Stormy weather

Yesterday morning I was gazing down at the street through my kitchen window while I waited for my first coffee to brew. It was wet and very windy and as the early workers went round a corner in ones and twos their umbrellas blew inside out, one after another, which amused me. Luckily umbrellas seem to turn the right way out again fairly easily nowadays. I was thinking smugly how nice it was to be retired and not have to face a daily commute.

Later in the day I was not feeling so smug, though. The storm increased as did the wind and it became increasingly cold in my unheated flat. The gusts of wind were so strong (apparently reaching 80km/h)  that my curtains were blowing about in the draughts. In the afternoon just before I was due to go for my physiotherapy appointment there was a power cut and I had to walk down eight flights of stairs and back up again after when I returned as it was still off. It was a strange power cut as the overhead lights worked but not the sockets, so my appliances, computer etc would not switch on. It was a long evening and I found I only had three matches for my gas cooker which normally lights with electricity. I had to ration the matches, one for a cup of tea, one to make dinner later and one for my morning coffee assuming the lights were still off in the morning - which they were.

I had to walk down the eight flights again next day as I needed some shopping (matches!). My legs were still aching from the day before as I am only supposed to do gentle exercise at the moment. Luckily when I got home at lunchtime the power was back on and the lifts working again. Thank goodness we don´t get power cuts very often. The storm did quite a bit of damage with about 80 large trees falling around town.