I work as a freelancer translator and writer, and my office is a separate building in my backyard, a.k.a. home office. Therefore, you can picture how much electricity means for me: computer, Internet, radio (can’t live without it), light, refrigerator, microwave, and a large etc etera that makes my work-at-home life much easier.

There I was, in a wildly windy, cloudy and super cold day, in the middle of a rush translation for a regular client (what translation is not “rush”?), with the heating high (an electric small space heater, enough to keep my feet warm) when a blackout came. 

Computer, lost. Heat, lost. Radio, lost. Internet and phone, ok (what for if my desktop computer is out?) Since I hadn’t lost any of my work, I decided to go home and have some lunch. So there I went, under the blazing wind up to my kitchen and re-heated some soup on the stove (my micro was out, yeah)

As soon as I sat down with my bowl of soup in front of me, I notice the silence and started daydreaming…

Why not leaving everything and go and live in a country house, with no electricity, no phone, no computer, no TV, for just one year? I have lived without a fridge or washing machine before, so it may not be so terrible… Enjoying a paceful evening and mornings full of the sounds of nature, waking up and have some coffee and go and work in the garden (although I have a large record as a plant/flower serial killer), catching up with my reading, playing with my children and husband… sigh

But, what would I do for a living? Then I may try a shorter period of time, say, three months? That way I don’t need to quit my job altogether

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…

But I should phone my mum and dad from time to time, the doctor in case I need them…

And, did you remember you are afraid of the dark as a two year-old? And an old, country house, in thew middle of nowhere? And the winter cold, and the summer heat? And two small children with nothing to do and no TV or radio?

Suddenly, the dream has turned into a nightmare! The silence did not sound so seductive, the noise of the wind blowing against my kitchen window at midday scares me.

And then I remembered, my mp4 player is right there, don’t cry, just turn it on and play some music, put the radio, whatever…

As the smoothing sounds of the radio station voices start to bring back my peace of my mind I repeat to myself, as a mantra:

“Good, electricity, good.”