Monthly Archives: January 2009

Whatever next…?

Posted on by Richard
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Seriously, you couldn’t make this up…

After enduring the arctic temperatures of last week, we now have oil for our heating and the house is finally warm again.

After coming close to running out of gas for the cooker we finally have a new bottle to keep us going so hot meals are back on the menu.

We have even finally had a delivery of wood for the fire, so we can enjoy cosy nights in with out visitors.

Everything, you might think, is in place for a comfortable week with my visiting family.

Well, you might think that, but you’d be wrong.

Here’s the note that was handed to us by a chap in a van this evening…

The joyous news is that on Wednesday we will have  no water. No water! For pretty much the whole day.

Aaaargh!!! What the blinking flip is going on round here?

I tell you, if this is all some crazy French version of “Beadle’s About” there is going to be big trouble.

Salad anyone…?

Posted on by Richard
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Just when we thought we were all sorted for essential supplies, another crisis raises its ugly head. This time the issue is not oil, but gas. As we are out in the sticks, there is no mains gas supply, so our gas oven runs on bottled gas cannisters. These generally last for several weeks and we always have a spare one tucked under the back stairs so we are never caught part-way through cooking a meal with no gas (apart from that one time… :( )

So, with my parents arriving tommorrow, and my sister and her boys coming on Wednesday, I went out at the weekend to get a new spare bottle to see us through the upcoming catering marathon. However, my visit to Hyper U in Fontenay was unsuccessful.

“Pas de gaz” yelled the lady in the booth as she saw me lugging the heavy empty bottle towards her.

“Eh?” was my instant reaction. there’s always gas at Hyper U…

“Je n’en ai plus!”

Yikes, that’s not good.

So, off I trotted to the other side of Fontenay to back-up provider Leclerc. Once again I drag the empty bottle out of the back of the car and hobble over towards the cabin like Quasimodo. But once again I was met with the same response. No more gas left.

Now this is getting serious. Without gas we have no means of cooking. Potentially a more desperate a situation than lack of heating.

So back I came to do some research. Suspecting that Lisa had made some arrangement with the local supermarkets to run out of gas as a good excuse to force me to buy the electric oven she has always wanted, I consulted t’internet for evidence of gas supply problems. And that’s where I read about the current crisis with Russian gas supplies being blocked on their way into Europe [BBC news]. Presumably this has caused mass panic among the French populace and they have all bought up extra gas bottles in case supplies dry up. Either that of Sarkozy has ordered rationing and we are only allowed one each.

Whatever the cause, it’s slightly worrying and I must now go out on Monday to try to hunt down a gas bottle from wherever I can find one. Probably from some shady dealer in a dark alley of the rough-end of Fontenay. I’ll probably have to swap it for one of the children, or maybe a kidney or something, but at least we can eat!

Salad anyone…?