Murphy's Law Of Having A Visitor

So, I'm a super excited little LoveCat because I've just had lovely Rachel Bailey to stay at Chez Archer for a night!

Rachel and me!

And Murphy's Law being what it is, a few big things that could go wrong before Rachel's arrival, did go wrong!

• Firstly, we're renovating!  The painting is finished but the carpet hasn't arrived as hoped to make the room as lovely as I wanted it to be. (Still hasn't arrived but that's another story!)  So we moved all the tools and paint cans and brushes out, put up the curtains, rolled out a carpet square and moved a bed in!

• Secondly, on the morning Rachel was to arrive, the power went out!

• One minute everything was working and then next, nothing.  And we're on tankwater so no power, no water!  Argh!  We investigated.  The neighbours still had power and we realised all our lights were working so the problem was at our house. The safety switch was tripped and wouldn't re-set. We turned off every appliance in the house - then turned them on, one by one. And finally found the culprit.  The dear old electric jug had boiled its last kettleful.

• All I can say is, YAY for safety switches and if you haven't got one, you should seriously think about having one installed.

• And thirdly, and if I might modestly say, most disastrously, I picked Rachel up at the airport.  Actually, picking Rachel up was great - it was what came after the pick up that was bad.  I got totally, utterly, and comprehensively LOST leaving the airport. It was... bad!

Even Google Maps on my phone couldn't help me!

• I had to 'phone a friend' and luckily, Mr Archer was home and able to be a remote GPS for me.

Anyway, I'm so pleased to say that I got Rachel safely back to our place for the evening and one sleep and then popped her on the bus the next morning for the next stage of her journey.

Here we are enjoying our morning cup of Earl Grey tea!

So has Murphy and his Law of maximum obstacles affected you lately?  I'd love to hear! How do you react to challenges?  Do you welcome them or do you prefer smooth sailing?  

Post Electricity-Outage Musings

by Sharon Archer

Torches - including a wind-up/solar one

Now and again something happens which brings me up short about the things I take for granted.  The other morning it was another power failure.  Notice I said another power failure!  We live out of town and down a long dirt road so we do get them frequently enough that we're semi-prepared for them.

Candles - do you like the Santas!

It was pitch black when I woke - no light from the digital clock radio.  I found my torch and investigated. Standard clock said it was nearly 6am. Checked the fuse box to make sure the safety switch hadn't been tripped.

Rang the power company and learned

• yes, there was a power outage in my area
• the cause was unknown
• if I had an emergency, I should ring this number and
• power was expected to be re-instated by 9 am.

Fortunately, we're quite well set up for power outages.  Torches live beside the bed and on the side board, candles in the cupboard below.  We have a small camp stove to boil water for a cup of tea (got my priorities!)

And if the power's out for too long we can resort to the generator for the basics - like water because we're on tank water.

Raided the pantry

So, really, no biggie. But it go me thinking... if  it wasn't short term, how well would we survive?

Which naturally sent me to Google!  And I found some absolutely amazing sites written by people who have obviously considered this in detail.  They even have a name - preppers.

Here are a couple of links you might like to look at...

• http://www.topprepperwebsites.com/  (gives links to all sorts of prepper websites)
• http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/  (Great little website - I spent ages browsing here!)

There are loads of tips - useful for calamities as well as everyday.  For instance, keep some ice cubes in a plastic bag in your freezer.  If the food in there has been thawed and re-frozen, you'll know because your bag of cubes with have turned into a solid block of ice.  Like a "canary" for your freezer!

A teabag or two...

Anyway, after I'd explored these sites, I was off to my pantry to see what was there.  Quite a bit of tinned food and dry food.

Lots of tea bags (those priorities!  Plus they were on special a couple of weeks ago!)

Got some treats - just a couple (ahem) of blocks of dark chocolate!  Good for energy and full of anti-oxidants!

Anti-oxidant supply!

And then (tongue only slightly in cheek) there's that excellent vegetable gardening thing I blogged about last month!  At least, I know the slugs will be well feed in the event of a power failure!

How would your pantry manage if you had no power or couldn't get to the shops for a couple of weeks?  Love to hear your thoughts on must-have items or any tips you have!

PS I'll be on the road in Outback New South Wales when this posts so my internet might be a bit indifferent, but I'm hoping it will let me in to chat as much as possible!

Ponderings on Procrastination

Soooo, I’m making breakfast, the jug is on for a cup of tea.  Outside, the sky is grey and it looks like we will get the promised rain.  I’m tossing around thoughts for the blog post I’m doing today while I wait for the toast to pop.  Will I do a progress report on the bathroom (yep, it’s been a while!) or will I take you the gorgeous drive we did on Sunday (I’ve got pictures, lots of lovely pictures!)  

Suddenly, there’s a bright flash so closely followed by an enormous crash that it seems as though light and sound have raced each other to our house.  Then the room goes dim, the jug goes off, bread rises slowly out of the toaster.  

Power is out!

And then the rain starts, dropping from the lowering grey clouds in sheets, overwhelming the guttering.  Water splashes over the paving and garden foliage bows beneath the onslaught.

Uh-oh… the question now is not, “what will I blog about” but “will I be able to blog at all!”  Which makes me feel a bit guilty because I’ve known that this is my date for blogging so several days – I set up a calendar to send timely reminders!  

But even knowing that, have I scheduled the post? Nope! 

Why not?  

Well, I’ve been distracted, there’s lots going on at the moment. It’s a social time with Christmas around the corner, I’ve got a club newsletter to put together, I’m dabbing about at a de-clutter (now there’s a blog topic for another day!)… the list goes on… and on... and on.

And I realise that although there is lots on the to-do list, there’s not that much actually being “done”!  I’ve been procrastinating!  It’s annoying and inefficient – and I think it’s time it stopped.

So I’m asking you… do you procrastinate? Do you have any great tips for getting procrastination under control? 


Oh and you've probably noticed... the power has now come back on so I can chat today after all!