Following reports that electricity blackouts might be a feature of the winter to come, particularly early on cold evenings, we thought we ought to check out our supply of candles, matches and so forth. Prepare a ready box of same for placement in somewhere convenient.
One of the items turned up was the front light of a bicycle, probably last used in the days when I used to cycle to TB of a winter evening, quite a few years ago now, although I do remember that the challenge on the way home was seeing how far I could get without touching the handlebars, with one rule being that one returned hands to handlebars whenever a car came into sight, which was not often. Bends were not usually a problem and sometimes I could even turn corners. As far as I can remember, I never actually fell off.
Not a very pleasing item, largely made of plastic and with a tiresome switch, visible below the handle of the screwdriver in the snap above, but it did work. Mounted on the handlebars during life, rather than on a bracket on the front fork, usual when I was young.
This morning, inspection revealed corrosion of one of the terminals of one of the two batteries and there was no light. But replacing the batteries with two from the FIL stash of same, still going strong after 10 years, a bit of fiddling about and we had light. Which takes the torch count to three.
Next stage on the journey, find out about battery powered table lamps, something powerful enough to read or play Scrabble by. A better bet on a dark winter's evening than conversation.
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