With the arrival of the rains and the cold season to Amsterdam, I returned home in the afternoon, hoping to turn up the intensity of the heating system. Oh, and a hot shower would have been nice, too. Nevertheless, the heating system refused to response. I called the plumbers. They came and said we were lucky not to have exploded, the whole system needs to be fixed. I asked how long, he said a few days.
It took over a week. In this week, I went to the gym a few times to take a shower, for the rest, I was heating up water in a pot, mixing it with cold water and pouring it in small dosages over myself. After the "cleaning procedure", there were no warm clothes to put on, no warm corner to sit in. So it was hot tea and a thick blanket that kept us going. After a few days I almost got used to this solution.
And then, one sunny autumn morning, the heating system started to work again. And now I am getting used to the luxury of a warm apartment and the possibility of taking a shower any time I feel like it! It is all here, in this 39 square meters. Warmth, internet, connection to the outside world, all possible entertainment gadgets, best food one could wish...what an extremely comfortable life we lead!
And the whole experience made me appreciate the energy supply each household in this country has. Made to understand that things we here take for granted, are actually not granted by far to everybody, everywhere.
And indeed, from a global perspective, it indeed is a luxury!
1 comment:
That's funny... it's exactly how I feel when I come from my moutain adventures, each warm and dry piece of comfort I have when I return is experienced ten fold. Nontheless it's quite interesting to see how one can lower his comfort zone to levels that we don't even thing possible in a day to day base. We can do much more than we give ourselves credit for...
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