The Man up the Pole

I am currently not a happy Stalky.  Not a happy Stalky at all.  Why Stalky? Why are you not happy?  Well, here's the story.  I woke up this morning to the sound of men thundering around on the overhang just below our bedroom window.  Crash, bang, talk, talk, talk.  Great.  And these unknown men were right outside our bedroom window.  Mystical Roo and I cursed the real estate agents for not informing us of whatever work was happening.  As Mystical Roo went off to work I settled down on my computer to do some work.  I'd checked my emails, written a sentence and them BAM.  Off goes the power.  Everything.  My computer screen is blank before my eyes.  I go and check the circuit box thing and all is well.  All switches are in their appropriate spots.  I peer out the window to see what the men are doing and realise that one of them is up a pole.  The electricity pole.  Ah ha.  A text message is sent to Mystical Roo to advise that his Stalky has become disgruntled.  At this point I ponder a number of possibilities.  Someone has either neglected to inform us of this anticipated power cut or the dude up the pole has cocked up.  I peer out the window again and I'm pretty sure that he can see me watching him.  Mystical Roo suggests I phone the council for information.  So this is what I do, only to be informed that the council have nothing to do with this kind of thing.  But the woman does point me in the direction of the electric company.  The electric company inform me that they know nothing either but that they'll send someone to take a look.  They don't know how long this will be.  I am rather cross by this point.  I had planned a morning of housework and afternoon of work at my computer.  But with no electricity there is not a whole lot I can do. Then I become concerned that the fridge and freezer are both off.  Then I wonder if the electricity is directly linked to the hot water that I'm hoping to bring forth from the shower.  I decide that if no one is going to give me answers then I'm going to go and get answers for myself.  I'm going to go and speak to the man up the pole.  And this is what I do.  Yes I'm in dodgy tracksuit bottoms but I don't really care.  As far as I'm concerned, in the mood I'm in, the man up the pole has no right to judge me and my dodgy tracksuit bottoms.  He seems to be expecting me.  He informs me that the power will be out until about one o'clock and they'd informed the real estate agents who were in turn meant to inform us.  I've been told nothing.  I thank the man up a pole.  He is not the man onto whom I shall vent my rage. I skulk back into the house and decide that I'll join Mystical Roo at work where I can take my laptop and do some work.  I decide I'll have a shower.  To have a shower I have to leave the bathroom door open so that I can get some light.  What I don't realise is that the door to the spare room is also open and the curtains in the spare room are also open.  And there is a man stood outside of that bedroom window.  I only realise this after I've had my shower, after I've walked around in a towel, after I've gone into that room, seen the man standing at the window and promptly turned around and walked back out again.  I wonder whether I've been seen in the shower.  It's at this point that I decide I just have to get out of the house.  There's no power, the house is a mess and there are random men at all the windows.  My attempts to flee the house are thwarted as the men have set up their tools in the passageway that leads back onto the street.  I have to wait for them to stop sawing through a huge piece of steel (or whatever) just so that I can pass.  Of course they have to engage me in conversation and I have to again wonder if I've been seen in the shower.  I flee.  When I arrive at work I feel a strong need to vent my anger.  The real estate agents are going to get told off.  But when I phone the real estate agents they say they know nothing about it either!  So then I feel stupid for being angry at the real estate agents and highly disappointed that I haven't been able to tell anyone off.  I hang up the phone feeling miserable.  I call the electricity company again who confirm that a contractor is removing the pole and told them that all the relevant parties had been informed.  Well evidently I'm not a relevant party.  I ask them if they know who is carrying out this work and they say they don't know.  No one knows!  And I've got a lot of built up anger to vent.  I explain to the lady that the van is unmarked and I can't identify the company.  She thinks this is strange, which made me wonder if we had dodgy electricity people on the loose.  Dodgy, peeping electricity people!  I've since concluded that the only way I'm going to find out who these people are, and more importantly, who I can rage at, is to speak to the man up the pole.  I stupidly feel a bit sorry for the man up the pole who is probably just doing his job and assumes the administration side of things has been taken care of.  So I'm going to have to go back, talk to the man up the pole and find out who is responsible for this cock up.  Because someone needs to be told!