Day begins in the usual leisurely fashion. Drinking coffee, catching up on the news online. When we notice that neither of us has an internet connection. Try another device with the same result. Then J flicks a light switch. No electricity. Planned cut or accident? Just our street or area wide? Now that we have no internet there’s no way to find out. North Cyprus is famous - or infamous - for power cuts, though last winter we experienced only one and it was just twenty minutes.
Bit longer this time - about five and a half hours. Not particularly inconvenient as it’s sunny and warm, we’re pretty well supplied with “real” books, and the stove is gas not electric. No idea whether shops in the area still function when their electric tills don’t but no particular need to buy anything today anyway. Quite amazing the number of things we rely on the internet for, though: news, weather updates, translations, purchases, library books. It goes on. And the first winter of retirement we considered ourselves lucky to be travelling in the age of internet cafés! Remember trying to touch type on a Turkish keyboard, sharing the café with a bunch of loud teenage boys addicted to video games.
And when we have internet access again we can see that it was in fact a planned interruption for maintenance and repairs. Not assiduous enough readers of social media to have noticed in advance.