Power's out

Last night the neighbourhood I live in experienced a power outage. I live in a suburban area with plenty of houses and apartments wedged into an area the size of your average English country manor.

After a week of scorching heat and bush fire danger across the whole of New South Wales, the rains arrived. It started with drizzle just after lunch, but 4pm the thunder had started to roll through the clouds. About 5pm, there was a loud bang from the back of the house, the power went off for a moment then flickered back to life. Another loud bang, and the power died once more. Investigation, me standing the back garden looking over the fence, revealed nothing. Once out the front, Beryl, the old lady that misses, nothing told me she’d seen flashes at the main road. She also had no power.

I rang the power company to report it. They were already aware and had ‘dispatched a crew’.

What now?

My plan of making tomato sauce from the kilos of Roma tomatoes I harvested was out the window because my cooker and oven run on electric.

I’ll send some emails and catch up with my communications. No good, my wireless comes from a box that is plugged in.

I’ll play Farnville2. Harvest a few virtual crops and make virtual tomato soup and milk virtual cows. Not to be, the internet is powered by the electrical pulses no longer accesses my abode.

I got out the candles and lit a few. I even found some lamp oil and got the glass lamp I have going. It gives of great light. Even though it wasn’t dark outside, inside it was.

What should I do now?

I’ll read. I sat out the back and read for a bit until the mozzies started biting. I moved inside. Sent a few tweets, updated Facebook, but because my phone had been off charge all day I was down to 20% juice. How to charge it? I needed power for that. After an hour sitting in the car I had managed to get my phone back to 80% charge. I switched to Airplane mode and wondered what else I could do.

I lit the barbeque and grilled a lamb chop for dinner.  I sat and watched the flames die to create the lingering red that cooks the food.  That entertainment lasted about 15 minutes.  Lamb cooks really quickly.

The light levels in my house, despite having the entire stock of a small Dusk store burning, was low. It was, romantic. That’s all well and good for a nice night with a lover and a glass of wine, but I needed to do something. After nearly four hours of no power I was frustrated. I rang the power company again for an eta on supply.

A prerecorded message informed me, ‘We are aware of a problem in your area but have no idea what the cause it. We estimate that power will be restored by eleven PM.’

If you don’t know the cause how can you estimate the return?

It was 9.30pm. Pitch dark outside and in. Reading was out, I don’t have the sight of an owl. Crochet had been tried by this point too and I kept dropping stitches and missing them, repairing the damage done to the project would take ages. So, to bed.

I cleaned my teeth by candlelight. Changed into my bed clothes and carried the glass lantern into my bedroom. The dogs looked confused. Surely this wasn’t it for the evening, it was far too early.

I tried reading again, just in case I’d made a mistake about the light levels, but it just wasn’t possible without straining my eyes.

So I laid back, closed my eyes and pictured how the world would have looked in the days before power to every house. It was bleak.

What’s bleaker though is that the developed world is entirely reliant on electricity. The games we play, our cooking (yes, I prefer gas myself, but don’t have that luxury in my house), our washing machines, water heating, our communications devices. I have an oil lamp because I like old things. I have candles for scent, not light. I took advantage of a forced early night.

What would happen if we lost the ability to make power completely? I fear many would cease to exist because they simply would not know what to do.

Snug

No one would ever accuse me of being a domestic goddess.

I’m the first to admit I have better things to do than dust, sort, clean and wash.  Like sitting on the sofa doing crochet or reading a good book.  Things I actually enjoy.

Every now and then though I get the urge to clean, sort and wash.  I like to throw open the windows, crank up the tunes and get stuck into it. On Friday when I left work, it was chilly but clear skies.  I was revved up for a weekend chucking stuff out, filling the house with fresh air and finally being able to see the top of my desk.

But conditions needed to be right.

Rain of any sort kills the urge, dead.  Torrential rain just makes me want to hibernate like a bear, tucked into my warm, dry pit.  Eating beans from a tin while wearing baggy tracksuit bottoms and wearing Uggs.  Only going outside to get more wood for the fire.

I have been eating things other than beans, but the clothing of choice has involved sheepskin boots and I have been tucked up on the sofa.  The cats have been happy with this arrangement also.

If I didn’t have to get up and go photograph an event tonight I think I would stay in bed.  It’s warm here.  It’s dry here and I can listen to the sound of the falling rain in the comfort of knowing it isn’t going to get me.

Flower in my garden with fly and raindrops

The rapid pitter patter that ebbs and flows.  The tin roof amplifying the sound of every droplet that lands on it.  Watching the sky’s teardrops chase each other down the window to the ground. 

I like these things from the inside when tucked up snug as a bug in a toasty cocoon.

My Second Degree ...

... sunburnt right leg.

Last week I fell over in Coles. I slipped on some water from the flower buckets as I made my way to the checkout with a fresh cooked chock for lunch. I bruised my ankle, my knee and twisted my hip. I was sore.

When I got back to the house J made me sit down and rest in case I had done more damage than at first visable and I choose to sit outside, but in complete shade. I sat down and read my new issue of Empire and then went in to house to shower. Later, I was watching telly and my leg was itching a bit, so I scratched it a bit. It hurt an lot.

I looked and my leg was scarlet from the ankle up to the knee and across my shin. I can't figure how it happened, I was in the shade!

It's the worst sunburn I have EVER had. A wet towel over my leg the first night, keeping my leg out of the shower until this morning (five days later) and aloe vera lotion until a couple of hours ago. Ouch!

You call this Summer?

