alexist

I was out yesterday afternoon, and set off home about 17:30. As I was walking home, someone came up to me and said something about the lights being out. I could see that up ahead the streetlights were out. As I kept walking, I realised it was ALL the lights. I got to Ballards Lane, saw that Waitrose was open and had lights, and stopped off (figuring the blackout couldn't be that bad). I was wrong. There were no lights the whole way home, and it was pissing rain. It took me 40 minutes to walk back from Waitrose (normally about 20). The tube station was shut. I got home and discovered we were at the edge of the blackout zone--the houses across the street had lights!

luckily, the neighbours saw me coming and she sent her son upstairs with a flashlight so I could get Aliza up and light some candles. Luckily (again) Neil made it home not too much later (he walked from Finchley Central). We went out for dinner, came back, saw we still had no lights, and went to Tesco for more candles. By the time we got back, electricity was on. Phew. Freezer only got down to -15C (instead of -19) so no damage done.

Local rag says 2,500 houses were affected and 400 are still out.

Aliza got hold of the cordless phone and was playing with it. Suddenly I heard someone speaking. I grabbed the phone and hung it up. Then I saw she'd phoned 999. Ooops. Sorry, emergency services.

(phone now out of her reach)