One afternoon, we had a blackout. All the houses in our street were left without electricity and lights. Where we live, it’s pretty uncommon for this to happen, however, we always have an emergency stash of candles and torches, just in case.

I called the electricity company, and was told that the power would be restored in “several hours, later in the evening”. OMG what were we going to do for 4-5 hours IN THE EVENING WITH NO POWER!?

I decided to just run with what life threw us, and turn it into some kind of special occasion.

I lit candles all around the house – on a table in our a dark hallway, in the toilet, in the kitchen and dining areas. And made sure I taught my children about fire safety.

Thankfully my stovetop is gas, so I managed to cook dinner – in the dark!

So we also ate dinner – in the dark!

We sat in the lounge room, telling stories about the olden days, when there was NO ELECTRICITY – a time when people talked, played games, told stories and played musical instruments and SANG for fun.

Our little family hung around and talked in the candlelight. We could hear the sounds of birds and frogs outside. The boys were very excited and happy, but in a very calm way.

I accepted that I wasn’t going to do any work on the computer, or watch tv, or even read in the candlelight. I could feel my body clock slowly winding down into a relaxed lull. I really liked it.

And it was ONLY 7:30pm!!!

Unfortunately, while I was sitting in the dark, imagining many years of life without electricity… the lights flicked back on, our entertainment system bleeped, the fridge hummed, our alarm system shrilled, the answering machine restarted – and my world was filled with noise again.

I was actually very disappointed!

(But I still had my computer on two minutes after the boys went to bed!)