Powerless

A while after midnight all the lights and power at the back of the house went out. Attempts to reactive the circuits at the consumer unit (fuse box in old language) failed. After a short while on each occasion everything went off.

Power and light in the front of the house remained fine. I went to sleep dreaming of possible reasons. It was a disturbed night.

In the morning no improvement. I rigged up power to the fridge/ freezers and left a message for my electrician. He phoned back promptly and talked me through identifying the problem circuit which turned out to be the central heating one. Once I isolated the boiler everything else worked.

Then the alarm people came for the annual test; the window cleaner arrived; parcels were delivered; an appointment at the medical centre; and I had to get the garden rubbish into the bin for the last collection of the year.

By the time I dug out the various electric heaters we have and set them up, the thought of Christmas cards was just too much. In any event other paperwork had priority.

At least we have the option of convector heaters and, while not as cosy as usual, we are comfortable. Someone is coming to look at the boiler on Thursday. We can survive until then!

Our son returned from a few days with a group of friends in Barcelona. Lovely weather with today seeing 20oC. Yet the locals were wrapped up in parkas and scarves while the UK tourists were in T shirts and, in some cases, shorts.

Temperature is relative!