Gosh I would hate it if my e27 led bulbs blew. One never quite recognises how important light bulbs are until they’re gone, a lesson I learnt the hard way whilst at university. A student flat, ill equipped to support even basic life forms, certainly does not come with candles. Of course, to make the occasion of a black-out even more dramatic, I had an essay due the following morning.

8pm arrives on Sunday night and the feeling of dread quickly twangs, just as it does on even strike of the hour the night before a deadline. The library is shutting in 45 minutes and to avoid the repeated warnings yelled by security staff that the library is indeed imminently going to kick the students out, I leave. Wandering home across the park with no company but my self-hatred for having left an essay so late yet again, I reassure myself with an image of my Kenco instant coffee nestling beside my Pro-Plus on the kitchen top-shelf. The procrastinator’s shelf, accumulating dust over two months, is always prey to being rudely disturbed by a frantic hand.

Two coffees, 2 pro-plus, a splash of cold water in the face, and a pep-talk from an exasperated flat mate, and I am sitting down in my room to begin what can only promise to be a terrible night. 9pm, the feeling of dread awakens in my stomach and roars. 9.30pm, the lights go out in the whole of the west end of the city. No electricity and just 11 hours until my essay is due.