Monday 16 July 2007

Zapped!

Well, isn't it nice to be proven right now and then? When someone is adamant it is you causing some trouble, and you deny it, isn't it nice to have back up?

A couple of times in the last few months we have blown a fuse. The landlord didn't like it when I called him at six in the morning to fix it. Wayne had gone to work and I am as electrical as, well, a frog. He came to fix it but suggested it was our security light (which is only plugged in, not hard wired) sitting on the car port roof. Rubbish, says Wayne, but if he wants to play that way, fine. We unplugged it. That recent incident was only about 2 weeks ago.

This weekend, while getting organised for a fancy dress party, including preparing a lovely hot pot stew, I nicked up to the local KMart. While in the dressing room trying on a push up bra (which was too small) Him phoned to say the power had gone again, and the landlord was being difficult about it. Apparently the landlord suggested it was something faulty at home and it must be the light. Him gave him a piece of his mind (including reminding him that the light was no longer plugged in!) and that he had better have someone here to fix it very soon.

Luckily, it was only the powerpoint fuse and not the whole box. My lovely hot pot was no longer cooking so I phoned the hostess of the fancy dress party to come grab it, which she did - 3 hours later. In the mean time, there we are sitting in the kitchen practically with visible breath it was so cold, boiling water on the stove for a coffee. Him was already unhappy because the gates he took time off work to install were not ready.

At about 4.00 I have up waiting for the electrician and ran a bath. Just as I got in, he turned up. Him went to oversee his progress, leaving the front door (opposite the bathroom) wide open. The bath water was not quite hot enough to stave off the chill, so there sat I, in the dark, trying to shave my legs. Lucky I was wearing a wig so I didn't have to worry about blow drying my hair!

But, it all ended well, because the electrician wrote in his little report that we were lucky the whole box didn't blow as it was old and legally should be updated. He fitted two new trip switches so it should never happen again, and recommended the landlord change the box. So there! I would have loved to see the look on his face when he read that report!

And the hostess nuked the stew in the microwave for an hour and it was great....but that's another story...

4 comments:

SOL's view said...

So get on with the other story too.

We have a power point that sometimes trips the switches. Hasn't done for a while, but something set the UPS, the tv, the dvd and the microwave off. We usually just reset the switch and don't use the point for a while. The other night was different though - no tripped switch..... ? Go figure.....

Colleen Barnett said...

Ours was so archaic that we didn't have trip switches, just fuses! But now we have trip switches and he made the one outlet into two to share the burden - says it shouldn't happen again...we'll see.

Anonymous said...

In our previous home, I found out our wiring was substandard by plugging in a coffee drip brew type thingy. Well the result was fireworks on the inside of the house!! Loads of fun.
Always happens at the most inopportune time though.

Colleen Barnett said...

Welcome aboard Doombah, and thanks for the comment! Would have loved to have seen that - always up for a good fireworks show!