This weekend was relatively dull, but on Sunday afternoon came an interesting turn of events.

httpv://au.youtube.com/watch?v=wavH_8EoVO8

Sang Boon and I went to the city for a bit of refuge from the heat of the afternoon and to do some shopping. I was expecting a shower or a small storm, and the clouds were creeping up on us, so as I parked my car I told myself to take an umbrella which I duly forgot as I stepped out.

I said to Sang Boon “Maybe I should get the umbrella.”, but she said “No we don’t need one in the city.” So off we went to Myer Center, where an hour later while we were looking at Nespresso machines, we heard a huge clap of thunder followed by a terrible deluge that sounded like the whole building was actually under the ocean and the waves were lapping the roof.

Not long after, my sister rang us to say that power was cut off at home. This is something that happened before when I was living in Indooroopilly, and power was restored in half an hour, and assuming that this was just another storm, I thought that the same would apply in Toowong.

So I got home, and I got out of the car in the pouring rain to key in the numbers to open up the electronic gate. The electronic gate is another thing that makes me angry. The apartment I’m renting didn’t come with the remote for this gate, or so the agent tells me. The result of this ridiculousness is that everytime I get home I need to get out of the car to open the gate. I don’t bother getting one because I expect to move out soon. Anyway, I got out in the pouring rain to get the gate open, but it was dead because of the outage. So Sang Boon and I decided to sit outside in the car for awhile. After about 10 minutes the rain died down somewhat and we gave up, because it was getting too humid in the car, so we jumped out of the car and ran back in the apartment which was dark, because of the lack of electricity.

Unforunately my assumptions that electricity would get turned on again in half an hour was this was not the case, and we were left without power from 4pm to around 4am.

However despite the storm’s best efforts in taking out power poles and cellphone towers, I was not to be outdone. Even in the chaos that ensued, I managed to send out a Tweet. Mobile internet is a truly wonderful thing.

Two main thoughts came to my mind during the storm:

1. Electronic gates are only useful when there are electricity. As are elevators.
2. Slow mobile internet is the next best thing to no internet. Maybe I should get a provider with wider coverage, so I can get wireless internet in the country as well.

Let every natural disaster be an opportunity to learn something new about oneself. That’s what I always say!

Rest of the pics and a short video on Flickr