Friday evening on a sweltering hot night, and a Filipino hot night is very hot and very humid and there is no wind! We had just finished supper and the lights flickered. Immediately one's thoughts are "not another brown out" (in the Philippines a "brown out" is a blackout which lasts for less than one day.
Then darkness. With that the air conditioning and fans ground to a halt. The still hot, humid air seemed to close in and I started to sweat. But something wasn't quite right. As I looked outside I could see the shining street light ... and the next door neighbour's lights were shining brightly.
So what could it be? Previously we had a power failure due to a short in the electrical distribution board so I found a torch and then manouvered my way around behind the fridge to flip the trip switch. Down and up. Down and up. But no lights. The still air felt heavier and hotter with every slight exertion.
My mind was struggling to accept thought of no power for the whole weekend. Then I remembered that a couple of days previously our neighbour had given us an electricity account which I had put into my brief case. Forgotten till this moment.
As a peered at it through the darkness I realised that the account stated that there was an amount in arrears! Our power had been deliberately turned off!!
On the account I found a contact number. But thought who are you likely to get hold of who will do anything to help on a Friday evening. Another drop of sweat dripped from my forehead and I realised that it was worth call.
The phone rang twice and was answered by a human!! Wow! Explaining our situation and playing the "just arrived" card the customer services representative was very accomodating and I assumed that they would just flip a switch and we would be cool again.
About an hour later I phoned to follow up and was told that there had been an emergency and that they would attend to us as soon as they had completed that repair. The only way to keep from gushing sweat was to lie very still. So after a cold (very mild) shower went to lie lifeless on the bed.
Eventually I fell into a fitful sleep. Suddenly I was woken up by the sound of the water pump starting up, lights were on, the fans stared whirring and the airconditioner kicked into life. It was 03h30 and quite unbelievable.
I then drifted into a deep sleep only to be woken at about 07h30 by a voice outside the window. It was two repairmen from the Mactan electricity department checking up whether our power had been resumed.
Shockingly excellent service.
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