Funny how certain things trigger bad memories or memories that were not pleasant. and are hidden away in our memory banks. This morning I was up bright and early trying to get a head start on the day before the rest of the family rises. The day always starts for me with a nice cup of coffee and a quick shower. I am a creature of habit so I always shower in the evenings and the mornings except this morning the shower was far from pleasurable.
For some reason the plumbing in our house is slightly cockeyed and the hot water flow is interrupted if someone else turns on a tap elsewhere in the house or flushes the toilet. This morning we were experiencing a cold snap in the weather and it must have been around 2 or 3 degrees so a little fresh.
Half way through the shower the hot water turned off and I was blasted with some extreme cold water which is guaranteed to wake you up far quicker than expected. Somewhere in the house someone had flushed a toilet instantly cutting my hot water supply and as funny as it sounds the joke wears off pretty quickly.
We have had plumbers look at the problem because the hot water supply should not be affected if a cold tap is turned on elsewhere. This has to be something with the pressure and still it has not been resolved since the day we have moved in which is a good few years now. The hope is once we have a new solar geyser installed this problem will be resolved as I believe this hot cold and no water pressure issue is geyser related.
When things like this happen it reminds me of the army days which were rather tough to say the least. We were based in Kimberley which is the Northern Cape and part of the Great Karoo region. The Karoo is a desert type climate so very hot dry days and extreme cold in the evenings often dropping to below freezing. The ablution blocks had no hot water and during those winter months you could feel the ice crystals hitting your body if you were one of the first hitting the showers.
Outside the fire buckets would be frozen over and living in a tent you were basically living in a freezer. I was never a morning type person and this life style was a rude awakening which I have never forgotten. The coldest part of the day is sunrise and we found out quite quickly how cold.
The morning physical training would often include standing on the parade ground prior to sunrise barefoot in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The feet would burn along with your ears and every step you took felt like needles sticking into your feet. This became a blur as it was that unpleasant hoping the sunrise would be over quickly warming our ice cold bodies helping us to defrost. It is amazing what the human body can endure and I guess this was part of the toughening up process and not a punishment.
This is most likely why I like my creature comforts which includes a nice hot shower in the morning as I do not need to have any type of endurance tests these days.
