That power surge on Wednesday was quite some phenomenon. Tony rang the power company that afternoon and told them they had lost their microwave and at 9:30 that evening two burly and very helpful electricians turned up to check the safety of the supply.  The following morning, while Tony and Stella were out, two different men turned up to check that the emergency buttons and the smoke alarm were working.  All was well.

While I was talking to the alarm men they were saying that cordless phones all over the affected area had been zapped to their death (this was true of Tony and Stella's cordless phones). Also, many, many microwaves and lots of radios.  But also people had lost their washing machines, their air conditioning units, their televisions, all sorts of things.  Fortunately the greatest loss Tony and Stella had had was the microwave. Their cordless phones and radios won't be all that hard to replace. But Liz up the road has lost all sorts of things, including a washing machine in mid-cycle (Tony and I went up in the evening to see if we could bale it out, but Liz had already done it!).

Fortunately it seems that the power company has admitted culpability and is sending out claim forms for people who have had to replace their appliances. Power surges, of course, are not covered by warranties, but the power company will almost certainly be insured against such calamities.

So life returned slowly back to normal.  Tony, The Builder and I went out for a stroll mid evening to see if anyone had any Christmas lights on.  Several people did. Nice, decorous, understated Christmas lights.  This morning Tony, The Builder and I embarked on a much more ambitious walk.  7 kilometres (a bit over 4 miles) around Mount Martha and along the foreshore. Even though it rained (but not much in the way of rain if you take Singapore's monsoon like rainstorms as your benchmark :-D ) we all really enjoyed the walk, although The Builder's feet were complaining for the last kilometre.  Tony offered to trot home and get the car.  The Builder turned this down, determined to walk all the way.  Think how very much fun I would have had on Facebook, Twitter and in the blog had he accepted the offer :-D :-D :-D :-D

Then we went to Veraison for a delicious lunch.  We've been there before, and I recognised the front of house manager.  But it was nearly two years ago that we were last there (Stella and Tony have been more recently) so I was surprised that she recognised us.  Stella says that once I am seen I am not easily forgotten.  I think it's because the lady has a spectacularly good memory for faces!

Lamb rump for lunch

We came home via a pick-your-own strawberry farm.  Not that we picked our own.  We browsed in the shop and bought some pre-picked ones instead.  And some other fruit for The Builder who is alas unable to eat strawberries.

I remembered a couple of days ago that I hadn't actually got around to making the calendars that I habitually make in December.  So I went looking for an Australian website where I could do this, and found a Photobox Australia.  I use Photobox UK so was quite pleased.  I know my way around the Photobox website.  So I registered with the Australian site and spent hours and hours selecting the photos and organising everything and getting all the captions done.  I proof read everything this morning, pretended not to notice the eye-wateringly expensive packaging and postage charges and ordered the calendars, paying for them in Australian dollars.  I was not a little annoyed, when I read my email of confirmation, to discover that Photobox Australia appears to be Photobox UK in disguise and that, as far as I can see, my calendars are coming form the UK.  Had I realised I would have used the UK site and paid in British pounds - and not registered on what purported to be an Aussie site.  Sigh.  It would seem that there is now no chance of them getting here before I wander off to Cairns and thence Japan at the beginning of January!!!!

Oh well.  No doubt someone will post on the one that is meant to be accompanying me to Japan :-S

Stella and Tony at Veraison