You don't know you're born...

The following news article found its way into my inbox yesterday

Electricity supplies are expected to return to normal following countrywide blackouts, the National Grid has said. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across London, Cheshire, Merseyside and East Anglia were affected on Tuesday. Blackouts were caused by Sizewell B nuclear plant in Suffolk and Longanett coal-fired station in Scotland going off-line within minutes of each other. In total, nine generating units across the country became unavailable. Stuart Larque, spokesman for the National Grid, said: "We think it will be a case of business as usual. We have a very robust system in the UK.

"It rarely fails and that's why everybody is talking about it so much." The blackouts were caused by the opposite of a power surge as the National Grid deactivated local stations to maintain the required 50hz frequency. When demand is greater than generation, the system fails, the National Grid said. David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, which represents the companies that generate the UK's electricity, said the problem was caused by several smaller issues that occurred at the same time.
"It was a huge coincidence. A couple of large power stations just within a few minutes of each other suffered breakdowns and the loss of power was more than the system is designed to take.

"People were without power for 30 or 40 minutes I believe. Everybody in the industry is very sorry but it doesn't happen very often." Independent energy consultancy, McKinnon and Clarke, has advised the government to build new power stations or face further power cuts.
David Hunter, energy analyst at McKinnon and Clarke, said: "The government's inability to make long-term energy security decisions over the last decade is coming home to roost. "Since the 'dash for gas' in the 1990s, the lack of political will to make tough decisions has left Britain short of power

I must admit that when this ‘news’ was discussed amongst the staff, it was with an air of great hilarity!! In fact one person was heard to comment, ‘If the power only went off here for 30-40 minutes we would be wondering what’s wrong!”

I may have mentioned this before but we experience power cuts, on an almost daily basis and on average they last for a couple of hours at a time. I am in fact typing this an hour into today’s blackout! Thankfully houses here (at least I my area) are equipped with the necessities to keep going, I now have in my new apartment both a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) which is basically two car batteries in my pantry and a back up generator. The UPS is great and switches on automatically as soon as the power goes off. I can’t power the AC but the fans and the lights stay on which makes life bearable. I can also power the TV but that tends to drain the batteries quite quickly so I have switched off for the moment just in case, so that I don’t have to go down and switch the generator on!

The chowkidar(gate keeper) at my new place is nice enough but he’s not Farukh! I think I was a little spoiled by Farukh and Yacoob just doesn’t measure up. I have come home today to find that Yacoob has gone on leave for two months and been replaced by Nasir. All this is organized by the landlord, but I do miss the reliability of Farukh!!

The last couple of weeks have been taken up with exams and planning for next year. We now only have three weeks left until the end of term and there are reports to be written and a timetable to produce as well as all the other end of term stuff.

Stewart and I did go and take the theory part of our PADI course last week and I am pleased to say that we both passed and are now fully qualified open water divers.
I am now also almost at the half way stage with my ‘cross channel swim’ having completed 10 miles. Just 11 miles left and I am still hopeful that I will make it before I leave. The pool at the Avari is lovely and it is great to arrive at the open air pool side and read on the notice board ‘Air Temperature 34 degrees’ and “Pool temperature 34 degrees’!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ‘It’s hard life, but someone’s got to do it’ and I’m extremely grateful that it’s me..