Powerless

Yesterday we lost all power. The entire street was plunged into darkness around 3am and the lights ween't back on again until 10pm. How am I so sure of the timings? Well, our youngest, TJ, came up to tell us his nightlight had broken at precisely 3.05 and allowing the 5 mins for him to try every light switch and electronic device on the way to our room I deduced that it must have gone off at 3am. Again, we didn't discover that he had tried every power source within a six year olds reach until the power came back and my house lit up like a Christmas tree. I knew the lights came back on at 10pm as that was when the American series that we are addicted to came on at precisely that time.

This had a few ramifications during the day. On being told that there was a major power cut over breakfast KC simply looked at me and said, 'that's ok, we can just watch TV.' I had to explain to him that no power meant no TV. He looked stunned and then fell to his knees in a complete parody of 'Planet of The Apes' screaming 'Noooooooooo.... Why?.. Why are you doing this to me?' I went to comfort him but he skulked under the dining table and sat there silently plotting his vengeance on 'the man who cut the power.'

The kids went to school as normal, I had to go to the gym, to shower, I hasten to add, not for any actual sweat. I joined the gym last year. It was a birthday present from Papa. It was given to me with the loving retort, "and I want to see results!" ...charming. I returned home after my 'induction' and proudly looked at my other half and informed him that the gym I had chosen had a bar which, as I pointed out, was a bloody good result!

I digress. After showering I came home to find that I was practically living in 1953. I had no hot water, no internet, no radio, nothing... I comforted myself with a bottle of wine and a book.

The kids came home from school. Now I really needed more wine. No tv, raining outside, none of the usual electronic gadgets and once I had reeled off the facts that we couldn't play the wii, the Xbox or watch a DVD I was told that playing a board game was boring, reading a book was boring and colouring in was, yes, boring. What was not perceived as boring though was tearing around the house screaming at the top of their lungs for three hours.... I spent the rest of the afternoon considering the better boarding schools.

Then to cap it all Papa came home from work, for dinner we ate all the food that was going off in the fridge. Fish, pork pies and prawn curry followed by a lukewarm cheesecake. I needed to finish the opened bottle of wine - it would only have gone off was my reasoning.

We sat eating in candlelight, it was all very romantic. Then Papa said 'right, time to watch Revenge'. For those not in the know Revenge is an awesomely trashy American show which we both love. 'We can't dear,' I told him in the same tone I had used for KC in the morning, 'There's no power.'

Papa looked triumphant, 'We can watch it on the iPad ' he said. I looked at him. 'No power, means no Internet, no Internet means no wifi, no wifi means no 'Revenge'. Papa's turn to look stunned, 'Noooooooooo.....' he cried. Well at least now I know where KC gets his overly dramatic tendencies from.

It was soon after that the power came back and we settled down to watch our gloriously trashy tv.

july 17

Today.

"When's the new baby ready?" KC asked over breakfast this morning. I nearly spat my Curiously Cinnamon out across the table. "What baby?" I asked.
"I think we need a new baby and it needs to be made." he said. "oh and we need a new puppy too and someone has to make that as well."
I looked across at him. He is nearly 8 and I think we are going to have to have that 'talk' already. So I popped out and bought a copy of "Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From." lots of child friendly cartoons showing the basics of heterosexual intercourse. I showed Papa and he fainted. God knows how KC will react.