The Blackout - El Gran Corte written by Mongolita

Day One - Monday 28 April 

My son, Pablo came to see us for a few days from the UK. His quick visit was coming to an end, and the day before his departure we went to La Pequeñica for lunch. This is the only place that has alfajores in this area, which are one of my favourite cakes since childhood. 

The coffee shop is often buzzing with people at that time of day but today, there was an eerie feeling in the air. Monica, the waitress, told us there was no electricity and that the coffee machine and the toaster weren't working, in case we wanted tostadas. I didn’t give much importance to the power cut as we often had them in this part of Almeria. 

“Oh don't worry,” I said to the waitress, in Spanish, 

“We'll have one orange juice and one bottle of water, please. It's too hot out there anyway to have coffee, ah, and two alfajores please.”

As we sat down near the window, I remarked to Pablo: 

“Here we go again, another power cut. You know, power cuts around these mountainous parts are very common. They come without any previous warnings. I'm sure it'll be back soon.” 

So, we continued talking. I couldn't help overhearing the loud conversation of a group of Spanish women who were sitting behind us, chatting about how the power cut was affecting not only Spain but Portugal and France.

“Did you hear what they were saying?, France and Portugal don't have electricity either. I’m going to phone Chris to see if we have electricity back home.” However, there was no answer.

We quickly checked on Google for any news, and it confirmed that Spain, Portugal and part of France had no electricity but no explanation of what could've caused such a magnitude of power cut.  

We drove back home. Chris was reading a book when we arrived and before any hellos he said,

“We have no electricity. I can't even use the computer, you've better find out what's going on.” 

We both looked at each other, grinned and said in unison,

 “There's no electricity anywhere Chris.” And I added, 

”We've just come from Albox and there's no electricity there either. Apparently, Portugal and France are without it too.”

We went round the pool and had a swim, thinking the electricity would return later. As it happened, six o’clock came and went and there was still no power. We had very little water left in the depósito, dirty dishes in the sink and three toilets waiting to be flushed. Suddenly I had the idea of using the water from the pool to flush the toilets, overcoming one challenge. 

 

Evening came sooner than expected. Luckily, we could cook dinner on our gas hob and my tea lights came in handy, so we could at least see what we were eating during that dark and unusual long night. 

 

We sat in the front room, eating our dinner and talking about what could've caused such a widespread blackout. I stepped back for a moment and contemplated the faint glow of the tea lights. In their flickering lights, I 

reflected on just how dependent we are on electricity. 

I had not felt this vulnerable since the blackouts in Chile, a very unsettling feeling. 

XXX XXX 

Day two - Tuesday 29 April 2025 

We woke up early and decided to drive down to the village to find out more about the power cut and to buy water and other essentials, just in case. Pablo wasn't flying back to the UK until later in the evening and we were hopeful that the flight could go ahead. I stopped a town hall official to ask if he knew anything about what was happening, but he didn’t. 

“Try listening to the radio in the car,” he suggested. 

We were embarrassed that neither of us had thought of something so obvious. We quickly switched it on for some updates.

With no cash in our pockets we stopped at a cash point. Of course it wasn't working and the bank was closed too. 

We asked a couple walking by if they had any information. We talked for a moment and they gave us some sensible advice: 

“Avoid opening the fridge too many times to keep the cold inside as long as possible and try to buy a battery-operated radio.”

 With those suggestions we headed to the supermarket. We stopped at Aldi, the only supermarket open to buy water. From there we drove to a Chinese shop in Albox to buy a radio, everywhere else had sold out. The shop attendant had one left and wanted an excessive amount of 25e for it, so we left.  

By then we needed a coffee. La Pequeñica was closed. We walked down to the car park and we saw ‘Mucho Más’ open.   

We hopefully asked a young lady who was sweeping the floor if they were open:

“Yes, and the electricity has come back,” she said with a great smile. 

We felt happy and relieved that with the electricity back there was a good chance Pablo could fly back home.  

We ordered the coffees and tostadas, and sat quietly for a moment, both of us smiling, reflecting on what had happened in the last two days. 

We could hear cars passing by and the laughter of people outside, life was coming back to normal as if the power cut had never occurred. 

Challenge: Here We Go Again

Word count: 917

Word count: 910