The Darkness of the Soul... er, flat

Well, tonight was interesting. I come home, flick on the light switch and... nothing happens. Try it again. Nope. Check other lights. Nothing. None of my electronics are lit up. It was clear, I had no electricity.

After speaking to the neighbour I discover that there has been electrical work in the building today, and they helpfully decided to disconnect me. I then realise that the electricians had left a note through my door, with contact numbers for their company and Scottish Power (listed first). So I ring up Scottish Power, curse the individual who came up with voice recognition for customer service phone lines, and eventually get through to a real person, who tells me to check the circuit breakers and phone them back if that doesn't fix it. All very well, bit I can't see the circuit breakers as I have no bloody lights.

I then remember that my first aid kit has a built in torch... with no batteries. Sigh. So I scavenge the batteries from my remote controls, and check the circuit breakers... all looks normal. I phone up Scottish Power again, muddle through the voice recognition fiasco for a second time, and finally get put through to a different person who bluntly tells me that it's nothing to do with them and that I should have phoned the other company in the first place. I'm not sure if I hung up before or after swearing loudly...

Anyway, I ring the electrical company. "Please leave a message." Grrrr....  Luckily there is also a mobile number, which by some miracle is actually picked up. The guy on the other end tells me that I was supposedly notified of the work by a hand-delivered letter 10 days ago, and that all the other tenants in the building successfully contacted them to arrange for the work to be done. That's all very well, but I certainly never saw this letter. It must have been mislaid amongst the large piles of junk mail in the stairwell... and was probably wrongly addressed anyway. Anyway, this guy actually sounds angry at me for inconveniencing him. He curtly tells me that he'll call his electricians out and hangs up without giving me any indication of when they will turn up.

By this point it was almost completely dark - and there was literally nothing to do. I couldn't even cook anything because I have an electric hob/oven. So I sat in the dark and waited, pondering ways of torturing electricians... ok, so I did actually phone up my mum for a chat but that's not quite so dramatic.

After an hour they finally arrived and proceeded to make a huge amount of noise and mess, which I'm sure won't ingratiate me with the neighbours. Eventually the power was restored and I heard the joyous noise of all my electronic items powering on at the same time. How not to spend a Wednesday evening.

In short, I hate electricians. And in fact, most service industries...

On a lighter (ha!) note, last week I spent 4 nights in Braemar with a few friends, which was a very welcome break from that whole work thing. Highlights included:

• Visiting Tomintoul and buying whisky
• Visiting the Cairngorm Brewery and buying a crate of ale
• Celebrating my 25th birthday with chocolate ale cake
• Visiting the Royal Lochnagar distillery and buying more whisky
• Taking an 8-mile trek round Loch Muick as the sun set over the hills (See? It wasn't all about alcohol. Just mostly.)
• Exploring the Linn of Dee
• Winning games of Scrabble and a card game called "Bastard"
• Visiting my old home town of Auchenblae on the way back to Edinburgh, a place I have not been in 11 years. It seems a lot smaller and the door of my old house is a different colour... and the hotel has blown up (link)

Pictures can be found here and here.

It was a shame to return to the usual routine on Monday. Oh well, I've got to keep paying the bills to make sure I don't come home to find myself in the dark with no electricity. Oh, wait...