
Storm Lydia continues to lash this corner of the island and our days are punctuated by power outages, some short and some not. Fortunately the longer ones have been during the night which causes less of a problem in terms of the freezer but more worryingly is when only partial power is restored because if that goes unnoticed then it can damage items with motors as they try to kick in and have insufficient power to do so.
Our friend, the author Stephen Haughan, has continued to work on his novel and has now embarked on a children's book. A lack of electricity isn't going to stop him although I have a feeling the dodgy boiler in his retreat might prove more of an issue - at least he found himself an oil lamp to work by!!!
He is looking for junior critics for his children's book so I am getting chapter one sent to Melanie so that Jasmine and Frances can cast their discerning eyes over his work and give their honest opinions - out of the mouths of babes and all that!!!


We had plans today, if it had been dry, to go out and give the garden a bit of a tidy but the layer of hail dissuaded us although the shredded curtains of the front gazebo were taken down and put in the bin and we discovered that part of the original gazebo which is over the area where we eat outside has gone to meet its maker. Clearly we are going to have to change our priorities for the garden as we use that area the most. We are thinking about spending some of our savings on having a more permanent structure erected - maybe something like Di and Rob's lovely bandstand area. It will depend on cost obviously but the gazebos really owe us nothing much and have done a good job - we just couldn't save them from Lydia and her bad temper.

We had to go out today, we have invited Di and Rob to come for a curry supper tomorrow, and whilst I am pretty good at fridge and freezer surprise normally, the barren state of my kitchen was a challenge too far even for me.
I had contacted Stephen to check that he was ok and to offer him some home-made soup if he wanted it which he said he did so I said we would leave it on the windowsill on our way down if he wasn't in.
He text to say that due to the dodgy heating in his temporary abode he had been spending a large chunk of the day down in Coffee Island in Latchi where he could work and be warm so we would be welcome to join him if we were going to be down that way.

Poor John, it was bloody freezing up on the roof and when he had decided to go up there it wasn't raining but the minute he got up there it started to bucket down so it was absolutely horrible and when he came down his poor hands were red raw with cold and he ended up getting a split in his thumb which happens to his hands when they have been exposed to extreme cold. This is just a temporary fix whilst the weather conditions are so wild - it will be just one more thing to be added to the 'in the spring' to-do list.
When this was done and John had warmed up we put the recycling in the car and made our way down to Prodromi. It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride as there have been landslides There was a massive puddle in front of the recycling bins that John had to straddle in order to get rid but he did it and then as we were on the T-Junction to Latchi we decided to grab a coffee with Stephen. He is due to leave soon and as I am going away I wanted to make sure I saw him before he does.
"Beautiful" Latchi looks in a right old state. The sea was actually brown and there was debris everywhere. We parked up and walked down to the water side. The old Zouk building looks a right old mess and you cannot imagine anyone will ever take that on again and turn it into a going concern. The place was empty save for a couple of people checking out their boats in the murky harbour.
I didn't realise that there was a Coffee Island now in Latchi - to be fair we don't go down there that often but it is easy to find and has a little patio heated bit right by the water's edge but that is presumably for the smokers so we went inside and up the stairs where Stephen was busy working and taking advantage of the warm!!
It is a nice coffee shop, the staff are friendly and the coffee is good and reasonably priced. We spent some time catching up with Stephen whose departure is now not so imminent as he is planning on staying long enough to meet the people who have allowed him to stay in their place so I will get a chance to see him on my return from the UK which is great.
John and I did our shopping and raced back home - with more bad weather forecast I wanted to get some of the food ready for tomorrow just in case we are without electric again - just as well really as we had yet another massive outage overnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.