The Great Storm! - Day Two

Day 2

We woke up to no electricity again. To be fair, we really didn’t expect it to be back on so soon. We needed to get a gas bottle though, so we threw on clothes and went out. On Sundays there are a few shops open, but only until lunchtime. The weather was a lot calmer, but we went further afield than the day before and saw an enormous amount of mess all over the place. It was no wonder there were so many people without power. The wind had calmed down a lot, and it was clear enough to see as far as the Pyrénées.

The whole town of Condom was without electricity. They had power in Fleurance and Lectoure, but no phone lines. We tried to buy some phone credit as I was down to about a euro, and my mum’s battery was dead. We couldn’t get any anywhere because there was no communication with the Orange server. In one of our local villages we found a shop open – the guy who runs it is also a pompier, so he had one of the pompier generators running the shop, because he also sells fuel, and the pompier vans had to be kept fuelled up so that they could get around and cut up the trees and clear the roads for the power guys!

My friend (and fellow blogger) Joocey phoned me on the mobile, so I got her to phone my gran to let her know we were ok (no credit, couldn’t do it ourselves!), and to change my Facebook status to let everyone know why we were incommunicado!

By the time we got home, we had no water. Our water comes from the nearest water tower, and is sent to houses by a water pump. No electricity = no water pump. What we had been using, were the dregs of what had been in our pipes.

Time to think logically though. We have a big swimming pool just outside the back door. No chemicals have been put in for months. We got out the stock pot, an old preserving pan and the biggest saucepans, filled them up and boiled them all on the gas hob. We filled the bath with cold pool water and left a large jug in there for flushing the toilet. Once we had washed up all the things that had been in the dishwasher, we boiled up some more water and washed ourselves standing by the kitchen sink. I had got to the point that when I took the scrunchie out of the hair, it stayed in its ponytail! I felt filthy and disgusting. I felt human again after that though.

We are living in the 21st century, but it felt more like the 18th. It gave us some small inkling of how people (ie. Jamie & Claire!!) managed when all they had was fire to heat and cook by and water from a stream or lake to wash, cook and drink.

We had to use up some of the food that was in the fridge – we had a whole packet of chicken breast and another whole packet of mince, so we made a massive chicken curry, and a big chilli con carne. A bunch of people came round in the evening, with their own fod that had to be used up, and we had a brilliant evening. In the kitchen we have a candelabra that takes ten candles, and it was almost as bright as electric light in there! We all got quite pissed, had a sing song, and just had a laugh – I think we all needed it.

By the time Isla went to bed she had a raging fever, and was full of the cold. She slept in my bed – I thought my coldness could cool her down, and her fever could warm me up – a win-win situation!