Power Cuts

We have just suffered yet another micro-power cut. These are no long, but just long enough to crash all our computers, and I now need to tour the house to reset all the clocks and the central heating timer.

These usually occur during high winds, when trees touch the overhead power cables (yes, our village is still in the early 20th Century), but there is little wind today.

In Kenya, and particularly Kisii, we know when there is going to be a power cut. They usually occur when an electrical storm is approaching the town. But the town has a generator and after a few minutes without power, we can hear the old diesel engine fire up and a few minutes after that, we have flickery power back - usually.

I have learned to save my computer work when a storm is approaching, when in Kisii, so I rarely have a catastrophe. But here in the UK, although these micro-power cuts are frequent enough (and longer power cuts aren't unheard of, when a tree comes down and takes out a section of line), I cannot get used to them.

So, which do I prefer? Oh, definitely the Kenyan power cuts. they are predictable, to a degree, and we can almost rely on the diesel backup - almost.