Solitary chicken - need advice

[chickencam]

Yesterday after loads of power blips we lost power altogether at 12.40pm and it didn't come back on until 1am.

 

The children hated it no computer, Playstation, TV (no Simpsons - OH the horror)!

 

Fortunately we have a few battery powered radios, loads of candles and torches and a gas hob, so we could have music, hot food and tea.

 

The most annoying thing was a Virgin Media van at the green cable box accross the road. They had hooked the box up to a generator presumably to power cable TV etc to those houses in the area who had power We went to ask him at about 9pm how long it would be on because the children couldn't sleep, and he said he would turn it off straight away. He obviously had instructions to carry on until someone complained. We had put up with all afternoon and evening

 

I quite liked the dark of no street lights for a change, but you should never deprive tennagers of their media entertainment, they had to resort to reading

[jlo]

Do you find that, even though you know that there is no power, you make really dumb suggestions as to what you can do in a power cut.

 

As an example, when our power was out for a while and things were defrosting, I suggested making a smoothie with the defrosted fruit using, of course, an electric blender

[chelsea]

blimey 12 hours these days is a long time!

 

Glad you got through it ok (thank goodness for the gas hob)

 

I can remember years ago in the late seventies when we had really bad snow down here we had a power cut for days and mum had to cook jacket potatoes in tin foil the open fire...great!

[chickencam]

I kept thinking of things to do yesterday afternoon and everything involved power. Ironing, vacuming, lawn mowing, no forum to distract me. I ended up getting semi up to date with my paperwork.

 

The children had omelettes and steamed veg for tea and tinned fruit and squirty cream for pud, that was one thing that they didn't complain about.

[Minnie the Moocher]

We had a power cut last summer for a few hours. Unfortunately there is no mains gas in the village, and we're all electric so we fried sausages on a camp fire in the garden and ate them with crusty bread for tea. The children still mention it now, and DD put the whole story as an entry in her 'Adventures' book.

[Guest]

Lucky you - having a short power cut at a time of year when the weather was lovely.

 

Overhead power cables here so fairly common but NOT in lovely weather.

 

2 years ago we went without for 5 days and were huddled in front of the wood burner in the living room as it was NOVEMBER!!!! Luckily our neighbors had power so they ran us a cable but of course that meant we had one quad socket in the living room (next to the telly!) but no heating, lighting or cooking.

[chrisnrob]

I once rang to report a powercut and was told very tersely and in no uncertain terms "It's not a power cut, it's a temporary failure in supply."

 

Apparently, a power cut is planned (due to industrial action, for example).

 

Rob

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I once rang to report a powercut and was told very tersely and in no uncertain terms "It's not a power cut, it's a temporary failure in supply."

 

Apparently, a power cut is planned (due to industrial action, for example).

 

Rob

 

And the difference to us bods without power who pay the bills is.............?

 

We don't get a real person usually, we get a recorded message...come to think of it it's probably the same recorded message as it comes "online" very quickly after the power goes off, well within the few mins it takes to retrieve the "steam driven" phone from the depths of the cupboard where it lives for just such eventualities and ring the number which is permanently stuck on the back of the said cupboard door, underneath the emergency light so we can read it! Do you think we get PCs on a regular basis................... ? Comes with the living in the middle of a field, no mains gas & a septic tank location I suppose !!

 

Sha x

[chickencam]

We get 'power failures' quite often too but we live in a sub-urban area next to a main road. We have over the years come to the conclusion that a lot of them are owing to an old water course that runs down from the hill behind us and our very heavy clay soil that expands and contracts a lot depending on weather conditions.

[The Dogmother]

Banbury is notorious for power blips and cuts; everything in the office starts pinging when it blips

[chickencam]

My great consolation was if it wasn't on it couldn't possibly be costing me money