Blackout!

Suddenly, about 11 pm last night, the electricity went out in my flat. Boom! Everything shut down. This has never happened before. I remembered that I have a flash light (torch) somewhere, but also that I meant to get batteries for it.

I have one candle.  It's sort of a votive candle and scented. I fired it up and sat at my computer which, in good times and bad, makes me feel secure. (I could have used the Macbook, but I forgot that it works on batteries--I always plug it in. I wondered if Wifi works during an electrical outage? I guessed not.)

I looked out on the street and it was quiet.  There seemed to be some lights, but most of the properties were dark. Suddenly, a car pulled up and a young man got out and went to the side door at the MOT shop across the road. The top floor is supposedly a men's club of some sort, but he seemed to have a key. He entered quickly and went up the stairs where the lights then went on. Before last night, I hadn't known that someone lived there.  

I wasn't sure if the blackout was just in my flat or not. I spooked around the stairwell where the hall lights were still working. One flat had light under the door. I went down to the garage and looked at the row of electric meters. Two were dark, the others not moving. I came back upstairs and sat at the computer with my candle. The smell was beginning to sicken me. 
 
Finally, I called the electric company and was relieved to hear that there were several reports of outages in this area.  She said it would be fixed in a few hours. I said, 'Good, because the meters aren't turning and you're not making any money'. She laughed.  I went to bed then, feeling better that it wasn't just me and that someone got my little joke. 

I woke about an hour later when everything in the flat lit up again. 

Boom! Blackout over.