10 Bring those little solar-powered lights in from the garden
"Come on Nikki there's no way they are going to sustain us for the entire time" Harry sighed as Nikki opened the back door and pointed to the glowing solar lights in the back garden.
"I need something to light the house with and someone didn't change the batteries of the torch" Nikki replied and looked pointedly at Harry who only sighed and shook his head.
"Why do we need the light?" he asked as he poked his head into the cold garden, wearing only his trousers after the power went while he was getting ready for bed "We're going to bed"
"I want to read and what if the children wake up and there's no light" Nikki supplied for him. Their children were all still under the age of five and the darkness still scared them.
"I'm going I'm going" Harry mumbled as he wandered down the garden path, thankful that the past few days had been exceptionally sunny so the lights should last a good few hours in the house.
"There we go" Harry said as he placed the lights down in the landing upstairs near the children's bedrooms "They'll be fine now"
"Good" Nikki nodded as she walked into the bedroom "And I can read"
Harry just rolled his eyes in exasperation and followed his wife into their bedroom to finish getting ready for bed.
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9 Eat all the ice-cream in the freezer
"What flavour do you want?" Harry asked Nikki as he opened the freezer, the light that normally came on staying firmly out.
"Cookie dough" Nikki replied as Harry handed her the large tub and walked over to one of the drawers for a spoon. They then both walked to the kitchen table and sat with their four children who were already tucking in to their vast amounts of ice cream.
"Don't get used to this" Harry warned the youngsters who nodded eagerly and continued to eat, knowing that this was a treat for them to eat so much ice cream at once.
"Where's the lights daddy?" four year old Emery asked and looked up at the ceiling as if to find it, her eyes sparkling in the candle light.
"Something has gone wrong at the power station" Harry tried to explain to all of his children "So the electricity doesn't work at the moment so we get no lights or anything else run by electricity"
"Oh" was all the little girl said as she tucked back into the ice cream her face already covered with the sticky chocolate substance.
"When will it come back?" six year old Graham asked as he finished scraping around the tub of strawberry ice cream he and Darius had been sharing, it had already been half full when they got it out of the freezer.
"We don't know" Nikki shrugged and smiled at her children "It could be a while yet or it could be in a few minutes"
"Do we have to go to bed yet?" Darius asked and Harry and Nikki chuckled, he was the one who always wanted five more minutes of whatever they were doing and never wanted to go to bed.
"Not right now" Nikki replied "Later on you do"
"What about the lights mama?" Darius enquired, they always kept the hallway light on for the children. Harry and Nikki exchanged a look, knowing that their children wouldn't sleep without the light on if they were alone.
"You can sleep in our bed tonight if the power isn't on by the time you go to bed" Nikki told them and the four children cheered "But only tonight and only if the power is still off"
"Thank you mummy" Emery grinned and turned back to her ice cream.
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8 For that matter eat every biscuit, cake, and piece of fruit in the house
"Harry your children are hungry" Nikki complained as she sat on the sofa her hand on her seven month pregnant stomach the other holding a book as she tried to read in the dull light.
"Well I cant cook anything at the moment" Harry called from the kitchen as he walked through to the living room "Because there is a power cut"
"Oh really?" Nikki replied sarcastically as she threw her book down on the table next to her giving up on trying to read "I would never have noticed" with that she climbed off the sofa with some difficulty and walked into the kitchen, Harry following her. Opening the cupboards Nikki pulled out a packet of biscuits and cakes and leant back into Harry as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and placed his hands on her stomach where their twins were.
"Biscuit?" Nikki asked as she held up one for Harry and placed it in his mouth as he opened it, not really wanted to let go of his wife "Then we can start on the cakes and if we run out of calorie filled crap we can start on the fruit"
Harry only laughed loudly and kissed his wife on the lips.
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7 Wake the kids up
"Mummy" came a small terrified sounding voice from down the hallway "Daddy?"