It’s Summer in the UK, or so the propaganda will have you believe.

For the last two weeks I have been wearing my Ugg boots and my UTS hoodie to keep the chill from my bones. I swear it hasn’t got above about 18 degrees during the day. I’ve been drying washing inside on a clothes horse, so it actually dries and doesn’t get rained on.

People have often asked me in Aus why I moved there and I say I have two reasons. Family and the Weather.

Then they ask…’ohh have you got family here?’

‘No’ is my reply.

So not having a satisfactory answer to the family question they ask about the weather. They ask if I miss the green fields and country lanes. I say, that yes I do miss the green fields, but they are only green because it rains so much. It rains all the fricking time!

With the rain come the ‘breeze’. Breeze my butt. The breeze here can knock you of a bike and make you lean into it like an Australian gale.

I watched the weather forecast last night, the map was covered in little 16s 17s and 18s and the colour of the map…orange! Doesn’t orange indicate that it’s warm and toasty? In Aussie those temperatures would be green, bordering on blue :-)

OK…soapbox going away.

By the way, I may be back earlier than first planned…what with it being Summer holidays here…jobs are proving elusive.

Rain Rain, Go Away

On my way to work this morning I didn’t get wet for the first time in days. There was a brief reprieve for the rain. We have hit February, traditionally the hottest month of the year, and it’s pissing with rain and sitting at about 23degrees, down to 20-21 over night.

I had a quick look at the TOA blog and it appears that he and many others feel the same. Enough already! I know we’ve been in drought for what seems like forever, but really can we have a little break, say until autumn, when it’s supposed to rain.

To cap it off, the roof started leaking last night. I got up to pee at just after 3 and stepped in something cold and wet…I’m ashamed to admit I thought Puss had puked, but after establishing that I had no solids between my toes and I had just felt a drip on my head I came to the conclusion that my little cottage was truly crap, just another thing in a long line of ‘things’.

So, please, those of you still doing rain dances. Give it a rest, so TOA can dry his kitchen out and I can have the roof fixed before the carpet goes mouldy.

House Hunting

I went house hunting today. I’m going to put myself through another move. So I dared to go out in the rain (yes, it’s been chucking it down since yesterday mid morning) and traipsed around Surry Hills and Ultimo seeing five houses.

The first was faking as a Surry Hill residence due to creative imagination of the agent. It was most definitely in Redfern. It was also wholly unsuitable to be inhabited. Even the hoards of students waiting to split the weekly rent by four were curling their noses.

The second was the end unit in a row of six, over three floors with a new kitchen polished wood floors and carpeted stairs. It was beautiful with more storage than I could poke a stick at, but also the most expensive of my selection for the day.

The third is a few doors down from my favourite pub. Is this a good thing? The house itself was nice and clean, wooden floors, the kitchen was neat with new appliances. I quite liked it.

The fourth on the corner of Devonshire and Bourke. From the outside it looked OK, but inside was a disaster. The bathroom was outside! I looked upstairs out of curiosity, one room had raw wood floors, another had lino, and not new lino, the old stuff they use for printing. The last one was at the front and the only one that anyone could live in. I left and put the info sheet in the bin.

The last required a walk across town. Just behind Broadway shopping centre was a small row of houses. The one I was looking at had a separate office, two bathrooms, a garage and two bedrooms. It was neat, but had no outside area. The owners where in attendance and weren’t 100% sure about Puss, and I get the feeling the wife would be a pain in the arse landlady.

Now all I have to do is decide if I’m going to apply for any of these or go see the one I have lined up for Wednesday.

Whether the Weather Shines

I often get asked why I moved to Aussie from the UK. I have two responses; for family reason and the weather sucks in the UK.

Yesterday and last night was a great example of the great weather they have down under. I got a new washing machine yesterday (old one broke, derr!;-)) and I had heaps of washing to do. Normally, wet knickers and t-shirt go in the tumble dryer, and cotton and linen shirts go on a rack to dry (tumble dryer shrinks them). Yesterday each wash load went on the line and was dry by the time the next wash load had finished, ninety minutes later. But the best, was the final wash of the evening, it came out at 11.54pm and I put it on the line.

This morning when I went out at just after eight, it was all dry.

Ahh…bring on Summer!

Global Warming

People bang on about global warming on blogs, in the news and polite conversation.

I’m just going to say that it’s spring, it’s my birthday tomorrow and as someone who would have always been wearing a coat at this time of the year in the UK I love the fact that’s it 34degrees outside today. 15degrees above the average for this time of year.

Just one thing though…can we lose the gale force wind please, it’s playing havoc with my hair.

Weather

Those of you in Sydney will know the weather on the Central Coast and Hunter Valley has been a tad dicey over the last 36 hours. Those of you overseas may think this is all happening in Sydney, but it’s nearly 100km away. It is however raining heavily with gusty winds.

In Somerby they lost a family of five when the old Pacific Highway collapsed opening a gash nine feet wide and twelve deep. A couple in Clarence Town got swept away when the water flowing over the bridge they were crossing was a tad too quick. Livestock is having trouble keeping to high ground.

Today we attempted to go to Bondi Junction to pick up some shopping but the queue of traffic was so bad we decided to divert and have lunch at Nick’s Seafood on Bondi Beach. There was about five cars in the car park and ten people on the beach…and sand all over the tarmac. The wind had whipped up the seas to white frothy mass and the sand was being blown horizontally across the car pack. It was like being on Bognor beach in the summer! I took a few pictures…

Ohh…and the sticky date pudding at Nick’s was devine.