We didn't get a lot done last Wednesday. Anna and Vitou were busy teaching; after getting back from the dorm, I settled down to some admin, emails, blogs, and so forth, but within an hour or so the power was off. Blackouts aren't uncommon here, but they normally kick in at either 10:30am or 3:45pm-ish; this time it had barely gone 9:00. Unfortunately, electricity is relatively critical to the operation of the BEC: it keeps computers alive, and the freezer cold, but more importantly, it keeps the lower levels, where Anna and Vitou were in the middle of lessons, habitable, via lighting and fans. Cut the power to the downstairs teaching rooms, and a enlightening lesson immediately sinks in a black hole, where one can't see one's hand in front of one's face, let alone the words on a page. Within minutes of the fans stopping, touching a book will be unthinkable, due to the quantity of sweat that will have formed on one's hands.
This time it was a long blackout, nearly two hours having passed, before Dy noticed that the lights on the switchboard and multi-boards were flicking on and off, and printer making noises about restarting. The power was evidently trying to come back on, but not succeeding. Then there was a gasp and a shriek as Dy and Anna both looked out the door and across the street to see sparks leaping back and forth around the power pole. I ran up to the office to see what was going on, and arrived in time to witness something I have certainly never seen before: flames dancing along the power lines. Evidently the rubber insulation had caught alight from the continual sparking.
Vitou called the power authority to report the fault, and in due course, three electrical technicians turned up in a ute. After making some inspections and cutting off the power, they packed up and left, leaving five houses without power until further notice. Repair it? No, that couldn't be done until all five owners/landlords (one of whom it turns out is currently overseas) submitted written applications to the government reporting the problem and requesting it to be fixed. That itself might take a couple of days, just in time for a 3-day public holiday, after which it would then probably take several more days before the repairs would be carried out.
So, facing the alarming prospect of a week or ten days without power, we prepared for the worst. First things first, we ate all the ice cream that was beginning to soften in the freezer. Next, while Vitou got in touch with the landlord, we started scrubbing the rooftop and balcony, so that we would have some reputably clean spots with daylight and fresh air to hold lessons. Meanwhile, Bong Sokun was busy downstairs cooking lunch in almost-complete darkness, surprisingly successfully, as it turned out. We ate lunch, and then, lo and behold, just before one o'clock there was a blink of the lights and a whir of the fans, and the power was back on. What looked like taking a week or ten days for the power authority to get around to doing, had been accomplished within an hour or two by a private contractor, at a price of about $50 shared between the owners of the five affected houses. It sounds to me like the mind-bogglingly lengthy and convoluted process for applying to have a fault repaired has been cleverly devised by the power authority to ensure that frustrated customers arrange repairs privately at their own expense, conveniently cutting the authority's line maintenance costs!
David
This time it was a long blackout, nearly two hours having passed, before Dy noticed that the lights on the switchboard and multi-boards were flicking on and off, and printer making noises about restarting. The power was evidently trying to come back on, but not succeeding. Then there was a gasp and a shriek as Dy and Anna both looked out the door and across the street to see sparks leaping back and forth around the power pole. I ran up to the office to see what was going on, and arrived in time to witness something I have certainly never seen before: flames dancing along the power lines. Evidently the rubber insulation had caught alight from the continual sparking.
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| Now, which wire was sparking? ... maybe this one ... ZZZZZZZAP |
So, facing the alarming prospect of a week or ten days without power, we prepared for the worst. First things first, we ate all the ice cream that was beginning to soften in the freezer. Next, while Vitou got in touch with the landlord, we started scrubbing the rooftop and balcony, so that we would have some reputably clean spots with daylight and fresh air to hold lessons. Meanwhile, Bong Sokun was busy downstairs cooking lunch in almost-complete darkness, surprisingly successfully, as it turned out. We ate lunch, and then, lo and behold, just before one o'clock there was a blink of the lights and a whir of the fans, and the power was back on. What looked like taking a week or ten days for the power authority to get around to doing, had been accomplished within an hour or two by a private contractor, at a price of about $50 shared between the owners of the five affected houses. It sounds to me like the mind-bogglingly lengthy and convoluted process for applying to have a fault repaired has been cleverly devised by the power authority to ensure that frustrated customers arrange repairs privately at their own expense, conveniently cutting the authority's line maintenance costs!
David
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