Congratulations NEDL

Last night saw the end of a very pleasant few days spent with our daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughters. Despite having to fit in visiting mothers/grandmothers/great-grandmothers in care home and hospital we managed to spend time sight seeing in Whitby, shopping in Newcastle, eating out and lots more. A thoroughly enjoyable time which always makes the council blackberry seem much less interesting or important than usual.
We saw them off on their journey home and went to visit said elderly relatives - no problems, just an hour catching up on what they'd been doing and making sure that all was well. Homeward bound there was the prospect of a quiet second half to the evening, perhaps a glass of something soothing, perhaps a good book or a dvd to watch. How wrong could we be? We were greeted by our neighbour walking along the road checking to see whose lights were still on as theirs had gone off then come on again at much reduced power. No streetlight on the corner - we opened our door to find that we had the same problem. No freezer, no fridge, no oven, no lights (low energy bulbs didn't cope with reduced power). A call to our supplier produced advice to turn off all appliances "just in case" and to wait for the arrival of "someone". In 30 minutes or so he was at the door and soon produced the news that the supply was dangerous and should be turned off completely. Whoopee! Candles aren't that good for reading by and don't really keep you warm. Laptops only work for a short time on their batteries especially if, like mine, it was almost run down anyway. Modem and phone didn't work so no internet anyway. The dark ages descended and my warm bed called, especially as I was starting with a cold.
This morning we had a full crew out before 9, tests done, road digger called out and a temporary supply rigged up for us using another neighbour's connection. By 2pm all was fixed and the only evidence of a problem is the deep hole immediately outside our neighbour's house and the fact that our fridge, which was living on borrowed time, has given up and refused to come back on. It's defrosting itself quite well at the moment and I'm about to look at nice new ones.
So well done NEDL for a prompt service. Now we look forward to the hole being filled up and the pavement reinstated.