Stryders Day.

Subject: Stryders Day. Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:23 pm

I liked this post so much that I decided I'd move it here. Otherwise It'd get lost after five days and that would just be a waste...

As always, comments are welcome.

Smile

Subject: Re: Stryders Day. Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:32 pm

Stryders Day

Ok, so at 5:15am the baby monitor we use began to beep loudly. That meant that the master unit in my daughters bedroom has been switched off for over 5 minutes. My sleep fuddled mind also manages to grasp that both of our bedside clocks are off.

Great. Power cut. We have them every so often and they only last for about half hour or so.

At 6:10am there is still no power so I eventually decide that the power is on, but in coming on it has tripped the circuit breakers. I go downstairs and get a torch, banging and crashing around in the dark, tripping over the cat (those lacerations on my right thigh, left calf and right big toe should heal in a week or so) and generally making enough noise to wake the hounds of hell. The breakers are under the stairs covered in crap, I remove said crap to find that the breakers are on and ok.

Shit.

Ah-ha! There are no lights on our meter. This is good, because everything from the electricity meter out of the house is owned by the electricity company (Southern Electric, Mad

Helix knows what I mean) and everything from the breaker-box into the house is ours. So no lights on the meter means it's an outside problem, and that means it won't cost me any money.

By this point I was losing blood and patience, so I decided I needed a cup of tea. Under usual circumstances I would put the kettle on. I'm sure you see my problem here. I put a pan of water on the stove, turn the gas on and then remember that the hob is electric ignition. Things are not going well and so far the sun has not even risen. I find our special BBQ lighter and light the gas under my pan of water, while that's heating I grab the Thompson Local (another Helix thing Smile

) and try to find the emergency electric faults number. There isn't one. If I needed a plumber, gas-man, mechanic, even a sodding carpenter I would have been ok. What I needed didn't open until nine. Shittity-shit-shit.

I drank my tea and went back to bed.

At nine precisely I called the 'magic number' and OMFG!! I got right through to someone! No hold time! No 'We are busy, please sod off' messages! This is good because my mobile phones battery is nearly dead, and due to previously outlined issues I can't charge the silly thing. The bloke says:

"Why haven't you reported this fault before?"
"It happened at five this morning and your call centre opens at nine."
"We have an emergency number you could have called."
"Is it advertised anywhere?"
"I'm afraid I'm not privy to that information, sir."

In a remarkable display of self restraint in which I surprised even myself, I ignored his comments, steered the conversation around to my problems and he said that we were an emergency call and would be visited by an engineer immediately.

Two and a half hours later the guys turn up and start work. And work they did. I rarely meet people like those three. Salt of the earth, they knew exactly what they were doing, drank tea by the bucketfull and swore profusely. Exactly what I expect from a professional.

Anyway, it turned out that my next door-but-one neighbours junction (the bit under the pavement that spurs off the main cable into his house) had actually exploded ( Surprised

) at 5:10 this morning. Because he was on the same phase as us (the UK uses 3 phase electricity) ours died as well.

The guys eventually finished 8 hours and 2,000,000 cups of tea later and I got my power back. There's still a big hole in the pavement outside but:

It's outside my neighbours house, and
It doesn't inconvenience me, so
It's my neighbours problem.

I expect they'll fill it up tomorrow.

Anyway, all's well that end's well,

And here ends the longest post I've ever made on the general board. Smile

Subject: Re: Stryders Day. Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:33 pm

By the way, I did make a few edits to it. Continuity etc.

And the hole was not filled in today. lol!

Subject: Still Waiting Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:56 am

Dammit Bob, it's been 5 years, did they fill the whole yet?

Subject: Re: Stryders Day. Fri Jan 03, 2014 11:33 am

Yeah, the hole is filled. Given that I don't live there anymore but my ex-wife does I may return, dig the hole again, hope she falls in it and when she does, fill it with cement. Then I'll get my car back.