Tuesday, May 17, 2005

And The Lights Went Out In Perth

The power went off at 6:20 yesterday morning. That meant we had to get ready for work and school in the dark. Miky wasn't too pleased about it because she wasn't going to be able to do her makeup or hair.

I found out later that the school had been closed. Several trees had fallen on fences and perhaps some of the buildings. Power was out and the kids were sent home. I had dropped Yu-Jin off at before school care and had no idea about the situation. Fonz from the child care centre rang in the afternoon and asked if I would still like Yu-Jin to be picked up even though the school was closed. Um, yes. I didn't even know that it was closed. Surely the school has my phone number and they hadn't called to tell me.

Yu-Jin spent the day in the library with two of his teachers. As all of the other kids went home he was outnumbered by his teachers. Talk about private tuition. He loved the day at school!

Miky rang me to see if we should go out for tea. It was her first day at her new job and she was going to be tired and not wanting to cook anything. By the time we got home it was close to 7pm. There was still no power!! And Miky had left a candle burning all day in the house. The lack of power meant an early night for all of us.

I popped next door to have a chat to the neighbour and mentioned that I had at least had a shave before the power went off. My neighbour had had a cup of coffee so she hadn't been too badly affected. Her son said, "I did nothing, absolutely nothing before the power went off. I have a life full of regrets." He got an elbow in the ribs from his mum. I thought that it was quite poetic.

Normally you hear about the 10000 homes without power on the news and think, for a moment, about the poor bastards without power. Well, we are those poor bastards. I put my undies on inside-out in the dark. Oh well, at least I get two days usage out of them.

No power again this morning. I set the alarm on my watch for 5:30 so that I could get Miky up for work. Didn't get a good night's sleep as I was worried about getting up in time. She is a hard person to get out of bed at the best of times, never mind at that hour. My battery on my electric shaver packed up and so I'm not cleanshaven for work today. Too lazy to get the razor out. Breakfast by the candles again.

Western Power should be paying me $80 for the inconvenience of not having a power supply for so many hours. I think that all the food in the fridge will be bad by tonight and there will be an insurance claim for that. Why did I set my excess so high?

Last night Yu-Jin wanted to watch a video. We had explained already that there was no power. Then he wanted to listen to the radio. Do these people never learn? Miky then complained that she wouldn't be able to use her electric blanket.

It is a bit of fun. Really. It's a good thing that I can get around my house in the dark though.

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