Caboose

I arrived at work this morning to find that although there was electricity (for a change) the network wasn’t working. A quick look in the server room revealed that the router was off.

The wiring led back to one of the usual dubious Chinese multi-way adaptors (called ‘multisockets’ here), I waggled the plugs in case it was a bad connection (quite common with those) but still no power.  I then tried waggling the multisocket’s plug and was rewarded with the power coming on briefly and some sparks.

When I pulled out the plug I got this:

The plug (of course) has no fuse and very thin wires soldered directly to the top of the pins.

As the server room contains only one socket (already in use) this caused a bit of a problem and I had to go back to my house to fetch some of my own plugs and a decent multisocket (brought from the UK). I then spent an hour or so replacing plugs and fuses and rewiring. This will have to do until I manage to get the electricians to fix it properly.

This kind of thing happens a lot in Nigeria, we’re lucky the melting plug didn’t start a fire and burn the building down, as happens to quite a few homes and offices every year in Nigeria. As a final insult these low-quality electrical products are usually covered in UK flags and “British Standard” labels (the faulty plug has a UK flag on the other side). It would actually be illegal to sell these things in the UK!

I’m going to have to watch the electricians carefully when they come to fix the server room too. In Nigeria you seem to be regarded as a qualified electrician just because you have a screwdriver that lights up, there doesn’t seem to be any training.