i am a survivor.

i am sitting here, glowing with admiration, for myself, for surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

surviving, i do not mean that my house got blown away, or someone i know died, or that i survived a near death experience, or that i woke up in the middle of the sea.

surviving, truly surviving, living withOUT electricity.

first night was fun, thrilling, with the wind huffing and pufffing and the trees go shushing and slashing and with big droplets of rain escorting the hurricane. while i sit down, by the apple scented candles, listening to the news on the radio. and soon fell asleep. with every tiny little hole in the house sealed, sleeping was not easy, breathing was not easy.

sunrose and sunset for 7 shitting times, and there was still shitting no electricity.

it was no internet, no telecommunication, no televesion, no music, no entertainmnet, no light, no sight, no food, no milk, no air-con, no shit for 7 shitting days. just darkness and silence.

everytime the sunsets, the body automatically shuts down, though the mind is very much still wide awake. therefore, the body literally slumps on the couch, while the mind fantasizes on watching tevee. though surrounded by candles, it is romantically dejecting. reading was the only sensible activity but reading was not easy, with the candle light flickering to the sound of silence. talking was the next best, dogs was topic of the night. besides that, cockroach hunting & killing, jigsaw puzzle, understanding the 'mechanism' of fire on candles, playing with fire were some of the activities.

the only music was the ticking of the shitting clock. every tick it made drove me one step closer to insanity. the only image on the tevee were the reflection of my sister and i. the only air-con was when god farted.

it was like living a life of a vagabond. living on the road, until curfew time, then back to the pitch-black dark cave. around and about scavenging for electricity, to charge the handphone (the utmost necessity), scavenging for real food, scavenging for internet services.

on the eight time, the sunset, i thought a star must have had fallen into room, mana tahu, it was the shitting electricity! the joy.

one thing i learnt from this golden experience, hope is shit, casualness (whatever-ness) is not shit.