This morning, just after I finished working out, all the lights went out.
At first, I thought something in my gym had tripped a switch, but when I walked over to the house I saw Kev was sitting in darkness, too.
He told me he’d had a text from the electricity board basically saying “Soz! We didn’t see this coming but you’ve got no electricity till lunchtime!”
Righto!
I was due to be on a client call in an hour and I was a dripping, sweaty mess.
I would normally be heading for the shower after my workout, but it dawned on me that our shower relies on an electric pump to get the water from the cylinder, so I had to go to plan B.
I ran a teeny, tiny bath.
It was a teeny, tiny bath because the bath also relies on an electric pump to fill it up quickly, so I thanked the Lord for the fact we had hot water stored in the cylinder, and waited patiently for the tap to spit a couple of inches of water into the tub.
I got in, and used one of the little buckets the kids usually play in the bath with to dribble water over my sweaty head.
I felt like I was three again!
Of course, there was no chance of using a hairdryer this morning, and I don’t own a clockwork one, so I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and squidged a cap on top ready for my call.
I boiled a saucepan on my gas hob to make a cup of tea, and felt mildly guilty that Kev doesn’t like tea and thus couldn’t have a hot drink.
We both adore our Nespresso coffee machine, but it stood silently in the corner of the kitchen shrugging its shoulders.
Kev and I did our client call, and then headed up to the next town to sit in a cafe, drink coffee and charge up our laptops and phones.
As it stands, the electricity board says there’s no electricity until late afternoon. I’m back in the kitchen now, and allowing my hair to dry naturally.
Kev has just walked past me and he said, “You look like Diana Ross!”
Thank you. I’ll take that…
“Or a Spaniel. You know, the ones with the big ears...”
Tosser.
I feel as if I’m really flexing my gratitude muscle at home this week - no sooner have we got over the threat of being flooded again that we lose all our power.
(Apparently, it was due to a digger on the sodding roadworks nearby going through the mains cables. That new road has a lot to answer for!)
So, my Reasons to be Cheerful Part Two are:
Teabags
Gas Hobs
Cafes that let you charge things whilst drinking delicious coffee
Little buckets and feeling three years old
5G and hotspotting
Blankets
Big windows
A dry house (even though I can’t see into some parts of it)
Kev’s terrible jokes
There’s always something or someone to be grateful for, even if you simultaneously want to punch them in the face.