BlackOUT!!!

In Nigeria, the lights go out and people heave a sigh of acceptance, praying that it won't be too long till they see that flicker of hope in the Phillips light bulb in their living room.

In the UK, the lights go out and every one stares at each other, thinking, "what just happened"? Then the braver of them steps up to the fuse box and fiddles with the switches, thinking " hmm it's probably just tripped off". He fiddles with it once or twice. When there is no show, he starts to panic.

He calms down. Right, first I need the toilet badly for a number one, then I will call the electric company. He goes to the toilet , finishes and turns on the tap to wash his hands. The water is freezing cold. He looks at the tap he has opened, double checks. " yeah it's the red one" , meaning it's meant to be hot. But no it's not, cos the boiler is off. " oh the boiler is run by electricity"...HISS

Next he decides, yes I need the number for the electric company. "Hmm let me try the Internet, I cant be bothered to find any of those bills right now. Well the computer is off. Oh well, the laptop is still on". He fires up Internet explorer and it says "the web page required does not work offline". Ahn ahn, offline bawo? At least my Internet is wireless. He goes to the modem and finds that it is off. " oh duh, it uses electricity too".

Faces the reality of looking for the bills. Goes to the door, where the mail is in a huge pile. Looks through, to find any of the monthly bills from the electrics company, it should have their number on it. Finally, he gets it and looks everywhere for the land line phone. He finds it sitting on its hub in the living room and tries to dial the number. 0-8-0-0-3-5-5-5-5-5-5, hits the green 'call' button. Places the phone to his ear but he doesnt hear the sound he uusually hears, the one he wants to hear. Its quiet. There's no dial tone. Haba? Ki ni de?
"Damn" He realises, the phone is electric, its 2009 and cannot think of where to find an analogue phone. Tries to call them on the mobile and they aren't picking up, A waste of his already finished minutes. Its slowly getting dark.

Well it's past 7, I better head out to buy some candles and whatnot. Beckons on his wife to feed the kids their dinner and get them to bed before it's too dark, and it becomes a case of sorting out electricity and children that cant sleep in darkness. She heads to the kitchen. Thinks of something she can do on the cooker seeing as the microwave won't work. She decided on warming up the rice for them. Turns the knob and hits the ignition. The sound of the gas coming out is all she hears. Nothing from the ignition. Oh my God. The ignition is electric and we dont have any match sticks at home.

Its gone past 7 and all the shops are closed. Waitrose shuts at 7 and the Tesco that is meant to be open 24 hours is shut due to flooding.

Shit, where is an aboki when you need one?

The husband declares, It's a state of emergency

26 Cogitations:

Roc said...

Most definitely a 'state of emergency..

Amazing how much we come to rely on basic stuff when you live in a country where it's become a right and not a priviledge..

Roc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Isabella said...

Wow ....very interesting read ..enjoyed ...so what happened?

and I 2nd what Roc said!

NoLimit said...

Hmmmm...state of emergency indeed!
I agree with Roc...slowly and subtly we depend on these things!

NaijaBabe said...

So vey tru isnt it...we tend to take thse things for granted, till either it happens to us here, or we go back home to Naija

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

true, true...my kids were recently complaining that they couldn't do the things they wanted during a recent blackout. All I could think was how spoiled they are. =)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps an aboki as back up is not a bad idea after all.... Or just heading back to Nigeria where you know it won't work anyways!

NaijaBabe said...

Mummy- LOL your kids experienced it too? HHAHA!

DB- Exactly o! You know theres always an aboki with candles and matches

QMoney said...

LOL,in 9ja,we go fire gen and all those things will be working again.........someone recently put on FB that the sounds of gens serenades her to sleep at night and the low current wen they bring the light reminds her of candle lit dinner....lol

NaijaBabe said...

Qmoney, see unlike naija , we don't have a gen, and although you'd rarely find people here using it, if they are, then it's cos the electric company is finding it difficult to fix the problem right there and they'd supply that person with a gen to use on the mean time till their electricity I'd fixed. That's how helpless we are

scribble,me.free said...

lol..for realz, a power cut in the UK is a genuine state of emergency.

Tigeress said...

i think dude needs to charge the key.

NaijaBabe said...

LOL tigeress, you've finished me. See if it was the key, it would have been so much better. At least they'd have known what the problem was.

BSNC said...

lol so so true. what can they do without electricity...

juiceegal said...

See chaos all bcos of lack of electricity...shows that the UK is too dependent on Electricity.This was a Nice read

Anonymous said...

lol....mehn na so all of us go de useless if light no de?
Nice post.

Naija bad boi.... said...

true talk u know....luvly post...
being in naija at d moment, i can tell u with authority that there are places in lagos dat av not seen electricity for months...monts!!! imagine!
nowadays sef...u can hardly differentiate btwn gen and phcn (nepa or wateva)...cos its a prerequisote for living now...

like they say....Food, Shelter, Clothing and Generator...lol

Bwari Boy said...

"State of emergency", wow you guys are so lucky. Your state of emergency is a daily occurrence. We naija students are experts in the art of reading with candles, lanters, rechargeable lamps, light from mobile phones etc.

Unknown said...

Yes it's all to easy to take things for granted until....

joicee said...

Wow--this is an eye opener...

Just imagine the many ways the life for Nigerians could be transformed if there is the assurance of electricity 24/7

Lord, when will we get there?

Blogoratti said...

...'where is an aboki when you need one'?..
Classic! lol.

Braid said...

Your blog is amazing...I just joined blogger and I'm discovering really talented writers like you..continue..you inspire me!

Anonymous said...

Yeah I find it especiall scary that phones don't work without electricity anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm not spoiled I can happily jst talk or read or something but if there is an emergency and no phone??? That scares me... xx

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