bignoseduglyguy

Normal service is now resumed

I usually write my blog entries in EditPad Lite as I prefer to hard code my posts in a larger window than my MT bloglet offers. In the last few hours, I have discovered that it doesn't have an auto save/recover feature. How? We had a power cut. Not just our place but everywhere around the Isle Of Dogs as far as I can tell.

At the time, I was several thousand words into a heartfelt and incisive post about stress, working out the frustrations of a crappy day in which all manner of not-so-good stuff happened. That post has disappeared into the ether and I haven't the energy or the impetus to rewrite it. However, the power cut gifted me a great time spent in the company of my eldest two sprogs, who were still awake when the darkness descended.[1] After regaling them with stories of the long power cuts during the dark days of industrial strife in the '70s [2], we spent a happy time poring over old photographs and telling each other awful jokes - such as 'A man goes to see a psychiatrist wearing nothing but clingfilm shorts. The doctor says 'I can clearly see your/you're nuts!"'. By the the time the lights came back on, we'd run out of jokes but had had the best hour or so together for a long while - enough to make me ponder the wisdom of being so attached to all my gadgetry. If I led a simpler life (organic farmer, say), I'm positive I wouldn't miss half this stuff at all. However, for now, I'm happy to have it all to hand.

Lastly, and for anyone else who is likely to be caught in a power cut, I have a cautionary observation to pass on. I was amazed to find that the lack of light somehow managed to reduce the amount of Merlot in my bottle, with more disappearing the longer we were without power. The less enlightened might cynically put this down to being unable to see how much I was pouring by candlelight but those who have seen the light know better. Ahem. I'll stop now.

[1] I'm obviously referring to the lack of illumination rather than the the glam rock band from Norfolk of the same name.
[2] My Dad, who was a consulting engineer in the oil and gas industry back then, had the foresight to install gas lights in the main rooms of our 1930s semi. This meant that such evenings were spent bathed in the amazing yellowy-green misty light that was given off by the old ceramic mantles in the gas lights. I was going to write that I doubted if one can still buy mantles for gas lights, though I even recall the brand name to this day - Veritas. However, Google advises otherwise and threw up this link that show the company alive and well and manufacturing mantles in a town I know and have visited in Malta. What a small and beautifully lit world we live in.