No sign of Spring yet….

Twenty odd years of living in rural parts kinda makes you accustomed to power cuts. The other night seemed no different. The flickering of lights like a Hollywood Ghost Movie, then everything goes off. Usually the lights come back on within a couple of hours.

But not this night.

This night, the lights flickered and then a huge explosion from somewhere across the fields. Then blackness.

A recent innovation is that the Power Company now sends out text messages to say when the power is likely to be restored.

This night, the first text was as expected.

“Specialist Teams are on their way”

Then

“Specialist Teams are on site, power is likely to be restored by 11-30pm”

11-30pm and no lights….

“The work is taking longer than expected, power likely to be restored 12-30pm”

12-30 became 1-30 became 2-30 became 3-30.

“A large equipment failure has resulted in serious infrastructure damage….further updates to follow as soon as we have more information.”

The only lights apart from the house candles are the work team head torches and vehicles zigzagging across the muddy farm fields.

Morning breaks, more activity along the power lines.

7-30, 8-30, 9-30, 10-30, 11-30.

Finally in the afternoon the lights flicker back on. Lights not quite as bright as usual. A huge temporary generator has been dropped into the village. It’s a noisy village for the next few weeks.

The dog walk reveals what’s happened to the poor farmers field.

Apparently technologically speaking the local infrastructure failed. In normal speak, a local sub generator EXPLODED. It was old and didn’t like getting flooded repeatedly.

Well at least the sheep still have the field to themselves. No sign of the previous nights mayhem.