Woke up the smorning feeling very cosy and very disinclined to get out of bed, thinking, this is the perfect day to stay in bed all day and read a book. Somehow, in spite of the cold, wind and rain outside I managed to get myself out the door and on the road, only to discover that traffic lights (and all power) were out. I drove all the way to work in these bad conditions, marvelling at how politely moronic we become without these stalwart sentinels to stand over us at intersections and tell us what to do. I saw people doing the stupidest things, including two separate cases of veering onto the wrong side of the road for no apparent reason.

So of course by the time I get to work I realize how pointless it is, since there’s not a thing I can possibly do there without electricity. We weren’t even allowed inside because of safety regulations. So I milled about a bit and then came back home, where I decided to use up my precious hour or so of battery life by writing a blog entry. Right now I’m very glad I’ve got a wireless broadband card.

Power is out across all of Auckland, an event I assumed was unheard of, until I found out that Auckland has the dubious honour of holding the world record for longest blackout during peacetime.

UPDATE (a few hours later): Looks like I’m not the only one noticing the weird traffic behaviour. This from the New Zealand Herald:

Police asked people in Auckland to only contact them in emergencies as they were aware of the weather and power situation. They said some drivers were guilty of "lunacy" in the bad conditions, doing U-turns and driving the wrong way.

And now I’m feeling very twitchy and irritable as I try to come up with some sort of alternative caffeine delivery system, since I haven’t had a coffee yet.