“Then We Have A Problem”

“Listen! In my apartment, only the living room has electricity. No other room has electricity. So I want to run a cable from the living room to my bedroom, thus I can plug my aircon, my light, and everything else. Do you got me?”, I said to the shop assistant.

10 minutes ago, before I yanked at that shop assistant, I entered Hardware Department Store “ BEST BUY” at a mall called “Robinson” in Manila. I strolled along with Chris, my friend who stays in Manila, we moved toward the electrical department. Looking for a roll of cable.

The reason I was in that department store was because of a typhoon. It was the worst typhoon that ever hit Manila sinced 1995. A lot of trees were down on the road, hitting people and vehicles. None of the billboard still has the advertisement picture on it. One of the billboard even collapsed into a highway, and get a bus trapped underneath. Along with all those catasthrophe, came the lost of electricity at our apartment.

Losing the electricity, the apartment had to run diesel powered, moving the elevator so that we won't have to climb all the way up the 8th floor using the staircase. Even though the diesel is up and running, it's simply not powerful enough to light the entire apartment. Only the elevator and the apartment's living room has electricity.

So there I was, buying a power cord, choosing one which is thick enough, hoping that it would be able to power the light, cell phone charger, and even the aircon in the bedroom. If the diesel can power up the elevator, surely it would not have any problem running just another aircon. Nice plan!

Choosing the power cord with the electrical outlet was not that simple, the one which has more electrical contact, usually comes with short but thick cable. The longer one, which is up to 6m long usually comes in thin power cable which wouldn't power an aircon. Knowing that none of them would solve the problem, we called up the shop assistant. Asked him to assemble one which is long, thick enough and has multiple outlet. What a genius, huh!

There we were, measuring 7 meters of thickest cable that they got (and the most expensive too!). Soon as we got the measurement, I told the shop assistant, “Let's get the electrical outlet first”. He replied, “Wait, I'll get a cutter, so that we can cut the cable”. Without waiting for me to reply back, he disappeared.

10 minutes later, he appeared with a cutter in hand. I approached him and said softly, “Hey why don't we check the outlet first”. Ignoring me, he kept on cutting. Unsure that he heard me, I repeated my sentence for the third time, “Shouldn't we find the electrical outlet first?”. He finished cutting the cord, and smiled at me. “Let's go!”

We strolled along the corridor, he confidently went to one of the rack, picked up an electrical outlet with a single electrical contact, and handed it to me with a grin, “Here, this is the one. It will hold the aircon”. Explaining the Voltage and Ampere that will hold up to 1.000 Watts. “Okay, that is very good, but I need one a multiple contact. Because I need to plug the light, the fan, the aircon, and everything else”, I explained back patientlt. “It won't do, sir. We only have this one. Those multiple outlet are not good for aircon”. He replied back to me.

“Then we have a problem. We have a big problem!”, I said.

“Listen! In my apartment, only the living room has electricity. None of the other room has electricity. So I want to run a cable from the living room to my bedroom, so that I can plug my aircon, my light, and everything else. Do you got me?”, I said to the shop assistant.

He gulped. I continued talking with rage. “I have told you already before you cut the cord. Let's check the outlet first. But you kept on cutting the cable. You didn't even listen to me”. My friend was amazed and spoke in tagalog with the shop assistant.

A few minutes later, we walked out BEST BUY, carrying a plastic bag in hand.
“Okay, we can switch on the fan now. Good night!”