When The Lights Go Out

This weekend was the weekend of the power cut.

On Thursday I decided to stay a little late in work – Nikki wanted some warranty information on some equipment, and knowing that it would just be me, Jon and Mr Ed in on Friday (Vicky goes to college) I thought I’d get it out of the way so that I wasn’t rushed the next day. Couldn’t see Ali on my way out so I called her on my way home to find out what time I should get in for in the morning – 8:30am, go figure ;). Little did I know that the fates had already planned that I would miss this appointment – I knew something was strange though when the living room light flickered violently later that evening…

I get woken up around 4am on Friday morning by mother – she’d noticed that the bathroom light had gone out, and didn’t know where my torch was. I used my phone to light the way, and grabbed the torch from downstairs. No problems in the lecky cupboard, in fact even the meter had gone out. I went outside and some of the lampposts were out – got mother to phone Scottish Power and they confirmed that one of our neighbours had just called as well. Had to unplug all my electrical equipment in case there was a surge when they fixed the problem, and stayed up as long as I could keeping mother company, in case they needed access to the property.

I eventually fell asleep and didn’t wake up again in time for work. Why? An unfortunate culmination of events. Firstly, it’s a known fact that if my sleep is interrupted and I go back to sleep, my body seems to forget what sleep it’s already had and starts all over again – I’m difficult to wake at the best of times (and worst – I’ve slept soundly when a brutal thunderstorm was right over our house), but this is an almost impossible situation. My usual combination of phone and alarm clock was impaired as well – my phone’s battery died (I was planning on charging it in the morning) and the alarm clock wasn’t plugged in (it was an expensive alarm clock! I wasn’t going to leave that plugged in!). Surprisingly I did forsee these failing, so I tried using what was left – my Nintendo DS Lite and one of mother’s battery powered alarm clocks. Well, the DS just wasn’t loud enough, and it seems the switch on the alarm clock is faulty and doesn’t always set the alarm to go off! Talk about bad luck! I suppose if I had woken up in time the situation would still have been dire – I would have needed a bath and my clothes ironing, both requiring electricity. Mother did actually wake up before 9am, but as discussed before she couldn’t rouse me, so she called in work and let them know what had happened. Thankfully they were understanding and just said to have the day off (good thing too – I was still knackered when I woke up!). I do feel embarrassed though – I’d had the previous Friday off sick, and now had it off again due to tiredness. But it was an emergency situation I suppose, and had I have woken up I would have went into work. Whether they’ll believe all that happened though is something I’ll find out tomorrow.

It didn’t end there though – Friday night the lights started flickering again, so I went to bed. I just couldn’t be bothered staying up, and the lights scare me when they flicker so badly. Lo and behold, I’m awoken again at 5am by mother – the lecky had gone again. So the process repeated itself, and thankfully they managed to put it back on for 7am. But once again the lights flickered in the morning and at 12pm it was off once more, and didn’t return till 3pm. I’m happy to report it hasn’t gone off again since (well, not when I’ve been awake to notice anyway). It’s interesting though, I remember a while back the lecky went off for a whole day and I was at my wits end with nothing to do – this time round I had my DS, my phone and my Zen, all with long battery lives, and it sure made a difference having them!

It’s not nice when it does happen and it’s easy to get irate at the power companies, but to be fair it doesn’t happen that often, and considering the amount of wires and supply they have to maintain, it’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more. These occurrences also show me just how much I rely on electricity for the majority of things I do, be it direct powered or from a battery, and how much my activities are affected when that power is gone.

Until next time – buy solar panels and set up your own wind farm – erecting a waterwheel wouldn’t hurt either!

Post title inspired by 5ive – ‘When The Lights Go Out’