Blackout

 

Last Friday night as my Mum was entertaining some guests (it was her birthday the following day) there was a wild thunderstorm with all the works (torrential rain, hail, thunder, lightening) and all of a sudden the lights went out. I went downstairs into the basement to check the fuse box and circuit breakers. Well, I could not switch one of the two circuit breakers on and it remained dark in the living room and kitchen (including in the fridge). Eventually I identified the culprit, i.e. which fuse prevented the circuit breaker from being switched on again and it was the one powering my parents' studios. We were relieved that the fridge was working again (like all parents, mine have a full fridge plus freezer stuffed to the brim with all kinds of food) and decided to investigate the next morning in daylight. It turned out that a lamp in my Dad's studio caused the power outage, so a very minor issue in the grand theme of things. It really made me think just how privileged we are to live in a place where a power outage caused by lightening or other causes is the absolute exception rather than the norm and how much we take the luxury of a consistent and stable power supply for granted. Once more I also got confirmation of how much I regard my mobile phone as my lifeline: I immediately plugged it into one of the working sockets to make sure it was charging before another outage could happen...