On 1st September (after I'd been here for just a couple of days), the shower broke. Thankfully we're not in the middle of nowhere and the plumber was able to come out the next day to look at it. It turned out it was just a blocked shower head bit, but all the same, still very inconvenient!
On Sunday 7th September at about 10:30pm the electricity broke. There was a strange surge and then the tv and lights etc all went off. Not ideal at all! We were all still up (kids in bed) so we lit some candles and Charly went hunting to see if it was just our flat, or the whole street or even the other flats in the building. It was just us. This made it all the more concerning as it meant that it wasn't just a standard power cut. Much to the annoyance of Fran, Charly then went fiddling about in fuse boxes to see if it was blown fuses, or if it was something else but couldn't work it out.
As it was by this point, around 11:30pm, there wasn't a great deal we could do so we just went to bed. First thing in the morning, Fran and Charly were up trying to find an emergency electrician who would come out that day, and frantically trying to rescue the contents of the fridge and freezer. At about 9:15am, on the way back from taking Marc to school, Fran realised that there was a plug on the ground floor which, logic suggested, would work! She left me with Aurianne while she got something to test it with, and then when she realised it did, ran around the flat collecting all the extension cables and putting them together so she could plug the freezer in!
This took a while, but we managed to rescue everything in the chest freezer, and most things in the little fridge freezer. I also then defrosted the little freezer, given that it was melting everywhere anyway.
That afternoon the electrician arrived (not until 5pm though). He came, poked around with fuses and wires and then said 'nope, you'll have to call your service provider', which was EDF.
After a phone call to EDF, they sent someone round to look at the electricity box outside the building. It turned out that it was just a switch which had turned itself off, he said possibly because there was too much being used, and had shorted the circuit (or something like that). He just flicked the switch back on, and Voila, power!
Charly and Fran then worked their way back round the house re-plugging everything in and replacing all the extension cables so that we could use things again!
...
At 11:30pm last night (Thursday), when we were all just going to bed, all the lights suddenly went off. After a few minutes, and a few lit candles, we realised that the power had gone off again. Charly checked on the other flats, and then went to play with the box outside. He flicked the switch back on and the power came back! 10 minutes later, it went off again... Charly just went back outside but Fran is really worried that it will go off while we are away this weekend, as we won't have anyway of knowing about it and so will end up with a whole freezer of ruined food. We still have no idea what's causing it. Charly thinks it is because the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer were all on, but that doesn't make much sense as we have them all on during the day lots but it's not gone off before. Crazy!
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