Earth Hour 28th March 2009

28Th of March was gazetted as Earth Hour day. Considering the fact that it will be 60 years that Earth Hour has been observed beguiles me for I am hearing about it for the first time!! Perhaps this year there was much publicity in the mass media. The radio stations-Hitz Fm, Fly Fm, Light n Easy, Mix Fm and others had continuously telecast the need to observe the earth hour by every living mortal Malaysian being, in and out of the country.Phew! Even if I was too lazy to observe it (which is the case for the many not so bright people like us) my kids will definitely not let me off the hook. Earth Hour received much publicity in schools as well.

So we were set. We will switch off ALL our lights on that day from 8.30pm - 9.30pm.



The girls and I discussed at length what we were going to do. I told them, I didn't care what they were up to at that hour but be darn sure that I am going to switch off the main power supply at precisely 8.30pm. So we all decided that we will eat at 8pm and the place to gather was at the family hall. My girls got the candles ready and my youngest one made sure the torch light was working.I informed my mom in law (she is 85) way before hand that the main power supply will be shut down at 8.30pm and she was so excited as well. Since she is a tad bit too old I reminded her to be seated in the hall at the appropriate time. She did!



At 5 minutes to 8.30pm, everyone was in a frenzy (including my maid) that we had only 5 minutes left. Tushaani offered herself or rather insisted that she wanted to be the ONE to shut off the supply. Though I am a little apprehensive about children and electricity supply, I relented. My maid was still doing the dishes so I gave her some candles to be put in the kitchen. Time and again I reminded my girls that they can only light the candles after the main supply was shut down. Not before.



At 1 minute to 8.30pm, we started the countdown 59,58,57.........45,44......32,31...........28,27.......19,18.....10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1....



We all shouted in darkness,"HAPPY EARTH HOUR!!!"



"Man, this was really exciting! We started playing cards - donkey (haven't played it in donkey years), old maid, snap, happy family etc. We soon realized that we do not need any candles because the street lights were still on. We decided to put the candles out but still kept all the doors and windows shut and the curtains draped to cut off all light from the street.



I had smsed all the numbers in my contact to observe the Earth Hour and my phone kept beeping throughout the hour. Let me tell you, everyone that I smsed told me that they were observing the Earth Hour, except for some who said,"OK". That could mean anything. It could mean "Yes, ok, I'll do it" or "Ok, you go ahead and do it".



Anyway, I did my part in alerting the others.After we were done with the cards (in less then 20 mins), grandma decided to tell us a ghost story in Tamil. We all listened very intently but unfortunately my mom in law sucks at ghost stories so we had to cut her short.I know, so mean,huh?



Then we decided to play the alphabet game -where we name the category, eg. animals and then each of us will have to name animals which start with that alphabet. We then went on to singers, actors, actresses, movies etc. After that we just chatted whilst the mosquitoes had a field day tearing at our skin.



Before we knew it it was way past 9.30pm. Suddenly the girls were all so solemn.



"That was too quick," they said.



"You want to continue for another hour?"



"But the rest of the world wont be!"



Then Tushaani switched on the power supply. We congratulated each other for a job well down. Next we will have to wait for the news as to how much electricity was saved by mother earth.The girls and I are soo proud of being part of Earth Hour.We do not mind doing it again and again even for a longer period of time.



What did you do?