boleh dia panggil kucing dia, pesan jangan kacau aku sebab satgi aku sepak dia lagi ?

Wei, tak sengaja lah !

I sort of slept on the cold floor. No, I didn’t achieve REM because although my eyes were closed and I thought I was sleeping, I could hear the going ons around me. And I heard the TNB lorry came. About time to ! Kata satu jam. Dari pukul 6.30 tadi janji 1 jam.. ni dah pukui 10 dah… 1 jam hapa ? Dekat pukui 10 baru nak mai repair ?

Aku punya lah dok berguling ataih lantai when suddenly the light came on ! Yeay ! Kamil kejut budak2 but tak sempat sampai ataih, we were in darkness again.

Apara.

It went 2-3 times. Sekejap terang sekejap gelap. Aku punya tension tok sah cerita lah. I called again TNB and told them about my neighbour yang dok rumah sensorang. Sian Aunty. She was so glad when she heard my voice. She didn’t know how to call TNB and she was hoping her neighbours did the calling. Nasib baik I teringat to check up on her.

And then finally, finally at 11.30 pm, the lights went on, the fan whirred and the air-cond blasted the very much needed cool air.

So I made my complaints at 6.30 and precisely one hour after that, at 11.30, the problem was fixed. Please say you noticed my sharp sarcasm.

As I lay on my bed, I suddenly felt grateful towards modern life and a bit sad that we are depending too much on everything to work out perfectly. It takes only one element to fail and we suddenly couldn’t function.

So thank you Allah for channeling your wisdom to .. err… whoever founded electricity. Benjamin Franklin probably. Or maybe Michael Faraday…. Thomas Edison I think invented the first generator. Or perhaps this Italian who guy invented the first battery, Volt something… that is why we measured the force that drives the electric current in Volt.. in honour of him… Not sure.

Maybe a combination of these great minds that we are so comfortable right now. We cannot live without energy… Well at least I can’t and therefore, right now I am very humbled by kuasa Allah.

And let there be no more power cuts on Mondays because I have to see Mark Harmon at 9.30.