There’s nothing like an unexpected explosion to reset a stale mindset. Yesterday started out as such a normal day – making some porridge on the stove using my new activated buckwheat recipe – when all of a sudden, there was an explosion. Maybe that word is overdramatising it a bit, but that’s what it seemed like at the time. Busted pipe plus moderate ceiling collapse or the actual apocalypse? It’s all a matter of perspective.
Point is, I’m now not able to inhabit my kitchen or living room, as the space joining the two is completely waterlogged. That includes pretty much everything that was in the space, including my sound system, TV, piano and air conditioning units. Canberra has such inclement weather that the previous owner of this house installed two separate units – a basic freestanding unit for cooling and a wall-mounted reverse cycle one for heating.
Thank god for home and contents insurance. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay for the extras cover that would pay for me to stay in a hotel while this is getting sorted out, so now I’m stuck in this wetland of an apartment, and without heating, no less. Welcome to the coldest part of the year! Like I said, it’s all been good for rebooting my worldview, but I think day of this is quite sufficient for that purpose, thanks. I’d like to be warm and dry now, if it’s all the same to you, oh merciless fates.
My mother always used to complain about having to pay for an annual ducted heating service. Around Canberra, one needs to stay on top of these things, but it’s not like we live in Antarctica – if you don’t want to pay for heater servicing, then don’t. You won’t die. In any case, I think that instilled in me a weird sense of obligatory reliance on climate control systems that I’ve taken with me to this day.
In fact, I’m experiencing a sort of ego death around the demise of the two units that have long occupied my living room. This is why it’s good for me to have a mindset reset.