Electrickery

The Eighteenth of April Two Thousand and Twelve. Wednesday.

Blimey, it's gone a bit cold again. We're on that strange cusp at the start of spring where it hasn't completely decided whether you should remove the unzippable inner lining of your anorak or not. For the record, mine came out but has now gone in again! Imagine if they were to do something that chaotic with daylight savings time. It would be bizarre, randomly gaining and losing an hour depending on whether it looked/felt as if summer had started or not.

I don't have gas (ho-ho, anybody who knows me knows I do...). That's why for the cold months of the year I use a phenomenal amount of electricity with the barely effective wall heaters that just about take the chill off the air but do little else (actually, the smaller bedrooms don't do too badly, but it's pretty much a non-starter in my trés moderne kitchen/lounge thing). In the 'summer' I use next to no power, but the rest of the time I might as well just heat the place up by burning a pile of fivers.

I'm on one of those prepayment meters. What it does have going for it is I can budget very clearly how much I spend in power (even if that amount is more than if I was on a contract). But I have to use a special space key to top it up (cue visual).

The one I inherited with my luxury flat has always been a bit wobbly. I always felt embarrassed when a nice person half my age in the local Sainsbury's convenience store would blow and wiggle my key when it wouldn't work in the pay point machine.

I've mostly been on top of my usage - there was some confusion when I first moved in and tried to get the meter changed. The whole place was plunged into darkness when the money ran out. The only other time I've had a power out was when I lent No1 son the keyring that had the smartkey on it and the telly went off in the middle of cBeebies. No2 son and I entertained ourselves in the lauderette until the key was returned. What a crazy day that was!

You know, every now and then it's nice to have a blog that's as boring and mundane as this one, isn't it? Isn't it? Ah. Ok.

So it's not very interesting, but it is topical. My smart key gave up the ghost yesterday and I anticipated more problems while the bloomin' thing was sorted out. Well, I rang up, spoke to a nice man and picked up a new key from a newsagent this very afternoon. Hmm, it's not much of a story when everything goes smoothly.

And that's what this blog is really about. It's a demonstration of the need for conflict in order for drama take place. Congratulations if you made it to the end of this - you are a better person for it.

More soonliest.