Scenes from Bohemian Life; or Mehr Licht!

We were just boiling the kettle in order to defrost our lunch, when I noticed that the kettle wasn't heating up. The stove wasn't hot. The lights wouldn't turn on. No juice. We went down to the basement and found a label stuck on our electricity meter: "Cortado por F.P.: 28.10.08". We interpreted this as "Cut off for N.[on] P.[ayment]". We haven't yet received an electricity bill, so we were a little surprised about this, and called our landlady, who told us to call Iberdrolo, the provider. They confirmed that they had cut off our electricity for non-payment, and that they had allegedly sent us six letters reminding us to pay our bill. We told them that they hadn't, but neither side had convincing arguments either way (we had to call our landlady even to find out who our providers were, so I'm sure we're right). They eventually, with poor grace, agreed to turn us back on once we've paid. Within three to five days of our having paid. So we have no electricity until at least Friday, and probably Tuesday. Candles in the night. We bought a meringue as big as Marian's head to try to take our minds off it, but it's a bit of a bugger.