On the evening of December 27th our power went out for the first time since moving to Edinburgh. It was a little scary, as we didn't know if we had any candles (other than birthday cake candles) or even a flashlight, nevermind who we should call. Do we call our landlord, our property agency, our energy supplier Spark Energy, or Scottish Power, who we thought might control the flow of electricity that we pay our energy supplier for. It was after 6 pm, so there hadn't been any light in the sky in over 2 hours. We used mobile phone lights and the lights from the streetlamp outside to dig around for important papers, like the instruction manuals for the place, our property agent's after-hours number and an energy bill. Derek checked on the fuse box but everything was fine.
We threw on our jackets and went out into the courtyard, where the lights were, and knocked on a neighbour's door but there was no answer. Luckily someone else was walking down the steps, and we chatted for a minute. He told us that his landlord lived in the building, whom he'd just seen, and she'd been in touch with Scottish Power and we were supposed to have power back within three hours. So that gave us a timeframe and we now knew to call Scottish Power to get more information.
I was really worried about spending the evening (or maybe even overnight) in such a cold flat. As I was saying earlier in a previous blog, our flat is pretty cold to begin with. Everything is electric, so without power we have no heat, no hot water, no ability to cook... We called our old neighbours who stayed in town over the holidays and asked if we could come spend the evening with them (and we'd bring dessert -- an apple crumble Derek had just been about to put in the oven). They were happy to have us over, so after a phone call to Scottish Power confirming that it was going to take a while we trekked across Grassmarket back to our old place, jealous of the many powered flats up and down the street.
It was so nice and warm being at our friends' home, I didn't really want to leave, but it was after 11 and we knew we should go back and check on everything. Our friends sent us home with two filled hot water bottles to help us sleep (and which we still need to give back!), and it was wonderful that they did because when we got home at midnight and turned on the light switch nothing happened. That was very disheartening. I called Scottish Power again, spent ages on the phone waiting to talk to someone, found out that they were still working, and got ready for bed. I hate washing my face in freezing cold water. But at least we had nice warm spots in the bed thanks to the hot water bottles. And the power did come on within the hour :)
The next evening, December 28th, I was excited for a family Christmas Skype. Derek had preheated the oven and was just about to put dinner in when the power went out. I was crushed, but prepared, as I'd gone and bought two large candles and Derek had gotten a wind-up flashlight. We stuck our heads outside, and saw that not only was the emergency stairwell lighting all on (a good thing), but that the next flat over also had power. Derek went outside and crossed the street to look up at the building, and saw that many of the flats still had power, including our neighbours and the flat directly above us. This was very disheartening. I called Scottish Power and got the standard 'we aim to fix it within 3 hours' response.
We still had dinner, as the oven was fully heated and the meal wasn't anything that you needed to worry about, and then decided to go into my office to make use of the heat, the light, the microwave and kettle, and the internet facilities for Skype. It turned out to be a good evening, and a rather amusing story to tell my family back home. I still got to see aunts and uncles and cousins and my grandma, and they got to see us and my office. When we got home the power was back on. This time it'd only been off for about an hour and a half. Not too bad.
In the next week my cousin came to stay with us for a few days, I spent lots of time working on my library research for school, and things were pretty normal. Then came the night of January 5th. We'd gone to bed before 11 pm, but as I was tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep, I noticed that the alarm clock wasn't on. I though that maybe Derek had accidentally shut the mains off to it (the switch found on every electrical outlet to turn the power off at the wall), but had a sinking feeling that the power was off again. It was, but luckily others were still up when it went off so that it was back on by the time we work up around 7:30 am. But still, it's a very cold night when there's no heat.
I found it very odd that whenever I told someone from Britain that our power was out, or (as time went on) that it was out again, that they'd ask me what I meant. Either they have a different term for it than we do (it's not like I was going around saying 'the hydro's out again' like I would have back home), or it's a rare occurrence. And if it is rare to have the power go out here in an Edinburgh flat, then why did (does?) it keep happening?
But the worst one for me was probably last week's outage. Around 2 am the power went out, so no heat. I probably should have bundled myself up in a blanket and made my way out to the living room to give them a call (we now keep a power bill by the phone for the emergency number), but I was too cold and I just hoped that someone else would call. And so of course I spent the night very cold and worrying that no one would call Scottish Power. I think I got up around 7 or 7:30 (very early for me) and there was still no power. So no hot water for a shower, no ability to have a hot drink or breakfast. I called Scottish Power right away, and it sounded like there were crews already in the area but that they hadn't known that our flats didn't have power. After a quick breakfast I threw on some grubbies and heading off to the office for some warmth and to power up my laptop. Derek stayed home to wait for our weekly grocery delivery (another blog altogether). He called me around 11:o0 to tell me that, after 8 and a half hours, the power had returned.
On my way home I stopped at the university's Advice Place, which is a great information hub. I asked about living standards, the rarity of power outages and wondered what we could do if this was going to be a regular occurrence. Their advice centered on letting the property agency know the details and asking them to look into it, and perhaps get an electrician out (although that might not be necessary, as it appears to be a wider issue with the building). As I walked home through Grassmarket I saw several Scottish Power vans around, a bunch of workers milling around, and a portion of the road blocked off (which is a pretty major deal on this narrow two-lane road), so this told me they were finally taking the problem seriously. We had lunch, during which time the buzzer went off, and a power guy asked Derek if we had power.
Right after lunch the power went out again. I asked Derek to go out and ask what was going on, and to let the workers know. He returned and told me that they'd said the power would be off and on all afternoon, but that it should be back by 4 or so. We decided to go to the library for the afternoon, stopping on the way to give a list of the days and times we'd been without power to the property agents. It was a good afternoon, and we decided that if the power was out when we returned home we'd order a pizza. But we didn't need to, as the power had come back on and has stayed on ever since.
It's been quite the learning experience. I hadn't realized how much I take electricity, light and heat for granted. We also got to see some of the wiring that serves our building of flats, and which lies on the ground under the big square stones that make up the sidewalk (and, as they're completely smooth, serve as an ice slide in the winter). I hadn't really noticed before how there aren't power lines up, lining the streets. I guess they're all underground. No risk of trees falling on them or wind knocking them over, but I suppose a much greater risk of mouse and rat damage, as well as water, and we've had a lot of precipitation lately! So I now know what to do when there's a power outage in Edinburgh, but I wish I didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment