No phone, no internet, no power, no money – it was like being sent back to the Victorian era

‘I took the temporary loss of my connection to the outside world in my stride … What I didn’t expect was waking up on day two without a phone to a major power outage,’ writes Caitlin Cassidy Photograph: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy

I didn’t intend to spend my Sunday hacking at gargantuan weeds with a half-broken set of pruning shears in the rain.

But the universe – or, more accurately, a unique combination of bad luck and stupid decisions – had conspired against me, leaving me with no phone, no internet, no power, no money and nothing to do but tend to my overgrown garden.