Hello again, everyone! I have been very unhappy for the past 24 hours or so, and now I am very happy! That is because I have just been through the dark uncertainty of a power cut!!!
^At Work?^
Photo by Helen Facenna. @Facenna
Yes, you heard me right! The power cut lasted over 24 hours! It started at 2: 20pm UK time on the 26th May, till 2:43pm on the 27th! After this ordeal I can now exclusively tell you all that it was horrible!
My day was full of Half Light, Pitch Black and NO technology, apart from what little power I dared to take from my iPod Touch…
To cut a loooong story short, here are the key events, for those that want to know…
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Key Events:
26th May:
2:20pm printer singing merrily, the hum and light of technology buzzing around the room, then suddenly, one by one, they stop! Then, the computer powered down, the printer stopped in it’s tracks, my secondary monitor blacked out, my laptop switched to battery power and dimmed, and I went to my bed for a lay down, thinking “it’ll only last an hour or two”.
10:00pm We waited for hour after hour talking in the darkness, thinking the power would come back at any minute… until 10pm came!! With no light, the house was in complete darkness – dark enough to bang into each other! We only had a small decorative battery powered lamp between us. Went to bed to try and get some sleep. It was a very broken and un-rested night, what with the spookiness and all! Felt like I was just waiting still!
11:50pm First sign of a workman – after EIGHT hours! He talked to the evil neighbour, with no concessions for the time. No sign of hurry.
27th May
12:10am Workman LEAVES! Leaves!
1:10am Workman returned and started banging around next to the bedroom, Very loud and disturbing! Got some sleep after it got a bit quieter.
3:45am Plunged into darkness. Even eerier. The bulb in the battery powered lamp had gone!
4:30am After some more sleep – daybreak, thank goodness. Tried to get some more sleep.
5:00am 6 workmen digging with a JCB, they had finally started doing something! Then… SPLASH!!! They had cut through a water main. TYPICAL! They didn’t even seem to bothered that they had delayed the return of power even longer. 15 hours already!
5:20am Someone finally rang the water board to repair the pipe.
Got some more sleep.
12:00pm Lunch – and the water board had only just arrived. After 8 hours!!!!!!! 8 hours!!!! They stayed in the van for the first 15 mins, and they were there for 1 hour in total – with loads of talking and sitting around in between. They took 1 hour after an 8 hour wait!!! We didn’t have any drinking water for this hour, either, and we didn’t get any warning to stock up! SHOCKING!
12:50pm Only 3 workmen left. They’d all gone to lunch, presumably! Lunch!!! I Had no computer! Not to mention lights, fridge, freezer, internet and MODO!!!!!!! :O
1:04pm Electricity workmen got back to digging in JCB! What if they had burst the pipe again!??
1:20pm to 2:15pm – few little annoying things and events, but nothing really important. Lots more waiting!!!
2:41pm Power restored!! Hooray!
2:42pm Flickered off again!! Oh noooooo!!! I want my modo, my internet my food to be saved from completely defrosting!!!
2:43pm HOOORRAAYYY!! It’s back!
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SCARY! Traumatic! The only thing I got done was a little desk tidy up in the half light.
Back from note form. Hello again, If you’re still reading. So, we have soggy food in our freezer, (Can we just refreeze it?) and an all but a WASTED day!! A few footnotes – NO contact at all from the electricity people, to tell us time estimates, or even what was happening. Not one apology! I am NOT happy with their service. They took over 24 HOURS to fix it, and so over a dark, dark night. I couldn’t check what was going on on the internet, couldn’t modo, and I had very little sleep.
It truly is horrible. It’s such a… “powerless” (heh heh) and disorientating feeling.
I hope this makes some kind of sense. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, you see. 🙁 One good thing – it made me appreciate my technology all the more. The lesson I learnt; Love thy computer!