Life Without Electricity
Well, I say “life without electricity”, but it was only a temporary measure. Still, it’s the first one since the power cut last Christmas, so I suppose we were due one.
There you are, sitting around minding your own business when suddenly it gets a lot darker, what with the lights having gone off. Not a problem; bring out the trusty mobile phone … and the small light off the screen is enough to see me to the fuse box where I quickly establish that none of the fuses have tripped. Hmm…
Looking out of the window, I can see some streetlights on, some off: some houses with lights in them — and particularly a few houses which are otherwise dark apart from what appear to be torch beams waving around inside them. It is a power cut, then.
My one year old’s fast asleep, but my almost three year old was wide awake two minutes before so he’ll probably still be awake, and terrified. So I go up to his room, and there he is on his bed, bolt upright, eyes wide open. I pick him up and carry him downstairs, telling him that it’s all right, it’s just that the lights have gone out, and Mammy and Daddy are going to sort out some candles, like on a birthday cake, until they come back on.
I hand him over to my wife and set off in search of a torch or something. Eventually we do find a torch — shaped like a pumpkin that emits an orange light and shines a pumpkin face over everything, and yes, it is for the kids, but it’s a torch and that gives off light, and that’s precisely what we need right now.
Bugger! I’ve just bashed my shins into something. And I think I’ve trod on the balloon. Is that the cat or is it you? Where are those candles. Great. Now we’ll just light them off the cooker and … ah. We’ll just wait for the electricity to come back on then, because the gas cooker has a built in electric sparker to light the hobs, and we don’t have one of those clicketty devices. Or any matches.
But we do have a lighter in the bathroom, for the old candles-and-relaxing-bath routine. My wife goes off to get this, followed by our kid who’s staying near whoever’s got the torch. Hurrah! A lighter. Right, spark that up and I’ll head over to where the candles are. I know they’re around here somewhere, but I can’t see them very well. I’ll have to wait until she comes back in here with the torch, or …
…the lights come on.
Well, you just knew they would come on just as soon as I’d managed to make my own light, didn’t you? Bloody electricity mutter mutter grumble…
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February 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
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April 3rd, 2008 at 11:12 am
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JackP says:
April 4th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Well I know it’s just a story. But it’s my story. That’s why it’s on my site. If you want some sort of historical information then … and this might sound daft … but wouldn’t you be better off looking on some sort of history-related site, rather than a personal blog?
Thomas Schmidt says:
August 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I think its a great, allthough short, story Jack.
Here is an interesting fact, for some…
From the beginnings of mankind (which ever one you believe in doesn’t matter) upto the 1900′s (at which time electricity had begun to be utilized world wide) human population world wide, had reached an estimated 2 billion people. From the 1900′s upto present day 2008, human population is estimated at 6.5 billion people. Think about that. Well over 7,000 years to reach 2 billion, but only a little more than the past 100 years to increase by 4.5 billion.
ELECTRICITY!
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