Kept in the dark

Ste Bertille
Yesterday's weather: Foggy, few sunny breakthroughs

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of the phone trilling at me. It wasn't an incoming call, just the phone connecting and letting me know that we had had a power cut.

There is absolutely nothing unusual about that. Although since the EDF upgraded the electricity supply to the village last April we haven't suffered from the number of cuts that we used to have. Anyway, we reset everything in the house once more and got on with our day.

At lunch time I went to cook a couple of little part baked baguettes. I find these a good option to getting in the car and going out to buy fresh bread every day and since Lidl sell packs of two for 39 cents they are a real bargain! Just as the new electric oven was heating up the electricity went off again.

'Bugger' we thought and put the gas oven on to cook the bread.

Jon checked that it wasn't the fuse box and everything seemed OK so we decided to sit and wait.

After a couple of hours we began complaining that we had missed out on the low tariff electricity over lunch time.

After another couple of hours we began to get a bit chilly and lit a gas ring to keep warm.

After the sixth hour with candles burning it was looking very cosy but we were getting fed up.

Jon went to check the fuse box for the second time and noticed a switch at the side that we'd never seen before. He flicked it and the lights came on.

Ooops.

Later, when I put some pring rolls in the little electric oven, the lights went out again.

There's a moral here somewhere but I can't think of one.

Turn up the heat

St Gilles
Yesterday's weather: Sunny-ish, cool wind.

The moment we had been dreading arrived yesterday. No, it wasn't the end of BB8, although I admit I am relieved it is over and don't really think I need to go for rehab after all. Well done Brian. And well done me because I accurately predicted the exact order of the last 6 contestants (sad, sad, sad).

It was the envelope handed to me by Mr Postie yesterday lunchtime. I saw the dreaded letters on the top: E D F.

Pause for dramatic music chords ... da, da, daaaaaaaaaa. Cue screaming and pulling out hair by the roots. Cue pouring a whiskey and... no, really it was far to early in the day for alcohol even at this moment in time.

Trembling fingers lifted the corner of the seal.

OK, so I will tell you why we were dreading the electricity bill. It's because we have electric heating in the house. The heaters must have been installed circa 1962, well maybe a bit later because they all work and are pretty efficient. But we moved in on 1st February, there was snow on the ground and we were freezing for weeks in this house with three feet thick walls where the lower floor nestles into bedrock. It was a real struggle to heat the house through even with the help of a portable gas fire. We only get the meter read every six months so at least we were going to get a very accurate idea of just how much it would cost us to keep the place warm all year. The previous reading had been on 29 January, so when it was read last week we reckoned it would be an indication of half a winter.

Back to the plot. I opened the envelope and pulled out the bill from inside. I was trying to hide it from Jon so that I could break the bad news to him gently. The mid-term bill had been just 55 Euros so that had to be added on to this whopper of a bill.

It was for 260 Euros. Jon wondered why I suddenly burst into a hysterical laugh, then he joined in. We had been expecting something around 700 to 800 Euros as people had been telling us just how expensive electricity is here. Less than half price - bargain electricity!