(Photo was recreated at 5AM today. This post is just transcribed from the notebook I wrote in yesterday.)
Morning?
I'm currently eating my breakfast (oats, milk (soy), cacao nibs, banana) NOT at my desk, NOT on my phone. It feels weird. Normally at this time I would be browsing reddit or levelling my crafting skills in FFXIV, but nope, I'm just sitting at the barely used dining table eating my breakfast and writing this.
I woke up at my usual time (I think?), but didn't fancy stumbling around in the dark so I went back to sleep. When I woke up the second time, I went to the toilet and returned to find MrFodder had taken all of the doona for himself. Usually, I'd take a photo to show him when he wakes up, but not today. He asserts that I am the one who hogs the doona for myself, but I am slowly building up evidence against his case.
I accidentally woke him as I tried wrestling some doona back and we spent some time together all warm. It's probably one of the things I miss most about getting up so early.
I eventually did end up going for my run - no music, no podcasts, no distance / speed tracker. I think it was about 9km, but I'm not 100% sure.
It was strange at first, running with nothing but my own thoughts. It took a lot longer to get to that runner's high point where I had stopped fighting my desire to turn around and go back home, and just went with it.
While I was out, I thought about what else I would do for the rest of the day. I decided that I really wanted to make crêpes, as I had been craving them ever since I went to that crêpe place - Rue de Creperie - with QCN and kawarimi. Stumbling block - I didn't have a crêpe recipe! I decided to end up my at the library and go searching for one.
I didn't even know if the library was open as I couldn't look up the opening hours and I had no idea what time it was. Fortunately, it was open, but I had to walk around searching for a cookbook as I couldn't use the computer to look it up. I ended up finding a French cookbook called Dèlicieux - the Recipes of France, which had a recipe for Brittany crêpes with strawberries, cream and icing sugar.
I couldn't borrow the book to take home, as that also requires the use of a computer, so I had to memorise the recipe instead.
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
10g butter
(to serve)
cream
strawberries
icing sugar
Make a well in the flour. Put the egg inside. Put a bit of the milk with the egg and whisk, slowly adding more milk until you get a smooth mixture (and you've added all the milk). Slowly incorporate the flour. Whisk until you have a thin batter.
Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes to allow the gluten to rest.
When ready to cook, heat your pan and melt the butter to coat. Mix the melted butter into the batter. Pour of small amount of batter and turn the pan to make a thin coat. When the top of the crêpe is cooked (will be brown), turn over and cook the other side. Cook the rest of the batter the same way.
Whip the cream, slice some strawberries. Dust the crêpes with icing sugar, add strawberries and cream and serve.
I'm going to buy groceries for tonight's dinner, and maybe buy a crêpe pan if I have enough money leftover. May also eat lunch at a café if there's still money leftover, otherwise I'll make some bread and buy some salami and salad.
Oh, when I went to have my shower, I turned the fan on, forgetting that it's attached to the lights. I turned it back off, but it meant my shower was both dark and steamy.
Afternoon?
Grocery shopping was a great success. The meat was about $10, the veggies $3.40. I also picked up some pasta flour for $3.00. I checked out the price for crêpe panes, and one was three figures! The other one I found was over $30, which was out of my budget, so I gave it a miss. I had enough leftover to buy myself some buns for lunch.
I actually didn't feel that hungry, but it was starting to get dark, so I figured it would be time for dinner soon. I must have had breakfast a lot later than I thought.
At the supermarket, I did consider using the self-checkout, but that seemed too close to using a computer, so I lined up for a regular checkout.
I had forgotten what it was like standing in line. I was pretty tempted to buy some junk food, as it was all I was thinking about while waiting, and I still had some money leftover, but I remembered my 12-week challenge and held off.
Plans for the rest of the day:
- start vegetable stock
- star bread for garlic bread
- start pasta sauce
- make pasta
- bake bread
- cook pasta
- make garlic butter
- work on my jigsaw puzzle while everything is cooking
- eat dinner
- make crêpes with banana and caramel sauce
- if still light, more jigsaw or maybe piano
- otherwise, go to bed
Night
Well, it got dark a lot sooner than I had expected. I am currently writing this by candlelight.
By the time I started the vegetable stock, I'd say it was 4 / 4:30, as that's around the time MrFodder was going to leave for his friend's house.
It got dark so quickly that I scrapped the bread and started on the sauce, which takes about 2 hours. The sauce looked about half done when I realised it was far too dark to see anything. Making pasta from scratch also got nixed, and I ran to the supermarket to buy some candles.
The first candles I found were some scented ones that were $15 each! I didn't have that much money left! I found a vanilla and brown sugar one for $5, but I didn't think it would make a very good light source so I asked one of the staff members if they had non-scented candles. I found a box of 6 "emergency" candles for $2.50 (within budget), and raced home to finish cooking - all the running I've been doing is coming in handy.
I keep a lighter around for birthday candles, but usually delegate the task for lighting to someone else. I eventually got it working and the pasta was finished under candlelight (not as romantic as it sounds). I was very wary about keeping flammable things away from the candles, and I actually had to be quite careful about opening and closing cupboards.
I've just finished eating and the sauce wasn't great, a bit too watery - though it was hard to judge when it was done under low light. I am going to try cooking the crêpes now, though to be honest, I feel ready for bed. Maybe it's that whole circadian rhythm thing - now that there's no light, my body is telling me that it's time for bed. I'm undecided about taking the candle to the bedroom. It's safe in the kitchen, as there's no carpet, I wouldn't feel comfortable with it in the bedroom.
