Why do they always last for almost exactly the same amount of time it takes for the bewildered panic to start wearing off and the process of elimination rules everything else out?
Everything suddenly goes quiet, you always start with whatever you're using at the time, switch it off and on again. Nope. Unlpug it, plug it back in. Nope. Then notice all the clocks & standby lights are gone. Flick all the sockets & light switches in every room (in case someone broke in and turned them all off at the same time), run through various apocalyptic scenarios in your mind (the Direct Debit didn't go through, freezer food defrosting, cordless phone dead, post-nuclear-blast isolation), open the fridge door to see if the light comes on & it doesn't. That's when you know it's serious. Check the fuse board, all OK but worth flicking an MCB or two down & up again just in case.
Just as you begin to stop being a plonker and think rationally about going next door to see if theirs has gone too, or using the mobile to phone the emergency number (wish I'd written it down), everything suddenly starts whirring, beeping and comes back to life. And the lights are on in every room.
I can guess who did it, it's the contractors who have been replacing a single street light for about 8 months now. They sawed the old one off at about 4 feet, obviously got fed up trying to remove the "stump" so they just draped some warning tape around it & put the new one in about 3 feet away and left them both there. Every now and then a truck arrives and a bloke has a bit of a go at the "stump" with a pneumatic drill, then he's off again. I think they were waiting for a delivery of non-matching tarmac to really finish the whole thing off nicely.