so the neighbours with cars came out into the streets and turned their headlights on, andlistened to their car radios and told those without what was happening. and my dad cycled around the jalan naung estate with spare candles to see if anyone needed something to tide the night over. in our house we lit tea lights and my mother got out long candles which we stuck in soy sauce dishes and carried with us like tapers. i don't see how the ancients could have stood studying by candlelight or for that matter, fireflies in a sack or rays through holes in the wall.

we are so dependent on electricity the shock of being unable to do anything - no computer, no air conditioning. no radio or tv and no reading because there are no lights. no hot water, or cooking, and no calling for help or to check on friends. this last made me feel most isolated. my mother got out a small tape recorder she uses for lectures which also has a radio function and we find out on the news that ang mo kio, woodlands, bedok, sengkang, clementi, orchard were also down. all this, we are told, is due to a sudden disruption of natural gas from indonesia, which immediately makes the mater wonder if there had been a terrorist attack. the darkness is difficult for us to accept, i think, because we are so used to having light - i say us meaning singapore - we're so excessively lit at nights that light is fundamental - and we're worse than helpless in darkness - i think it makes us feel fundamental unease