Power surges

While my Auckland colleagues took an anniversary day off yesterday, I came to work in Christchurch, but found myself unable to access the Auckland computer system. Turns out a power surge had put the office out of action over the weekend. Fortunately, they had recently installed a surge protector, and while that was blown to smithereens, the main computer server was protected. (Visions of a faithful servant dying to protect its master!) It goes to show how important it is for office systems to have power protection. I'm willing to bet your home computer doesn't have similar protection - few do - but at the very least, do turn off your computer if a thunderstorm is threatening. The area in which one of my Auckland colleagues lives suffered a really bad lightning strike just before Christmas, and she lost all power and telephone for more than a week, which also meant she had no water. Couldn't even flush the loo! Fortunately, she had disconnected her computer, otherwise she would have suffered a complete disaster.