Birchwood blogs
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Powerless
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It was quite a shock to wake up powerless!
Not that I’d caught man-flu or any other serious illness, the electricity was off.
I bravely fought my way out of bed in the dark, narrowly avoided falling down the stairs, and made my way to the front door.
The street lights were on, the neighbours appeared to have some lights – it was just us.
I found the circuit breakers and the main RCD (whatever that is) had tripped – I sympathised after my near miss, and flicked it back on.
I switched each of the 6 circuit breakers off and on in turn, switched every socket and switch off and on in an attempt to find why the main switch kept tripping out. There was no logic to it at all. What had been OK one second was not the next.
‘Help’ emerged in the form of Ann and Emma (good job it was dark – they are never at their best before the hair straightners have done their job). We then had a couple of hours of entertainment as I shouted instructions to my strategically placed assistants, none of which did any good at all.
Eventually, I did what I should have done a long time before – I rang my mate Allan who knows about these things. I explained my problem and what I’d done. “Unplug the fridge”. “But it’s Switched off mate, I’ve turned all the plugs off”; “Yes but you need to unplug it”, clearly my expert hadn’t heard me – “I’ve turned off ALL the appliances including the fridge freezer”, but Allan not only knows better than me (which is why I rang him in the first place) but he’s more patient than me, because as he started explaining the technical reasons why earth leakage could still occur even when the switch was turned off I was thinking of how much I needed a cup of tea.
I unplugged the fridge.
It worked.
I still don’t understand how or why but it works. The instructions make no sense to me at all but once I followed them, everything worked, the lights were on – and I got my cup of tea.
Made me wonder what Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi thought about the instructions they were given. They can’t have made much sense to them – but they were obedient and as a result played their part in the Light of the World coming to earth at Christmas.
Handy hint from your local Church – if your power goes off this Christmas, ring Allan.
Second handy hint – sometimes we just have to follow the instructions of someone who knows better than we do.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Not that I’d caught man-flu or any other serious illness, the electricity was off.
I bravely fought my way out of bed in the dark, narrowly avoided falling down the stairs, and made my way to the front door.
The street lights were on, the neighbours appeared to have some lights – it was just us.
I found the circuit breakers and the main RCD (whatever that is) had tripped – I sympathised after my near miss, and flicked it back on.
I switched each of the 6 circuit breakers off and on in turn, switched every socket and switch off and on in an attempt to find why the main switch kept tripping out. There was no logic to it at all. What had been OK one second was not the next.
‘Help’ emerged in the form of Ann and Emma (good job it was dark – they are never at their best before the hair straightners have done their job). We then had a couple of hours of entertainment as I shouted instructions to my strategically placed assistants, none of which did any good at all.
Eventually, I did what I should have done a long time before – I rang my mate Allan who knows about these things. I explained my problem and what I’d done. “Unplug the fridge”. “But it’s Switched off mate, I’ve turned all the plugs off”; “Yes but you need to unplug it”, clearly my expert hadn’t heard me – “I’ve turned off ALL the appliances including the fridge freezer”, but Allan not only knows better than me (which is why I rang him in the first place) but he’s more patient than me, because as he started explaining the technical reasons why earth leakage could still occur even when the switch was turned off I was thinking of how much I needed a cup of tea.
I unplugged the fridge.
It worked.
I still don’t understand how or why but it works. The instructions make no sense to me at all but once I followed them, everything worked, the lights were on – and I got my cup of tea.
Made me wonder what Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi thought about the instructions they were given. They can’t have made much sense to them – but they were obedient and as a result played their part in the Light of the World coming to earth at Christmas.
Handy hint from your local Church – if your power goes off this Christmas, ring Allan.
Second handy hint – sometimes we just have to follow the instructions of someone who knows better than we do.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
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