When were you last hit ....

[Hazell B]

.... by a power cut? :p :

Got home yesterday evening to a house with no electricity. In fact, half a street with no power at all :mark:

Found the candles (after a less than enjoyable search :rolleyes: ) and played Scrabble while shivering in our coats. Typically, we'd just ripped a giant hole in the chimney breast and should have been fitting a new log burning stove, but needed light to do so. This meant we were sitting in a sub zero wind tunnel rather than a living room :p :

Still, we'll be thankfull for the log burner all the more now, after that experience :)

[fandango]

We last had a power cut a few weeks ago when a ship wanted to cross over some cable in Germany.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6120212.stm

Usually, power cuts happen here at the height of Summer in the afternoon, when everyone gets home and turns on the aircon.

[Dave B]

A couple of months ago, it seems there's a problem with our local substation. Still, it was fun playing with laser pointers... ;)

[odykas]

I was hit by 220 volts last week.

But never by 0 volts.

[wacked]

had power cut y'day for the whole day.. but about 2-3 weeks ago.. didnt have power from 7 in the mornin till about 10 at night.. happened twice.. some wire blew out like 1 block away.. it took them over 12 hours to repair it..

[fandango]

It's amazing when you realise that we're all connected by this completely artificial network that we usually take for granted.

[jso1985]

Here we usually have power cuts about twice a month during spring, due the heavy electrical storms we get.

That's when you realize how much you depend on electricity and the only thing I can actually do is listen music on my Mp3 player

[Dazz9908]

Last Saturday evening,
Seems to happen once to twice a month now
gives me the willies,
Pay good money and the can't be bothered setting up a proper reliable grid
Profits get in the way of good old fashioned service these days.
the World has turned for the worst, because of this Ideology, Money before anything!!!

[Mp3 Astra]

We never get power cuts any more. Only in thunderstorms and about once a year on random occasions :D Last time? 3 months ago.

[CarlMetro]

Tuesday evening, whilst siting in my hotel room in Dresden. It only seemed to effect our side of the street and took about an hour to come back on.

I can't remeber the last time we had one at home though.

[janneppi]

Must have been over a year ago, never knew the actual reason why there was a blackout in a four km long and 1 km wide area, but as i was walking to a nearby gas station to buy candles i saw a truck with a excavator on the bed speeding away from Hervanta. :)

[reidy_fan]

must be a couple of years, one good thing about having camping as a hobby is that I always have charged up lanterns, gas lighting and a stove to make a hot meal. Plus a lovely Gelert sleeping bag to keep warm in should the central heating not work

[Hazell B]

I can't remeber the last time we had one at home.

Neither can I. That's partly why I asked, as we used to get them when I first came here 15 years ago, then in the past ten years I can't remember one. Just wondered if everywhere was as good.

Looks like I'm pretty lucky :)

[Ian McC]

That's bizarre, I just remembered a nightmare I had last night about getting a power cut, it didn't end well :(

[The Kitten Kat]

In Surrey we seem to have them every now and again and for no apparent reason. :s

Am currently in the depths of Wales staying with my parents for a few weeks and although the electricity is fine, the water is horrendous! They have chosen this time of year to dig up the roadways in and out of the village and re-lay all of the pipeworks (which have been leaking for as many years as I can remember and they've not bothered with!) , which means that we can end up without water between 8am and 6pm Monday - Saturday :s

Which means mad panic and everyone fighting for the shower and washing machine when the water is actually on!

And possible disruptions over Xmas :s

[nicemms]

I can't actually remember the last time we had a power cut. It was probably at least 8 years ago.

The only time the power goes off now is when the electrictian needs to turn it off!!!

[Drew]

A couple of years ago we used to get at least one power cut a week, then for some reason the lines got upgraded (along with water and telephone) and now the only time we've had any problem is when there is a big thunderstorm.

[555-04Q2]

At least once a month :( We have lots of candles and gas lights at home :p :

[slinkster]

We haven't had a power cut for a month or so...

I heard our local news reporting about Birminghams Sea Life Centre being hit by a power cut the other day... they had to work round the clock to keep the temperatures up so they didn't lose all the exotic fish and turtles etc. Could have been really awful, but fortunatly the power came back before getting a back up emergency tank brought up!

[Ranger]

On the night of October 8th.

Just minutes before the telecast of the Japanese GP.

I missed the entire race bar the last 9 laps, which I was very annoyed about, considering the blackout was at 10:15 at night after the race started at 3:00 in the daytime.

[Valve Bounce]

Talking about power cuts, did any of you have to put up with regular and routine power cuts? I did in Sri Lanka in 1979. The country relied totally on hydro power, but there was insufficient hydro that year.

Then when I was in Iran in 1977, (I left three days after hte Shah), power cuts towards the end were the norm. In fact, the day I left Iran, Tehran Airport was swathed in total darkness and to make it worse, the Lugthansa jumbo I was booked on didn't land on the snow covered runway as the Air Control was non functional.
I could tell you about power cuts but I think it would just bore everyone to sleep.
Like in Melbourne during the heat wave in 1973 summer and half the trains were cancelled and I had to go home in a train with the passengers packed like sardines. Then when we got home, the lights came on and off like Christmas tree lights, and the Tele responded in kind.

But all this pales into insignificance whe we talk about New Orleans during that hurricane whatshername, ............

Yeah! power cuts are annoying!

[BeansBeansBeans]

We've just had a powercut in the office. It seems to have affected quite a lot of Newcastle City Centre too.

[555-04Q2]

Speak of the Devil, just had a powercut today for 5 hours at home :(

[Drew]

I wonder just how true this story is, I like the idea of it though :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AvDBQlkJXdg