A Loss of Power

I had to change my plans for today as I awoke to find the power off. Now I know that I have a friend in America and god only needs to sneeze for her to loose supply for days, while here it normally is back on in hours. But there was a chance that today was going to be different as a loss of power due to flooding can last a day or two.

When I first moved here I made provision for this eventuality by getting a camping stove so I could cook and make hot drinks at least. I have had to use it too, and today I realised that I had no spare gas. I only had the canister that was in use, so as I had no idea how long the outage could last, I decided I should get some spares.

Therefore, instead of cooking today as I had planned, I headed into Newcastle instead. With no power, I could not have done the baking I was planning to do anyway. I had checked by phone with the distribution company that they could not give a time when the power would be restored before going though. Thus I decided to make a day of it.

The first thing I did was get a coffee and a good one it was too, and some lunch in the city. While that was a bit of an indulgence, I was in a relaxed mood. I went to a small independent outdoor suppliers and got the gas canisters that I needed as well as a new pair of camouflage trousers. One of the pairs that I have that are supposed to be indestructible are so worn that they are falling apart. At least with a new pair I can sit and sew patches and repairs on the old ones when there is nothing on television. As that's nearly every night that will probably be done by next week.

I indulged myself with looking in some of the bookshops, I could happily live in a library and I have to restrain myself as I could spend the cats food budget and mine on books. There were a couple that I made a mental note of and may return if I find that I have some spare cash.

Now I am not a great one for wandering around the shops, nor do I think that shopping should be the national sport, but wanted to get a feel for what the retail environment felt like now we are embedded in this recession. As I have said here before, here in Britain much of the economic vibrancy that was here was an illusion as it was only funded by people borrowing ever greater sums of money. While not as busy as it was when the credit cards were being flashed at anything with a price tag, economic life is actually still going on. Personally I think the main difference is that the shops that you could never understand how anyone would waste their money in them have gone. Many of these were hardly making money in the good times, and probably were only existing by the owners taking out ever increasing bank loans.

Equally there were and are shops where the products were of good quality but were extortionate priced. Many of these shops are still there, but devoid of customers. Even with many of the items half price they are just at the level of the department stores. The shops that are surviving and appear to doing quite well are the ones that were reasonable in the first place. Therefore I think that the contraction in Credit has only helped clear out much of the dross from the high street.

As I did not know how long I was going to be out, I took the camera and took a few shots of the buildings in Newcastle, between the heavy rain showers. It has some fine architecture. The parts that I dislike are the 60s bits where they attempted to ruin the city with concrete.

Eventually I headed back home and the power had been restored and I was able to get the washing up done. It had been more than fourteen hours without power, and while I had planned for this happening at times, I was not even in the door when I had folks complaining that the power had been out. Well I am sorry that they were effected, but I have greater sympathy for the hundreds of people who had to leave their homes as a result of the floods. Yes the loss of power was an inconvenience but it restored quickly. Some people just don't know how well off they are.