In The Dark

I was on a good run there - for the second week running I was on course for a full five-day run of posting every week day. However, Southern Electricity decided this wasn't to be: a power outage started at 14:15 yesterday and, despite me reporting it at 14:30, on my way out of the house after my delayed lunch hour, power was only restored at 10:15 this morning. I say restored - to be clear we aren't actually back on the mains yet, power to my part of the street is being provided by a generator truck until those mysterious 'underground cables' (which seem to be behind most power outages) are repaired. Now, if I lived in Outer Mongolia during the Middle Ages, I might think that twenty hours without electricity, (and, consequently, no hot water or internet access, let alone TV or radio), was acceptable. However, I don't. I live in a major population centre in one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world during the Twenty First Century.

Anyway, over the past few hours I've finally managed to have a hot meal, drunk several cups of tea and coffee, done my washing and, most importantly, had a bath. Now that I finally feel clean again, I'm gradually catching up, via BBC iPlayer, with various things I'd intended watching on TV last night, (when, instead I had an exciting evening in the dark watching DVDs on my laptop, until the battery gave out, and listening to stuff I had stored on my mp3 player. Whilst the electricity company assure me that the generator truck will remain operational until the cables are repaired, but I'm still expecting another outage. So, for the time being I'm making the most of my current electrical connectivity and trying to do as much as possible while it lasts. I've got a whole load of TV programmes and films I recorded last week (some of which I'd planned to watch yesterday evening) to work through this afternoon, not to mention the post I was going to write yesterday and starting work on a new story for The Sleaze. Oh, and there's that podcast based on my recent Overnightscape Central contribution to re-edit. What's the betting that the power goes off again half way through it all?