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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that an all day powercut is a bit 1970's?????!

31 replies

twinkletoescare · 04/09/2009 17:44

FGS!
All day with no electric in 2009???
Jeeeez its like living in the 70s living here
Power has been on and off in teh whole village all day,comes on and i get very low voltage then goes off again..
The tortoise is jogging round her cage to keep warm and the fish are gasping for air!
Cup of coffee would be nice
Thank the lord for laptops with long battery life!

Honestly its driving me mad!

AIBU to expect that technology could have moved forward a bit since the 1970's blackouts?

OP posts:
MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 17:47

Depends what the reason is! We had a 4 day power cut at the begining of the summer holidays because some gits numpties thought it would be fun to start a fire at the power station! Burnt all the cables and took 4 days to repair!!

Hope you get your power back soon though.

AspasiaManos · 04/09/2009 17:48

You poor thing. Ours was off for half a day and that was bad enough!!

Original poster
twinkletoescare · 04/09/2009 17:51

4 DAYS!
oh my gosh,what on earth did you do???

OP posts:
MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 18:58

We had 1 three hour slot of electricity every day. So we just had to get everything charged, washed, ironed, cooked etc during that time. It was very, very quiet at times!!

theDMplagiarisedLeonie · 04/09/2009 19:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:05

twinkle - I'm being utterly thick here and do want to know the answer for future power cuts. How do you connect to the internet? my modem needs power.

MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 19:07

The same way as you do when you have internet access on your phone! It's one of them there clever mobile internet usb plug in thingymabobs. (that's a techinical term)

MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 19:07

It'll cost you though....

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:10

Actually this is a good thread in general with the threat (again) of power cuts due to strikes.

What back up do people have here?

We have camping gear so can eat and have cups of tea and a bit of lighting.

Also an open fire.

Have a back up battery pump for fish and would cover tank with blanket - have had to do that before.

Mobile phone if masts are not down - cordless rather useless for those circs.

Thats it, if it were prolonged I suppose we'd have to bbq all our freezer food and pig out!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:12

I wonder if that would work for us Mo, pretty rubbish coverage here for some v. odd reason considering where we are. Well worth knowing though cos I really didn't know

Would be good if you could buy one for emergencies and not pay if you didnt use it (can you do that?)

onepieceoflollipop · 04/09/2009 19:14

My parents live in a rural area and have a lot of power cuts. For Christmas she asked for an Argos voucher - and promptly spent it on one of those mini one ring calor gas cooking rings. She is keen to cook the odd fried egg and boil a kettle. (easily pleased is my mother )

I would tend (if I had any notice of course) to fill a thermos with hot water to sort out water for drinks. Also shower at the first opportunity.

We have a gas hob which usually lights with an electric ignition, but I always have a box of matches handy in case of power failure. It's amazing how successfully one's hair can be washed with a couple of saucepans of hot water.

onepieceoflollipop · 04/09/2009 19:15

Also I have a fantastic torch, my brother bought it for my birthday once

However, it is massive, and holds its power for ages. Occasionally I have had cause to lend it to the odd tradesperson and they are always highly impressed.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:15

Gas hobs are the bees knees in power cuts!
Sadly ours is ceramic. Still, its a good place to rest the camping stove.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:16

Am of your fantastic torch!

GentleOtter · 04/09/2009 19:17

We have open fires too plus a diesel generator that charges tractor batteries and a gizmo that converts the power to the electric supply. We did it when Dad stayed with us as we often get snowed in in winter and have power cuts here.
Oh, and a gas cooker circa 1940's run from a gas bottle.

onepieceoflollipop · 04/09/2009 19:19

Kitten I was a bit p*d off tbh when he bought it, I was expecting rather nice chocs/perfume.

However, it has been extremely handy in times of crisis/when the electrician is here etc.

My mother has some sort of lantern arrangement - that is on permanent charge in case of power cuts (it takes very low energy to charge it according to her, especially purpose made)

MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 19:21

Not sure how much the UBS thingies cost, but it is a PAYG type thing. So you could buy one 'in case of emergency' and top it up, if you need to.

My cooker is gas, but the oven doesn't work, unless the digital clock is set, which needs electricity! Stir fries all round then!

We had camping lights that were rechargable, so portable DVD, phones, lights and laptops, were charged whilst power was on.

DH's biggest problem was that his coffee pod machine didn't work!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:24

no proper coffee Mo?
I think I may well get one of those USB thingies then, theres no point in prolonged powercuts if you can't moan about it to MN and swap horror stories.

GentleOtter wins with the preparedness though. Much kudos for having a generator!

onepieceoflollipop · 04/09/2009 19:24

Maureen if you have a lot of power cuts could your dh buy some of those individual coffee filters? Boil the water on the hob (alongside the stir fry )

Not the same as the machine I know but better than instant?

MaureenMLove · 04/09/2009 19:27

That's not a bad idea. I might buy some just in case. Can't honestly see it happening again for a very long time, unless it's forced by strikes. We live in London! Handy for camping though...

onepieceoflollipop · 04/09/2009 19:29

We take them on holiday when the dcs invariably wake up at some unearthly hour. It makes us feel marginally more "human" iykwim to have proper coffee in bed!

nevergoogledragonbutter · 04/09/2009 19:31

You need one of those metallic string pictures on your wall.

If you squint a bit you'll see everything in soft focus too.

The 70s are cool. Enjoy it!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/09/2009 19:34

Blimey dragonbutter - I'd forgotten about those. Do you think we should start a revival?

ShrinkingViolet · 04/09/2009 19:35

I have an O2 USB internet thingy - it was £35, but comes with 1g of internet which doesn't run out at the end of the month - most/all of the other PAYG ones had a tim tlimit for using it, and I only plan to need mine intermittently.

nevergoogledragonbutter · 04/09/2009 19:35

definitely. get arts and crafts onto it.