Power Cut

Due to the climate crisis, we’ve been told to expect the break down of systems so I’ve given a lot of thought to what this might mean and how to prepare.

When the St Albans area suffered a power cut the other evening we looked out our window and wondered what was going on.

But I was ready with camping cookers, candles, hot water bottles and even water purification tablets, in case the pumping stations were affected and we needed to resort to our water butts.

The other essential thing you need in order to survive in a crisis is a sense of community, so I grabbed a torch and knocked on the doors of older neighbours.  Having lived through harder times, they already had emergency stocks of candles.

Before I had even knocked on the last door, the lights stuttered back on, however, and the emergency was over.  I snatched back my camping cooker and went home.

We are still not sure what caused the power outage.  But I think it was just a little reminder that things will not always run smoothly as the world changes around us.  So maybe we should keep our camping supplies at the ready and be prepared to share them.

 photo - nicola-fioravanti-UrAKbpKnak8-unsplash

Modern slavery

On Saturday night, a blonde woman was sitting in a darkened kitchen, forced to work by candle light.

In front of her was a huge bucket of muddy windfall apples. 

She had been asked to peel, core and slice them.

She was many miles from her home, and she was sniffling.

So where was this sad scene?

I am sorry to say, it happened in our kitchen.

Charlotte was visiting from Glasgow – she was in the South East to give a talk on Martin Luther.

At our house, that Saturday, all the lights went out.  Peering through the window at the entire street in darkness, we deduced a power cut.

We lit the candles in the warm kitchen and began to cut up the cooking apples which Chris and Christine had so generously given us. 

Charlotte came and joined us. 

Unfortunately, the eighties music we were playing gave her a head-ache.

Plus I had forgotten she was allergic to raw apples.

And there were an awful lot of apples.

All I can say, Charlotte, is sorry.  

But on the bright side, when you next campaign or speak on social justice you will have extra knowledge of how modern slavery can exist even in seemingly respectable homes.