THE STATUS QUO

It was a cold,dark and rainy day and I was tempted to just stay in all day and watch TV.  But I forced myself to go out.  I only went as far as the Co-op and back and it was pouring with rain the whole time. Not pleasant.

When I got home I noticed immediately that the freezer light was off.  On checking other things I realised that the power was off in every room.  Just the sockets - not the lights.  Checked the fuse box in the cupboard and the RCD  switch had tripped.  Tried to re-set  it but it kept tripping.  Turned different switches in the box to off and then on to see what was tripping it and found that the upstairs sockets were causing the problem.  However even though the box indicated that the downstairs sockets weren't causing the tripping and they should be working - they weren't. No power in any of the sockets anywhere.

So I was stumped. Almost ready to phone an electrician but decided to phone my brother John  first to see if he had any ideas.   Big problem - I didn't know his mobile number and the landline number I had was for his previous address. Luckily I had my sister in laws number so I phoned her.  She answered but was hands free whilst driving so she said as soon as she could stop she would message John and get him to ring me.

He got in touch after a few mins.  I explained the problem and what I had done so far. I sent him photos of the fuse box so he could see the set up and he told me what to try.  Lots of switching to off and on in different sequences in the fuse box and unplugging and plugging back in of appliances upstairs and downstairs followed.  By a process of elimination we finally found a way to get the switch to stop tripping. And all the sockets finally working.  What a relief.  Glad to get the heating back on especially.  So between us we solved it - but we still aren't sure of what exactly happened.  I know it happened at 4.49pm - (while I was out at the Co-op ) as thats when the Freeview box stopped recording. I was so grateful I had John to call on for help. 

By the time the power was back on it was 7pm so I was ready for my tea. Poor John had been trying to eat his tea whilst he was on the phone to me.  Hope he didn't get indigestion.

I had something in mind to blip for Tiny Tuesday but decided to blip the fuse box as I have spent a lot of time with it tonight.  Hopefully I won't need to look at it again for quite some time.

Steps today - 8,321