Power cuts in Cyprus

On Friday, several people received notices that their electricity would be cut sporadically on Sunday, while some new cables were laid in the street outside. Much better, of course, than having it go off without warning. But it was a bit inconvenient since one of the buildings was a bakery (open 7 days a week) and another was St Helena's Church, where Tim is the organist. They use a digital piano for the main morning service, switched to organ mode for hymns. And today was Remembrance Sunday, a big event in the Anglican Church.

Unsure whether it would be advisable even to switch the piano on - since a power surge could potentially damage it - Tim took his classical guitar with him. He had never played any of the hymns chosen for the service on the guitar, and didn't have chords available, so had to read the piano music and turn it into guitar chords on the spur of the moment. Apparently he succeeded, and even though some of the folk who attend morning service don't like guitars much, it was better than singing a capella.

The PA system obviously didn't work either, so those leading the service had to speak extra-loud, but it's not a huge church. One of them apparently did have a mental block at the last hymn... he put an acetate on the overhead projector, and then couldn't understand, for a moment, why it didn't work! Fortunately most of the words used were in the hymn book. Just as well this happened in November, so they weren't expecting to use the air conditioning.

Tim said, when he got home, that evening service might be cancelled if the power wasn't returned. I asked why - after all, he usually plays his guitar for the evening service, and as there are only usually about twenty people there, they can manage easily without microphones.

I had forgotten one important fact. By 6.30pm it's dark. Without power, they wouldn't be able to see a thing....

Richard dropped him at the church at 6pm and the lights were working. So, presumably, the power is now on again.