The weather.
Or, to be more precise, the lack of electricity caused by falling trees during the big storms.
Those in the south of England are mainly under water. This should come as no surprise as everybody knows that water flows down hill and the south is further down than the north. This means that given enough time and enough wetness, the south will always be wetter than the north.
The north is traditionally known for being damp, but when there is so much rain falling from the sky and so much water being pushed in from the sea with all this wind, the end result is flooding.... LOTS AND LOTS OF FLOODING.
The wind had caused a power cut in my area around 5pm on Wednesday. Everything went dark and cold very quickly.
I had been on the web earlier in the week and taken part in one of the many "Would you survive a Zombie apocalypse?" quizzes. Turns out i would last around 355 days, which isn't bad but I know that with those instincts at my beck and call I could see out an evening without the TV on.
Candles were found and that old deck of dog eared playing cards were located from somewhere in the "holiday drawer" and that was that.
Myself and Mrs H played a game known in the old city of Oslo as "idiot" which more polite than the name we Brits seem to use for it*.
Thursday morning came and I awoke to the strange sensation of my own body willing itself to warmer climbs. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. A stand up wash in the sink with a pan of water half boiled on the hob was the best I could hope for and the rest of the day was spent wishing for something...anything to happen.
It didn't.
The power was off for so long that we had to abandon using the little boys room (living in the middle of nowhere means we are not connected to the mains water and everything gets pumped around. Without power there's no pump and with no pump there is the inevitable BACKLOG and BUILD UP and well.... you get the idea!) and that's when the fun stopped.
It rained a bit and then the sun came out but it stayed cold. I don't really want to talk about how cold I was because it still hurts. Although while I was out chopping a tree down it began snowing and I really started to hate life.... and trees.
45 hours after everything fell to shit, the power came back on and everything was plugged in quick sharp just in case the power went off again. In fact I am typing this really quick as I have no doubt the wind will pick up again and the lights will go off again.
So there we go, that's what happened to me.
It's amazing how much we rely on electricity and take for granted. Everyone in my house laughed when I bought a back up battery for my gadgets, but they formed an orderly queue when their phones were on the blink so the jokes on them.
But this has got me thinking about the next time something like this happens. Therefore I am going to start a proper well cool survival kit and then make the others fight THUNDERDOME style to see who gets to have a bite of my high energy nut bars or use the water filter to make a cup of tea.
Now, where's my Tina Tuner outfit?????
*we call it shit head.