A few weeks ago some happy chappy was telling me we're only ever a week away from a revolution. It wasn't some Socialist Worker newspaper seller, either. It was in reaction to the oil crisis and the fact that if petrol-stations shut or were unable to provide fuel then it would take around four days for there to be a lack of basic food (water, milk, bread... chocolate!) getting to most outlets - a few days later people would likely be prepared to break the law to provide for themselves and families. A sobering thought.
So. Today the electricity went off. Apparently it was over a large scale area - the whole of this side of Leeds. (Last week it went off for about an hour due to a more localised problem). Today's lack-of-power lasted about two and a half hours and - touch wood - it's now back on without problems. But I was horrified to realise that without basic power, things changed instantly. The laptop - working without a battery - was offline. Never mind, I can work on typing an article instead of surfing. But no, NO laptop power at all. Maybe I could watch TV? Nope, NO power at all. Okay, at least I'll go and make myself some toast and take it easy. NO... what part of NO POWER AT ALL wasn't I understanding??? I couldn't even go around to the shops as they were having similar problems.
Forget a week. It took me ten minutes to get tetchy. Ye Gods, next time I might even have to settle down and actually read one of those paper-based book thingies the parentals are always telling me about.
I suppose the more accustomed you are to woking electricity, the faster you get antsy without it. We have periodic outages here quite commonly -- overloaded grid, I guess -- and therefore I easily swing into electricity-challenged mode. I can go about 10-12 hours before the nerves set in. Of course, being in earthquake country, I also am pretty well stocked with battery- or propane-powered sources of light.