Spanish blackout

Another bright sunny morning with the temperature rising to 22C. I did my share of the housework after breakfast, then started work on next Wednesday's Morning Prayer until it was time to cook lunch. Lentils and rice today. 

News came in of a major power grid failure in the Iberian Peninsula, affecting Portugal, Spain and some French border regions. Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona airports have been hit hard with flight cancellations. Lisbon airport closed completely. Rail and other public transport networks shut down. Much of the internet off-line. Traffic chaos due to lights not working. It'll take some time to subdue the chaos and then there'll be political fall-out, as there was here in the UK after the Heathrow Airport power outage on 20th March. I immediately messaged Veronica to find out what was happening on the Costa Brava, not expecting a quick reply, as her phone wasn't active. No internet evidently.

I continued writing next week's reflection after lunch, fell asleep for twenty minutes, and was awakened by a phone notification for my eye test. I had just enough time to make the three quarters of an hour walk to the School of Optometry for the appointment. Despite eye drops to dilate my pupils, a clear scan of the right eye was unsuccessful again due to the cataract. I was disappointed to find out there seemed to be no record of a referral for eye surgery from last year's eye test. Something went wrong there, so I'm stuck in a very long NHS queue. The optometrist promised she'd refer me, stating the condition has worsened. She also said that the queue was moving faster now with patients being outsourced to private hospitals. This last happened to me as we were emerging from covid, and one of the five anal surgical procedures took place at the Spire hospital in Pontprennau. Very nice the hospital was too! 

I got home just as Clare was getting ready to leave for choir practice, and had supper listening to the news. Veronica messaged me to say their power and internet access were down for five and a half hours. In cases of such a major power outage I learned, FM radio remains live, providing a channel of public information for all caught up in the crisis. So the government advises people to keep a battery powered FM radio as well as a torch and canned food and water stocks for several days just in case. 

I watched a couple of episodes of 'The good doctor', and then read until it was time for bed.