A Beetley Power Cut

~ beetleypete

On Tuesday the 16th, we have been informed of a ‘Planned Power Cut’ that will affect Beetley. If it goes ahead, we will have no electricity from 9 am, for the rest of the day. (Duration unknown) With this in mind, I am planning on getting out for the day, and eating out too, somewhere that still has electricity. We will have no heating or cooking facilities, no landline phone or Internet of course, and if it is as dark as it is today, the only option would be to read by torchlight, huddled under a blanket. I could take the rare opportunity to spend the entire day in bed, but I have a feeling that Ollie will not be happy if he doesn’t go out.

Now I know this is of little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but I thought I would let you know. If the power cut doesn’t happen, then it will be ‘normal trading’ on my blog. But in the event that they go ahead with it, then I will not be able to comment on any of your posts, reply to those on mine, or check emails. I could use the Internet on my mobile of course, but give the size of the screen, that’s not going to happen.

So if I disappear tomorrow, just be aware that I am not dead. (Well I hope not)

48 thoughts on “A Beetley Power Cut”

      1. I’m so glad, Pete. The past week has been teachers calling families to touch base at the start of the school year. This evening is our annual pumpkin carving at school. Always popular! I will catch up soon. 🙂

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  3. Having grown up in a country where power cuts are the norm, I still have a little giggle about how rare it is in the UK and how ill prepared we all are. At the moment where my mum lives they only have electricity and water at certain times of the day because the council hasn’t paid their utility bills in months,

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    1. We are ‘soft’ indeed. When I was growing up, winter power cuts were the norm, even in central London. We had coal fires, candles, and torches, and as we always had gas stoves, we could cook too. But after forty years of little disruption, a whole day with no power seems like the end of the world. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Waiting is a bane of our existence. For example, yesterday at breakfast there was a fellow standing there almost in the line to order but not quite; and, I asked if he were in the que. He replied, “Waiting for my wife. Go ahead. God help me if she had to wait for me.” That highlighted waiting for me.
        Warmest regards, Theo

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    1. I actually cope quite well away from the PC. If it isn’t there, I don’t use the smartphone, or an Internet cafe. Julie actually finds it impossible to put down her Tablet, unless she is at work. She will miss it much more than me, unless she can find wi-fi out on our travels 🙂
      Thanks, Cindy.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Pete, is Beetley in some kind of 1970’s time warp? Having only ever lived in big cities I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a proper power cut (one lasting more than half an hour) and certainly not a planned one.

    I think candlelight reading under a blanket sounds lovely! Although I suppose in reality you’d get a headache and Ollie would knock the candles over, creating a substantial fire risk 😂

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    1. A lot of the power around here is still carried on overhead lines, wooden poles, and pylons. It is still very ‘country’ after all, and has yet to embrace the 21st century! Though we did get fibre broadband last year. 🙂 It is rural enough that there is a huge pig farm within a few minute’s walk, and we can hear the cows from the beef herd, two streets away. The population is too small to warrant any major investment, so when cables or poles need replacing, we have to endure an all-day power cut. This is the longest one we have had for six years though. One day last year we had a planned outage that lasted for three hours, and that seemed more like nine!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  15. An electrical outage we can handle, Pete, but no going and dying on us! At least it isn’t mid-summer when your air conditioning will go out! Just make certain you don’t open the frig and let all the cold air out! Phew! I sound like I’m going into hurricane preparedness mode – just tell me to shut up, Pete!!

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  17. We were supposed to have one last Tuesday, 8.30-3.30. I filled the thermoses to save having to trek down to the motorhome too often to boil water for tea. I recharged my phone the night before, printed off my latest short story to edit on paper and downloaded my children’s novel to my Kindle for review. We still had power at 9am but had toast for breakfast in case it went off when breakfast was half-cooked.
    Around lunchtime a flyer was thrust through the door saying that, due to operational difficulties, the power cut had been cancelled. It was much later when I looked at my phone and found a text sent around 8am saying the same thing.
    The moral of the story is, check your phone on the morning of the power cut.

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    1. Thanks, Cathy. They were supposed to do this two weeks ago, but cancelled it the day before.
      It seems they might be serious this time, but I will certainly check. 🙂
      (And hope it isn’t raining so hard!)
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. Thanks for letting us know Pete. Hope you will still be able to have a bit of a good day regardless. Sometimes a day spent away from electricity (even though that’s very rare I agree), can also be a blessing 😊

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