We had a most unusual power cut last night. All electrical items started dimming, powering down, then coming up again, up and down continuously for a good minute. i ran round turning everything off except one light and the dimming continued, until the supply died.
Some interesting gubbins realted to power outages and how the supply is brought back online.
We were without electricity for a couple of hours, I always relish a power cut, I got the ipod out with a speaker and listened to Winnie the Pooh, a free talking book that came with the Sunday Times, it was narrated by Bernard Cribbins. It's fun to revisit these books, I think some of the humour was lost on me as a child.
My grandfather used to love power cuts, he had a primus stove and a box in the garage with powdered milk and the like. Operaton power cut would be put into place as soon as the electricity died, the whistling kettle would be produced and the stove started, there would be great annoyance when the power came back.
I remember a few years ago at Boxing Day we had the whole clan round at my parent's house. The power died, thankfully after everyone was fed. We all gathered in the living room, plenty of drink, nibbles and cards. It was a great afternoon. I was driving that day and my grandmother started to get tired, i offered to drive her home, but she said don't be silly, the power is off, your lights won't work.