In which I actually win at blackouts!

[gothams3rdrobin]

I was in the middle of cooking tea this evening when the whole flat plunged into darkness. As did everywhere else for at least a block, and there was an alarm whining away in the distance.

So I turned the stove off, and dug the torch out of the cupboard so I could rummage for the candles I'd also stashed in there for just such an occasion. Then Rowan held the torch for me so I could see to light the candle. I only have one candlestick at the moment, but thankfully I don't have many problems working in low light. A year working as a cinema usher is good practise for that :-)

This also had an added advantage of proving to Rowan how sensible I was refusing to tell him where the torch was stored, during one of his moments of obsessively asking for it - had he gotten his hands on it, not only would I not know where it was, it would likely be out of power too.

Finished cooking our pasta by the light of our single candle, which was an experience! Turned out to also be a very good thing that my biggest burner on the stove doesn't work properly, since the cooker requires a source of electricity to light the gas. Since that particular burner seems to have a fault in that area, I own one of those clicky lighter thingies, enabling me to continue to cook!

So, once food was ready, Rowan and I huddled up on the sofa in the front room, with the candle on the coffee table and 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' on the laptop. We were about forty-five minutes in to the film when the power came back on, thank god! So the contents of my freezer should be absolutely fine.

I was very relieved to get through the experience with no difficulty - the last time this happened Rowan was in bed and I was hanging around with nothing to do and only the street lights to see by. Didn't even have those tonight!

So now I can relax with NCIS as usual - hey Hilary, the 'worst psychiatrist ever' is in Gibbs' interrogation room right at this moment! lol! - and I'm not going to miss tonight's Glee! \O/ Got a gig tomorrow night in Carmarthen, so I need to get clothes ready for that too - Rowan gets to sleep over at a friend's house since I'm not likely to get home till gone midnight :-/

Comments

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I hope she dunnit. I'd find her guilty just for those awful blouses she used to wear, never mind what she did to Danny.

I hate blackouts. We have gas burners, so we're okay for cooking and making tea (boiling the water in a saucepan), but they freak me out. Partly it's claustrophobia - without access to the outside world I feel trapped - but I am definitely overly dependent on modern technology.

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

Nah, she was Tim McGee's literary agent and she faked letters from a stalker as a publicity stunt ;-)

Yeah, we'd likely be okay in an extended blackout, other than the loss of the food in the fridge freezer. I have an old fashioned phone stashed away in my room so I can get around the 'modern' phone that needs electricity to run (and is barely useable now the batteries won't recharge properly anymore...) But I was dreading the laptop running out of power, since playing a DVD uses it up so much faster. Best way to keep Rowan happy while he ate his tea, though.

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pretty good evening :D

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

Would have been, if I hadn't been stressing about the laptop's battery dying before Rowan's bedtime! ;-) That and the possible damage to my fridge freezer's contents if it had lasted much longer.

Something extra special about candlelight though!