Sometimes, love is a flame that burns brightly. Sometimes, when the heat is on, it’s a breath of fresh, cool air. Especially when you’re trying to get down to some serious business at home.
I am in love, a love that I never thought possible. After all who in their right mind could fall in love with their office? It has not always been this way. There were many times that I hated the idea of entering that room, times when it made me physically ill to be in there for any length of time, especially in the afternoon.
I would cheat on my office frequently, choosing to spend time in a coffee shop, in my home or even just drive in my car.
Yet all that changed this summer. When I wake up in the morning and see the thermometer hitting 25°C at 6.30am, I relish the thought of heading up to my office and hiding there for the rest of the day. Today, as I write, the temperature outside is 35°C as pitiful clouds dissolve in minutes. Yet here I sit in a climatically controlled room with the temperature at a very manageable 22°C.
To be truthful, the real object of my affections is my new air-con. I cannot believe I didn’t enter into this relationship three years ago when I built my office. For three years I have sweltered away as my west facing office was pounded by the summer sun.
The heatwaves in the Cape are not comparable to any heatwave I ever experienced growing up in Joburg. Without those afternoon summer thunder storms the heat is trapped and builds up day upon day until you wish for those blustery South-East winds to offer some respite from the incinerator.
Spending any amount of time in my office in the afternoon was guaranteed to result in nausea and exhaustion. One would think the temperature of the office would register with me before the signs of over-heating did, but as fellow writers will know, once you get into the flow of writing you completely switch off to the world around you and any discomfort.
It would only be a few hours later that I would realise that I was probably going to get heat stroke if I didn’t get out immediately and get myself to a Woolworths fruit and veg aisle. It was in truth an abusive relationship, one that I was reluctant to acknowledge.
So why has it taken me this long to understand what my office was doing to me and to put in a simple creature comfort? Ridiculously, I thought it was not worth the cost. I could always think of other things I would rather do with R9000 than spend it on an air-con unit. After all it is only really needed for about two months a year, and it uses up more electricity than my fan.
Fortunately, my husband convinced me after using my office one day – for some silly reason I needed to hear someone else give me permission to spend my money on this “luxury” item. To compensate for my guilt of the higher electricity usage, I forked out an extra R1000 for the low energy-eco unit and further justified my purchase by the fact that in winter it acts as a heater, so I will probably get at least five months use from it a year.
Quite frankly, now that I experience the pleasure of a climate controlled environment, this baby will be going on every time that thermometer tops 25°C!
Leave a Reply