Harry and Nikki both heard this and looked up from their pillows wondering why the light in the hallway outside their bedroom was out, they left it on so their children could see if they needed the bathroom in the middle of the night and so that Emery wasn't too scared, she was at the age where the dark scared her.
"It's Emmy" Harry mumbled to his wife as he climbed out of bed. Nikki looked up to look at the time and saw that her digital alarm clock was in darkness, she turned to Harry's and saw that was in darkness as well. She sighed when she realised they had a power cut and climbed out of bed to follow Harry down the hallway where Nikki saw through the darkness that he was holding their crying daughter in his arms. Opening Darius' bedroom door she thought it was best to wake them herself instead of them waking up in the pitch black and wondering what was happening.
"Darius?" she whispered into the darkness and there was a stirring on the bed where her son was and she saw the young boy sit up and look around.
"Mummy where's the light?" he asked sleepily and Nikki sensed a hint of terror in his voice.
"We've had a power cut" Nikki told him and he jumped out of bed and ran over to her. Nikki bent down and picked him up "Do you want to sleep in mummy and daddy's bed? Just for tonight?"
"Yes please" Nikki felt her son nod and pressed a kiss onto his cheek as he yawned.
Nikki took the boy into her bedroom and saw that Harry was sitting on the bed with Emery in his arms whispering to her and trying to comfort the little girl.
"You stay here with daddy and I'll go and get your brothers" Nikki told Darius as she placed him on the bed and pressed a kiss onto Emery's cheek before walking out of the room to get Edward and Graham.
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6 Play Snake on your mobile
Harry sighed as he sat heavily on the sofa in Leo's office, there had been a power cut an hour earlier and the power was still out. The computers had been backed up on emergency power but were extremely slow and the lights were off. Lab techs were wandering around with torches trying to read their paperwork but having trouble doing so. Harry looked out of the window of the office and saw the snow starting to settle on the window sill outside, it was only six o'clock but it was already dark. Harry's shift had finished an hour before but as the only door out of the lab was electronic, they, himself, Leo and Nikki were stuck in the lab until the power came on. Nikki was currently sitting at her desk reading a book by torchlight and Leo was sitting at his desk completely ignoring Harry as he did the same thing. Feeling slightly left out Harry took out his phone and started reading through his messages, most of them from Nikki, he grinned as he read them all and looked over at his lover who had a look of rapt concentration on her face as she read. After going through his texts Harry had nothing else to do so he started to explore the phone he had only got two days before. He grinned to himself as he found what he was looking for and started to play. Only forty five minutes later the lights flickered once then came on causing everyone to wince and blink as they got used to the blinding light again. Harry looked up as they did so and heard a bleeping from his phone and he looked down in alarm at his phone.
"No" he gasped and glared at the object in his hand
"What's wrong?" Nikki asked as she walked into the room and Leo stood up from his chair.
"My phone just died and I was on level fifty of 'Snake'" Harry replied and Nikki and Leo laughed loudly.
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5 Think about any elderly or vulnerable neighbours you might have
"Should we go and check on Mr Ronald?" Nikki asked as she held her torch up so she could see into her front garden and across the road to the house on the other side "You know how he gets"
"I'll go if you want" Harry nodded and walked to the kitchen "I'll make him a flask of coffee"
Nikki smiled to herself when she heard Harry say that and wondered why all men weren't as helpful and considerate as Harry was. She turned from the window and walked over to Harry and wrapped her arms around Harry's waist from behind and leant her chin on his shoulder as she pressed a kiss to his neck.
"Don't get roped into playing scrabble" she muttered to him and felt Harry chuckle at this.
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4 Indulge in a little amateur astronomy
"I think that's Orion" Nikki told Harry as she pointed towards the sky. They were both laying on their backs on their front lawn looking up at the sky, a power cut having knocked out the power in a large radius from their house. They had seen a few people in their road in their front gardens looking up at the sky, something they didn't normally do when they had things like computers or play stations to be getting on with.
