COMMUTER CHAOS IN CITY CENTRE POWERCUT HORROR

I expect. These pedestrians and cyclists were all perfectly fine but the cars on nearby Melville Drive seemed to be having a few problems adjusting to a world without illuminated signs and traffic lights.

After meeting Nicky from her work and popping to the Cameo (93) to pick up the button she lost from her cardigan (0.25) on Sunday (which they kindly found and stored when she noticed and rang them up) we had just stepped back out onto the street when THE WORLD (approx 4,540,000,000) WAS PLUNGÈD INTO DARKNESS. It took a while to be certain... the hairdressing salon next to the cinéma looked a little odd but until the people sitting in the chairs waiting for their haircuts to be finished could be seen they could just have been shutting up for the day. A few extra glances confirmed that all the streetlights and most of the domestic lights were out on Home Street though with all the car-light it was still easy to see. It turned out that the wee buzzing substation thingby on the corner of Middle Meadow Walk opposite the uni library was aflame (not that the picture demonstrates this very well though the smoke and that orange glow in the vent thing shouldn't really be there) and was being attended to by fire-people.

No idea of the cause... possibly a surfeit of leaves, possibly overload by the various construction-activity in the area and possibly Naughty People throwing ignited substances over the substation's wall. It certainly made the Meadows very nice to walk through without the horrible light pollution though I hope they re-route some power for all the poor people stuck in cold, dark flats or shops.