Electricity and Water

The other day, the water was turned off so a pipe outside could be fixed. We had no idea when it would be turned back on. Unexpected cases of this are common here. We've learned to live with it. There are bottles of tap water in the cupboard for emergencies. You don't appreciate water until you don't have it. Since we've lived abroad, we've experienced more times when we've had no water. Imagine the things that become difficult or impossible. No flushing the toilet. No showers. No drinking water if you are in Canada. Unluckily, we didn't have much drinking water because the water delivery guy missed us. Luckily, we can just walk out to the street to get more. We chose not to make supper as planned cause cooking rice and cleaning veggies would use up the bottles of saved tap water. We chose to save them. We ate out instead. Even brushing our teeth became challenging.

A few days later, our electricity went out. Again, this is not unusual. When it went out, I was trying to decide which was more essential: water or electricity. We agreed that we could work around having no water but the electricity was much more of a nuisance. No Internet means no entertainment for us at the moment. We can't surf, we can't watch tv shows or movies. It was daytime so we didn't have to worry about sitting in the dark. We couldn't have breakfast, no microwave for coffee, no toaster, no electric cooktop. We couldn't even take a shower since we have to plug in the heater to get hot water. We didn't have to worry about the heat in our apt though cause the radiators continued to work without water and electricity.

In Canada, we took these things for granted because they were relatively reliable. Here, we are thankful to get them back when they stop for a short time. Makes you think!