Our electricity supply continued up and down like whore’s drawers. Strangely, the power seemed to mostly misbehave during daylight hours when our consumption was relatively light. The main circuit breaker tripped at random so there was no obvious explanation. Once again, our formidable landlady swung into action and sent her little pixie spark to re-check the fuse box. He fiddled with the fuses and re-knitted the wires like a lazy carpet weaver. Progress was slow but steady. He flicked the kitchen light switch. The electric heater fired up. He plugged in the kettle. The air-con beeped. He smiled a satisfied smile and returned to his fiddling. Finally, through a tortuous process of trial and error he concluded that the root of the problem was a power surge in a circuit running along one side of the house. To test his theory he plugged in our modem. Bang went the transformer. He plugged in the TV. Bang went the independent surge protector. He plugged in the bathroom water heater. Bang when the circuitry. As a flume of smoke filled the house, bang went our tempers and we threw the pixie out.
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Perking the Pansies 
This makes my mishap of incorrectly wiring a switch and blowing all our electric look positively competent.
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Wow. A lot of banging all round. Perhaps a real, live electrician might help!!
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Do you reckon Turkey will ever expect electricians to actually take a course and be qualified?…….somehow I doubt it. On the up side when our main meter melted one night our “tame” electrician (actually an A/C service man) came round and hot wired us to the main grid over night. Only in Turkey!
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Now that would be something. Alas, I fear they’ll always remain jacks of all trades and definitely masters of none.
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After years of fixing electrical,plumbing and all other sorts of house maintenance in this country it all sounds so familiar. I now just close my eyes and pray looking at how they bodge up is just too painful for me. I sold electrical components for 13 years in the UK and having the knowledge only makes it harder the incredulous looks I get when I explain what they have possible missed makes me cringe, because ‘how on earth could a woman know ? ‘.
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Get back the kitchen, woman and stop messing with man’s work 😉
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LOL – I always get nervous when a Turkish electrician pitches up because nine times out of ten, he was a plumber last week and a hairdresser the week before that! 🙂
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🙂 Lol
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. . look on the bright side and hope he adds ‘Insallah!’ to the day/time he promises to come and fix the problem – at least then things don’t get any worse 😀
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Brings back not so fond memories of a similar cavalier attitude to the perils of electricity in Malta. Our landlord liked to do most of the repairs and DIY himself (tight git) and so we had sockets that sparked when you put a plug near them, or didn’t work at all. Bulbs that blew weekly. An electric meter that was connected to the ground floor flat which they rented for short term holiday lets and we subsequently were expected to pay their electric. Mains cables lying open on the flat roof attracting rain and lightning alike.
Thankfully his worst experiment occurred several months before we moved in. Under pressure from the authorities he erected an extra long “best that hardly any money given to a shady dealer can buy” lightning rod on the roof. Seems sensible but he failed to earth it, simply bolted it to the room on the flat roof terrace. Needles to say within weeks the regular storms of Biblical proportions sought out the island and a huge explosion blew the room off the roof and most of next door’s roof too! In addition several houses either side had their mains electrical wiring fried. He refused outright to fix anything but his own property and so for some months neighbours didn’t talk to us until they discovered we were not related or friends to the chancer, simply victims to his stupidity.
Oh, and he worked for the local water board so needless to say our water meter also had two other flats connected to it and ran at twice the tariff rate. For simplicity they insisted on having the bills addressed to them and presented the totals they expected us to pay scribbled on the back of an envelope of cigarette packet.
We fled by cover of darkness and left what our neighbours felt was reasonable money to cover the utility charges.
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Lol. Do you think it’s a Mediterranean thing?
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I’d have lost it after the first transformer blew!
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