Power Cuts

We recently built an extension onto our house and paid the ESB to come and re route the wire coming into the building. Yesterday was the day. The extent of the work was to push a wire through a pre laid twenty five foot long duct and attach it to a pole, screw a new meter onto a prepared panel in a prepared meter box and unscrew the old meter. Those of us who are used to earning a living would rightly estimate that this amounts to a half hour’s work for one lad in a small white van. What arrived were three lads in two trucks that looked like they should be hauling redwoods across Alaska. Despite ours being their first, and probably only, assignment of the day the boys arrived at five to eleven and managed to elongate the task till ten past three. Replicate this carry on across every semi state, every government department, every instrument of the state for every task on every day of every week of every year and you quickly develop a keen understanding of where we're at. Enter the household charge.