Depending on where you live they are either an inevitably or never happen, but if they do occur, what do you do to pass the time until power is restored?

They are a fact of life where I live, not frequent but often enough for us to have a generator to hook up so we still can pump our well water and run the freezer and a few sockets and lights.

I personally quite enjoy the enforced down time ....we often get a warning that power outages are likely, usually due to the weather.... so can do some prep but having no TV, no lights, no internet and advised to stay safe indoors can be a good excuse to hunker down and and read a good book, do a jigsaw puzzle, have long conversations, be controlled by the daylight and watch the storms roll in and can be strangely blissful........for a couple of days anyway......

I live in country, also have a generator, a VCR, plenty of movies and books, really not an issue.

I am in town and can't remember power ever being off for more than 6 hours at the most.
I do keep some fresh water, torches and dried food handy.
So really I am not well prepared if a big one strikes.

I’ve never known a power cut but our water was off for a couple of hours last week which is a very rare occurrence.

In the time I've lived in this house, which is over twenty years have had a few power cuts, but still in single figures that have only ever lasted for a few hours. Have lost the water supply in the early days while they where still building houses nearby and needed to connect them into the system, but nothing in the last fifteen years. Have never noticeably lost my gas supply ever .

Power will go out here on occasion, but usually not more than a few hours. The only exception was a hurricane many years ago where power was out for about a week.

We have had one two hour power cut in the 12 years that we have lived here…..some storm if I recall, it blew one of our fence panels down as well.

We have a couple of battery operated table lamps, also 2 wind up lamps, in case. We also keep a couple of battery operated radios. I used to love the radio, preferred it to TV, until hubby retired. I love music you see.

The last time we had power cuts and water turned off was back in the 70's and the power cuts were caused by industrial strikes. The water being turned off was a rupture in the mains somewhere, so they sent water wagons around the area. I was only a kid at the time but I still keep candles and rechargeable torches around the house. I regularly, though not frequently, fill large empty bottles with water. This paid off a few months ago when the water main was being cleaned and the water company said there might be discolouration in the water for a while. I was fine with my bottled water.

We have not had a power cut for years but going back in time when we had them we just went to bed but we were both young then.