Electrical shenanigans

7 January 2025 (Tuesday)

A frosty start to the morning, albeit slightly milder than I’d expected having seen the sub 0° forecast, yet certainly a more frustrating start too… as the plug sockets in our bedroom had stopped working.

In all honesty, we’ve needed an electrician for a number of jobs about the house for some years. One significant job that needs doing is our cooker hood needs changing, as it’s not worked properly in years!  

The thing is this type of work being needed and done brings about much anxiety for us both.  You see, sorting things like this are so far out of our comfort zone, and we don’t have our own little black book with the names of all the trusty tradesmen a house of this age needs.  And, of all the professionals around, who can you trust?  However, I guess now is the time to get the ball rolling on these jobs, as the sockets absolutely need to be sorted.

Two options, one electrician who’s worked for a neighbour and one suggestion from our road’s WhatsApp group - and I’ve gone for the latter as the person recommended lives in our road.  A quick call to him got his voicemail, and then a return call within minutes, which obviously bode well.  He said he was working locally all day, though would pop over after his day’s work was done, at about 5pm, and have a look - if it was something simple he’d sort it, or if it needed more work we could discuss options.  With this call, my anxiety was receding… for the time-being at least!

The day wore on… hours of desk work first thing, a conference calI, lunch, a WhatsApp video call, a visit to the allotment, and the making of a pot of tea.

It’s now mid evening, and coincidentally we have no electricity whatsoever, and I’m totally anxiety free!

Our new-found friendly near neighbour electrician arrived as promised around 5.20pm, texting thirty minutes beforehand (again, as promised) to give us a better idea of when he’d arrive.  Now, despite me not knowing him, I do now know where he lives, and over the years he and I have nodded at each other in passing, the way many neighbours who know their distant neighbours do… or is it just men who do this?  This afternoon, after almost two decades of nodding, we finally met as he came through our front door to save the day, like a knight in shining armour, bedroom socket-wise at least!

After testing and unscrewing faceplates, our issue was found to be a wire that had worked itself loose over the years.  It turned out to be a relatively simple task to resolve, for a professional electrician that is!  Whilst this sparky knight got our sockets working, we chatted, laughed, listened and learnt.

It turned out neighbour’s rates were the currency of the day, and many thanks were also given.  He’ll be back to do a few more jobs at some point, and all with far less anxiety for us than we initially had today.

BUT, that wasn’t the end of the power shenanigans for the day, as not an hour later we had a power outage; a sheer coincidence and nothing to do with how our day had been saved.

Fortunately, I had cooked rice in the Instant Pot and heated through defrosted falafel from the freezer by poaching them in a homemade tomato sauce.  I also had a small saucepan of carrots, sliced and cooked through.

At 18:35, all the lights went out, and all the sockets too… and the street light outside our house.  However, looking out I noticed some neighbours had lights on still, and some street lights shone still too… but, a power outage it was.  On checking the Scottish & Southern Electricity Network Power Track Map, I saw it was very localised, and for inexplicable reasons only affecting one in three homes… the downside was we were one of those one in three and it could take up to six hours to fix!

So, as I write this, we’re two and a half hours into the power outage, and we’re cosy, have eaten a nutritious warm supper, are surrounded by candles and have fleeces and blankets draped over us.

Despite the challenges of the day, I’m thankful for our situation, knowing many, many others have it far, far, far worse.
 
Weather:  Sunny… though the cold is really developing.  It will definitely be sub 0° tonight.

Breakfast:  Bran Sticks, Yogurt, Banana
Lunch:  Minestrone Soup (tinned) and leftover leftovers of Sunday.  Quorn Chicken Slices in Sandwiches, with cucumber and radish.
Supper:  Falafel (homemade, though from the freezer), reheated in a tomato sauce, served with boiled till soft carrots on brown rice.