"I was never really into the whole space thing" Harry admitted to Nikki as she snuggled further into his chest and he ran one hand absentmindedly through her hair.
"I was always amazed by how huge it is" Nikki told him "when we are little we think that Earth is huge, the only thing that exists in the entire universe apart from the sun. Then we learn about the planets and that's it but then you learn that we are in just one galaxy in the middle of a enormous space and my mind is amazed by it"
Harry was silent for a while then looked down at Nikki who was tracing random patterns on his chest.
"That's why space and I didn't get along" he replied "I wanted answers for everything and space just threw up more answers than it gave so I gave up with it but.." he paused and looked up at the night sky at the stars twinkling above them "It's truly amazing isn't it?"
"Yes it is" Nikki nodded and leant up on her elbows to look at him before leaning down and pressing her lips to his.
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3 Read a book
Nikki was slightly pleased that there had been a sudden power cut during one of her evenings off. Instead of watching the television or logging onto the internet like she was used to it gave her the chance of finishing the book she had started a few months before but never got around to finishing. Turning the page she brought the torch up so she could light her place and continued to read, wondering how she could have left the book for so long as she got so absorbed in the story wanting to get to the end to see how it finished. She didn't hear Harry enter the house as she read through two chapters in quick succession nor did she hear him say her name and greet her when he walked into the living room.
"Nikki" Harry said loudly this time and Nikki jumped and glared at him for interrupting a particularly tense part of the book.
"Yes?" she asked tersely not liking being interrupted. Harry pointed to the lights that were throwing light around the room.
"Powers back" he stated simply.
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2 Do all the sensible things: unplug computers, TVs, Sky boxes etc
"There is a method behind the madness" Harry told Nikki as he bent over and unplugged the television, and the host of boxes attached to the television, from the wall. He had already gone around upstairs and unplugged the television and digital box in their bedroom and was now doing it to the sky box and television in the living room. "I'd rather there not be a power surge when the power comes back on and everyone else in the street is getting back to watching their programs or whatever they were doing and me having to go into the cellar and find the blown fuse"
"Where's the fun in that?" Nikki asked from her seat as she watched Harry intently "I thought it made a man feel..well..manly when they had to do something like that" she shrugged and Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
"I don't need to do that to feel manly" he told her causing Nikki to giggle loudly and shake her head.
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1 Have sex
"Harry I told you to put the heating on an hour ago" Nikki whined to her lover as she sat huddled on the sofa one evening in winter watching the television, the electric fire they had in the living room on full blast. Harry had wondered why Nikki wanted such an expensive one and Nikki had told him because it looked like a real fire without having the actual flames and fumes, Harry had just rolled his eyes. Harry sighed as he walked in from the kitchen and sat next to her.
"I'm sorry" Harry told her and pressed a kiss onto her lips "But I was…"
Whatever he was about to say was stopped by the house being plunged into darkness and silence as the lights and television went off. Harry got up and walked over to the window, careful not to bump into anything as he went and glance out of the window.
"The whole street has gone" he told Nikki as he saw the street in darkness. He turned and saw Nikki glaring at the now cut off fire attached to the wall and a smirk spread across his face as he walked back to her and quickly captured her lips under his. Nikki moaned and ran one hand through his hair, the other gripping his shoulders as Harry worked quickly at the buttons of her blouse and pushed it off her shoulders before throwing it away from them. He pushed Nikki back onto the sofa so he was laying above her and kissed his way down her neck to the sensitive spot at the bottom of her neck causing her to moan loudly as she pushed Harry's shirt off and dropped it to the floor, Harry already working on the buttons of her jeans.
"Don't worry my love" he whispered as the jeans joined the shirts on the floor and he kissed his way down Nikki's stomach "I'll keep you warm"
Found this list on google when I was bored and thought it would make a good .
I may do other 'Ten things to do when...' stories when I can find something to write about..any suggestions?
xxx