Yes, thanks to the vagaries of EDF Energy, our ordinary Monday evening meal was turned into a candlelit supper.
We were just sinking our teeth into the first few mouthfuls of the evening meal when, PING, all the lights went out. Fearing that Maurice had finally chewed through an electric cable my initial thought was that it was only us who had been plunged into darkness. Fumbling my way to the front door showed us that the street light in our garden (yes, we do have a street light planted at the corner of our front lawn) had also gone out, as had all the other street lights and every other light in the road. Breathing a sigh of relief that we had not succumbed to rodent sabotage, I set about finding a torch and then the tealights and a box of matches so that we could continue our meal.
For some odd reason we have a lot of power cuts here in south Essex - at least three or four per year. Again, oddly enough, they usually happen during the day, often when I'm out, and it's only when I get in and find the answerphone is off and there is no light on the oven that I even realise we've got no power again. One particularly annoying occasion I'd put the bread maker on before I went out and came back to find no electricity. As I had no idea how long the bread maker had been off I couldn't even start it up again when the power came back on and had to ditch all the ingredients and start again from scratch.
Luckily, yesterday evening the power was restored after about an hour and twenty minutes - just as the house was getting rather glacial because the gas central heating had also switched off when the power was cut to the electric pump it uses. For someone who vividly remembers the power cuts of the early 1970's when the miners were on strike, this was merely a small blip. But it did bring it home to me how much we all rely on an uninterrupted power supply to enjoy our modern comforts. Never mind, how many Monday evenings are livened up with a candle lit supper for two!
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