The view from my window

The view from my window
The view from my window

Friday 12 July 2019

The storm that nearly ruined everything!

I already had a few ideas for meals while my family were here staying with me but knew I wanted to get myself really organized food-wise so that I would have one less thing to think about during the week. So the weekend before the wedding I wrote down what I planned to cook every day (or most days), plus an idea of what site-seeing we could do. Then on the Monday before everyone arrived I took my detailed shopping list and bought everything I needed, storing it in the fridge and two freezers in my basement. A storm had been predicted for that evening and while I love storms I (and, as it turns out, everyone in the village) got the shock my life when an absolute doozy hit around 9.30 p.m. It was absolutely awful! At one point I thought I should try and close the shutters on my bathroom window "just in case" and the wind nearly ripped my arm off! Seriously, if I hadn't managed to get my hand out of the way it would have been touch and go for my arm! I live at the end of a valley and the storms usually bang around overhead for a while and then rumble on back up the valley, but not this time. I have lived in France for 30 years and I have never seen anything like it. It howled and banged for a good 90 minutes, at which point the electricity went off. Not that that is unusual though, so taking my flashlight and kindle I decided to go to bed and "wait it out".

In the morning I had a look round and most things chez moi were where they were supposed to be buuut trees had been bought down in the village, apparently a few rooves had been blown off and a large tree had bought down an electric pylon (hence the power outage). My neighbour is on the village council and he had been told that the electricity should be back on "around 10 a.m.". Then it was pushed back to "maybe noon" and then ….. who knew! After a few hours I was starting to worry about all the food I had in my freezers and a couple of things I had left in the fridge to prep for Tuesday, so I decided to at least pre-cook the stuff I had in the fridge and pack it into the cooler. But just as I got the gas going under the frying pan the bloody gas ran out!!!! We don't have mains gas in the village so use gas bottles which, in my case, last easily over a year - and the bottle chose this moment to run out!!!! Luckily I always keep a spare bottle in the garage so I ran round to change it but couldn't find the spanner that allows me to loosen the nut and change the bottle. The bloody garage is so full of junk brought about by my "decluttering phase" that I couldn't find anything!

So I ran round to my neighbour's and she came back with me, wrench in hand, to help change the bottle. After much cussing and sweating we got it changed, at which point I picked up the cooler I intended to use to keep the cooked food cold - and the bloody handle broke off, meaning I couldn't get the lid to close properly. Now at this point you either laugh or cry - luckily my neighbour and I just sat down and laughed. It was hot, I was tired and stressed and we just collapsed into fits of giggles! The obvious solution was to run into town and buy a new cooler, along with a few kilos of ice. I guess at least one thing got accomplished that day, although the idea of making a cake for my soon-to-arrive visitors went straight out the window, what with having an electric oven and all and still no electricity! Thankfully my neighbour has a generator and was able to hook up both my and my other neighbour's freezers to his generator so at least the contents were saved thank goodness!

At 4 p.m. I had to drive in to Geneva to pick up my nephew and his partner from the airport and I got stuck in traffic!!! Again, now I know why I gave up work. I bought them back to town, dropped them off and then dashed back to Geneva a couple of hours later to pick up my sister, brother and brother-in-law. Trouble was, their flight was delayed and they had no way of contacting me because my mobile phone charge had run out and I had no way to re-charge it!!  Bloody hell! There was another storm advisory posted on the motorway so I was pretty nervous driving back with black, black clouds hanging over the mountains but we made it back just in time for the next big storm which, thankfully, was nowhere near as bad as the previous one. The electricity finally came back on around 9 p.m. (after a 23-hour power cut) so I was able to get everyone settled in without having to resort to flashlights and candles! But methinks it's finally time to go shopping for that generator I keep putting off, since that storm was surely not a one off! I'm just glad it happened a couple of days ahead of the wedding to enable us all to get back on our feet again! You have to be thankful for small mercies I guess!

14 comments:

  1. oh my! what a day you had. At least all your food was saved.

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    1. It would have really galled me to throw two freezer loads of food, I can tell you but I am so thankful for my neighbour's generator!

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  2. Well, I am glad you survived along with the food. I hate days like that.

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    1. Some days are just like that aren't they. I think it's just God's way of having a laugh at your expense. You know what they say "(wo)man makes plans and God laughs"! Well he certainly got a good ol' chuckle that day!

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  3. Isn't it funny how once one thing goes wrong, just about everything else that can go wrong does! I'm glad you were able to laugh. I agree it might be time to consider a generator! I'm glad too that it all passed by in time for you all to enjoy the wedding. You won't forget it in a hurry! x

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    1. I think it's known as "sod's law" isn't it. I was actually thinking "this can't be happening NOW", but it was, and yes I'm glad we ended up laughing. One way or another you have to evacuate that tension don't you!

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  4. Oh my goodness! One of the ladies in my writing group spends loads of time in Switzerland, and was telling us about the heat you had last week (it read 50C in her car...gassppp!). Glad you survived the storm, though, and came through it all relatively unscathed. Sometimes all you can do is laugh! xx

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    1. The week before the wedding it was in the 40s here and it was unbearable because, obviously, we don't have air con in our homes. One day I just lay on the sofa all day, only interrupted by one of 3 cold showers that day! We don't get those temperatures often but when we do damn they are miserable!

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  5. I am sorry to be laughing with you at all the misadventures, but you can't write days like that! It is kind of like saying "Nothing else can go wrong" and the universe answering back "Oh yeah, just watch!'

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    1. "Oh yeah, just watch" was about the sum of it all!

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  6. Holy crap, thank goodness for good neighbors. So glad it finally came back on the first night when your guests were there.

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    1. I have excellent neighbours - which is one of the reasons I stay here even though I am on my own. In fact, the whole neighbourhood was full of neighbours with generators running round helping those without - a nice area to be sure!

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  7. Good neighbors to the rescue! I can't wait to hear more about the wedding, but what a lead up.

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    1. The wedding turned out beautiful but the lead up to it - nah - not so much!

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