Bow, London: Home, sweet home? I finally made it inside about half an hour ago, after creeping my way tentatively up a pitch black staircase. I was glad to see (or rather feel) that my front door was still intact, and to discover that my front door keys were indeed still in my pocket. The flat may be cold and isolated and dark, but at least it's still home.
First success - I keep a torch beside the front door for use in power cuts or when the fuse blows. At last, illumination is under my control again. First mistake - I dashed into the bathroom and used the toilet, then flushed the chain. Damn, the cistern didn't refill (or even gurgle) so that's my sewage arrangements buggered. Second success - I bought a bag of IKEA tealights several years ago, and it appears I still have more than 80 of them left. I took nearly five minutes to find a box of matches though. Second disaster - there's a pool of ice-cold water spreading across the kitchen floor where the fridge-freezer has started defrosting. At least the milk hasn't gone off yet. Third disaster - the taps are dry, and I don't believe in buying bottled water so I don't have any in the house. Grrr. Fourth disaster - my gas hob isn't working, so I couldn't make a soothing cup of tea even if I wanted to. Come on, it's what we Brits do when disasters outnumber successes, and I feel like I'm missing out.
So, no gas, no electricity and only the water I can salvage from the kettle and the defrosting freezer. Things could be better. But I have fruit, and bread, and tins of baked beans, and a surprisingly large number of Creme Eggs, so I'm not going to starve in the near future. The lack of electricity is probably my biggest problem. Without electricity much of modern life doesn't function. I can't cook, I can't watch television, and I can't find out what the hell's going on out there. The telephone appears to be dead, and even my super-duper new mobile doesn't seem to be able to raise a meaningful signal. All of my radios are mains-powered, bar one (which I don't have sufficiently large batteries for). At least my laptop still has a couple of hours of power left, but without a wireless network to connect to it's not much use.
It looks like I face an evening trying to make my own entertainment. I've got a stack of books here that I've never quite got round to reading, even if flicking through them by candlelight isn't going to be good for my eyesight. I've got a fully functioning mp3 player, even if chirpy upbeat music doesn't sound especially appropriate at the moment. And I've got a vivid imagination, which isn't going to help me one little bit as I sit here cowering in the flickering darkness wondering what the hell might be going on outside. Posted at 19:09 from 51°31'41"N 0°1'5"W via my Z470xi mobile