Sidenote: I realised that the fridge has a light and I can't seem to find the sensor to block it. I am purposely avoiding using it as a light source though.
Things left to do:
- cook and eat crêpes
- wash up
- get laundry (from the line)
- brush teeth
- go to bed
Notice how any entertainment has been scrapped?
Night, Pt 2
Crêpes turned out pretty good! Michael says that good crêpe chefs should be able to flip a crêpe using just the pan, so I was practicing that. It took me a few tries, but I got there in the end. The first crêpe was super salty, and I've only just realised that Nuttelex has salt added to it. :( Oh well.
I didn't have access to a scale, so I had to guess what 10g of Nuttelex was. Then I found out I have no idea w hat the ratio of butter / Nuttelex to sugar is in caramel, so I made it up. It didn't seem to be caramelising so I added some soy milk, and ended up with a toffee-like result. Oops!
I spread it over the bananas though, and dusted with icing sugar. The "caramel" hardened into a soft, chewy caramel, but it tasted good in the end.
Wow, sighing is dangerous when you have a candle.
Overall, it was an interesting day. Not knowing what time it was bothered me a lot less than I thought it would. The hardest part was actually the no-lights thing. It really makes you take for granted how little sunlight there is in the Winter.
That last part makes no sense, I don't know why you would take for granted barely any amount of sunlight. Maybe I was going delirious at that point. I think my original plan was just to go to bed when it got dark, with the intention of getting a decent night's sleep.
Having no phone / debit card / credit card was a minor inconvenience at most. It just meant that you had to plan your day ahead of time. I imagine that before the existence of ATMs, EFTPOS, or credit cards, people would make time to go to the bank if they didn't get paid in cash. There were cheque books, but with fees attached to every cheque, I figure most people would withdraw in person if possible. It really reduces the impulse purchases you could make, knowing that this money had to last until your next trip to the bank.
It did suck not being able to Google a crêpe recipe on the spot, but I lucked out and had the chance to go to the library. I imagine that if it hadn't been open, I probably would have just made something else instead, from a recipe book I have at home. Or made something up, like I did with the caramel.
Ice-cream machine, dishwasher, aircon / heater, car - didn't notice any impact. Kettle was slightly inconvenient, but I just boiled water in a pot instead.
The candle's wick seems to have frayed in the middle and now it's gotten a lot dimmer than beforfe. I've been thinking about candle management. I had two candles burning while I was cooking, because the light from one wasn't enough to see everything. When I moved to the dining table, I blew one out and just kept one going. I've gone through about half of that candle tonight.
Imagine if I were so poor that I only had enough money for 7 candles a week. I couldn't just go burning two at once like some rich person. I'd really have to try and get as much done during daylight to preserve my candles.
It's really hard carrying a candle around and having to carry other things, too. Especially since we don't have a proper candleholder and I"m just using a plate and some sticky tape to hold this up.
It's actually spooky sitting here with just the light of a candle. Darkness is weird. I remember going to a sleepover at a friend's house in high school. We had gone to bed, lights were out, and that's when the talking began. I found out all these things that I never knew about my friends and it was the first time I told anyone about my crush on DT. There was just something about the darkness that made us feel so safe confessing our innermost secrets. Which is probably why I'm writing so much now even though I should really be getting ready for bed.
As for my original goal of seeing whether I could entertain myself without modern technology - I blew that out of the water. There is a long list of things I wanted to do, but ran out of daylight:
- piano
- finally start reading that book I bought at the French Festival
- the jigsaw puzzle I bought at the Starlight auction
- more cleaning around the house
- explore areas I haven't walked to yet from my house
- start on the Europe scrapbook
- brainstorm ideas for my next movie
Night, Pt. 3
I guess I just failed. I've just taken the washing off the line. The laundry isn't dry. It's in the dryer now. Technically, laundry is MrFodder's domain (dishes are mine), and I kinda feel like if it were my responsibility, I'd have done it earlier to take advantage of the day. But that's just me making excuses. If I didn't have modern technology, how would I have solved this problem?
Maybe lay out the clothing inside the house so that they can dry inside? Hung them up near the oven with the oven on? Ironed them? (Maybe the iron counts as modern tech though). Spent hours waving them in the air like someone waving a cape at a bull in order to generate fake airflow? I'm not sure - something to look up when I get back to civilisation.
This site suggests laying it on a towel, wrapping it and twisting it to wring the water out. Among other suggestions.
One thing I do miss about having my phone is access to my journal. I decided to start keeping one again as I feel like there are all these things that I want to say, but don't have anyone to say them to. It's not all super secret stuff or anything, in fact, about 90% of it is just mundane stuff that I feel nobody wants to hear, and so I just write about it to get it off my chest.
Actually, a lot of it is work stuff that I've been told not to tell anyone, or that I can't talk about with people outside work because they're missing all the context, and I can't talk about with people at work because it may lead to bad consequences.
It's oddly liberating, writing things in the journal, even though nobody reads it. I think just putting my thoughts into words helps get it off my mind. I don't get much time during the week to debrief, between work, blog, Dota 2 and FFXIV, so weekends are usually when I catch up. That's why today has been a struggle for me, in terms of wanting to write in my journal. Maybe I should get back into the habit of a nightly writing session?
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