Thursday, January 29, 2009

Back to normal again...I hope!

Well yesterday afternoon I made the trip down the hill to flick my switches and see if this would magically restore my power. I coincided the trip with collecting Bradley from school and although I didn't find him at the school I found him walking with his little umbrella on the route home. When we got home I braced myself, flicked all the switches down and up one at a time..nothing! Bradley tried it...also nothing! I could feel my hysteria rising again. 'I knew it wouldn't work!' 'Bradley get changed quick, we're going to the electricity dept'. We got there shortly before they closed but there was still a queue sitting waiting for their turn. I noticed a sign on the wall saying 'Tell us if our service puts a smile on your dial'. I told them it didn't and left them muttering.
When I eventually got to a consultant about 20 mins. later all she did was phone faults (which I could have done from any phone anywhere) and log a call for assistance. "Don't tell them you were disconnected or they wont come out". The faults guy asked me if I had pressed the button on the outside meter. "Its like a switch that sticks out below the box". I don't have that. We established that I had a different box and he logged the call. I left and went home determined to wait for the technician even if it meant not going back to work.
I parked at the bottom of my steep driveway where the meter is situated and told Bradley that I was going to try and find this so-called switch. I examined the meter box and the only thing I could find was a cute little snail slowly winding his way up the side of the meter box but I was sure that he wouldn't be happy if I pressed him!! There's a little swinging cover which covers the window through which the meter reading can be taking. I was pushing on this when all of a sudden the whole front panel of the box started sliding upwards. I kept pushing and lo and behold if there isn't a switch visible inside the box along with the wiring and various other indescribable objects of a nature variety. I pushed it up an wallah! I had power. Yay! I gathered Bradley up and went back up to work, phoned to cancel the fault callout and asked the guy who answered the phone if I could have a job at the Council since I had fixed my own fault. He wasn't amused!
So at least I know what to check now. You learn something new every day!

5 comments:

  1. That is so frustrating! I hope you have a chilled out and non eventful weekend

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  2. Your well on your way to electrician status now :)

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  3. That would be "You're" of course.

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  4. You can always practice your electrician skills on neighbors. I've found that helps a lot....

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  5. FF - Thanks for the good wishes. The weekend was of course not as chilled out as I would have liked but that's a whole nuther story!

    Heinous - Thanks - I have added this knowledge to my cv under Jill of all trades.

    Braja - Considering some of my neighbours I might consider it.

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