No Tea & Teletubbies

This morning I woke just before 6am very hot and confused as to why hubby had turned off the fan in our bedroom. It took me a while to realise we had a power cut and I lay in bed sweating in the heat (it was 31 degrees at midnight last night) and worrying about the contents of my freezer.

Leo woke at 6am, an hour earlier than his usual (on good days) wake up time, he was still very sleepy but calling for me and asking for his wind on (what he calls the fan or the air-conditioning) and his juice. Getting him back to sleep was not an option as his room was like a sauna!

We got up and then I remembered just how much we depend on our electricity.... what to do?  First problem.... no tea - not a good start to any day! Second problem explaining to 2 year old that we can't watch 'tubbies' and no can't watch 'Mouse' or Thomas', and it doesn't matter how many programs you name you can't watch any, and nope we can't have the music on either.  I did try to explain but he looked at me intently then said "Hot Mummy, wind on please, Daddy fix it, needs batteries'  :)

Just as we were about to pile into my parents apartment to boil water on the gas ring on their BBQ (and cook a freezer full of meat  for breakfast!) the power came back on. Tea was made, Teletubbies went on and Aaron left for work. It was on his way to work listening to the radio that we discovered that many people had far more important problems than no 'tea and tubbies'

A massive blast had occurred when a store of confiscated Iranian munitions exploded in the Evangelos Florakis Naval base, situated on the coast between Larnaca and Limassol. The blast killed 12 people and injured many more, it also took out one of the islands main power stations leaving most of Southern Cyprus with no power.

Image credit: Cyprus Mail

For more on the story see BBC News or the Cyprus Mail

It was quite hard at first to find more information, Sky World News mentioned it briefly then moved back onto the phone hacking scandal and at first BBC World were not mentioning it at all. Obviously the local channels all had rolling news coverage but my Greek learning has not quite reached that level of understanding yet! Then I remembered Twitter, and was able to follow updates all day.

It appears that electricity will be rationed across the island due to having lost 50% of its output and different areas will be randomly selected to save power, it should go off for only 2 hour intervals. Water in many areas will be turned ON for 12 hours out of every 48 as the desalination plants are currently also out of action. Everyone is being urged to use as little water and electric as possible and tourists being encouraged to cool off in the sea or pools rather than using their air-con all the time indoors.... not something I can see the average tourist worrying about in heat of 40 degrees plus!

I've read that the island could face shortages for months, that's going to be a hot hot August! We have power at the moment and I've been organised and charged my phone, got water (ours has been off all day so far) and am preparing to eat a very large amount of ice cream when we lose the power again - I'd hate to see it go to waste ;)

*obviously I am being flippant with the title of my post and some of the content - it goes without saying that our inconvenience is nothing compared to those in the immediate area and those who have been injured or lost loved ones.