Elec-Centricity

There is a chapter in our book called "Elec-Centricities" describing our misadventures with the impenetrable (literally) plethora of plugs and sockets and fuses etc. that comprised the electrical set-up in our cottage. The insanity of dealing with an unfamiliar system along with the unpredictable - often diabolical - habit the electricity had of disappearing altogether made life interesting.

The problem became all too evident a week after we moved in when the first real wind and rain blew in from the sea and we lost our electric connection for the first time. Of course it was at 5:00 p.m. - just in time for supper. Ok - now what? We called in our local expert (Wilf) who explained that there was no way to know when the power would come back on - so he came to the rescue as usual, and loaned us a lantern and a one-burner camp stove so that at least we could cook a simple meal and be able to see when it got dark. Luckily that night it came back on at 10:00 so that our little electric heater that chased the cold and damp from our bedroom could do its job before we went to bed. We would not always be so lucky - there were winter nights when we went to bed in all our clothes, heavy socks and wool hats and lay in one spot all night in order to preserve body heat.

But at that time we were relatively innocent and had not experienced the full virulence of true elec-centricity.