Well, thank you,

Scottish and Southern Energy, for telling us last Friday that out electricity would be off this morning.

Fortunately it wasn’t a Babybel day, so we didn’t have to worry about the lack of CBeebies. We’d been thinking of visiting a couple of exhibitions, so we decided the simplest thing was to go out for the morning. Which we did.

And got back to find the power had never been off at all.

At the bottom of the tatty bit of paper they pushed through our letter box they kindly promise, if the work is postponed, they’ll warn us before they do it again  – so we're left waiting to see if we get another scrappy bit of paper tomorrow.

If I was running a business from home I'd been even more p****d off than I am.

However, the exhibitions were worth visiting, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much.

We started off being Precious at the Discovery Centre – a touring exhibition of art made with recycled materials, plus some Hampshire Museum items of a similar nature. Very interesting, very inspirational. There was little that didn’t impress, but the standouts for me were Mary Crabb’s baskets – well, I’m a sucker for recycled basketry, – Stephanie Douet’s ‘porcelain’ speakers, Tracey Bush’s paper plants, and most of all, what I can only describe as an ethereal suspension of holes on fishing line by Pamela Schilderman. One of the best exhibitions I’ve seen at the DC – although I know I’ve said that before.

Then, after coffee and one of the DC cafe’s excellent rock buns, we drifted down the hill to do something I’ve been intending to do for about 20 years – take a look at the Winchester Bible. I’ve decided that illuminated manuscripts are the first artists’ books in Europe – and that therefore I ought to start by looking at a local example.

What I hadn’t realised was just how big it is – 4 large volumes, each about 48 x 40cm closed. Of course, because it is kept in glass cases, you can only look at one page in each volume – so going here gives you a better idea of the illustrations, though not of the crispness of the art and script, and the glow of the colours. I bet I don’t look as good when I'm 800 years old…

There is, apparently, going to be a fuller exhibition at the end of April, to celebrate the anniversary of that mere stripling, the King James Bible, so we’ve added that to our ‘to do’ list.

So it all turned out OK in the end, but we’ll have to think of something else to do if we get another power cut. However, I think I’ll stay at home until the power actually goes off next time.