Yesterday was a bit of a disaster.

I had one of my early awakenings on Friday night at around three. I found myself wide awake with no chance of sleeping on so I got dressed.

I then discovered there was no power. Fuck! There was a bit of a wind outside so a tree must have fallen somewhere.

I spent a while groping around in the dark finding first my phone [to use as a torch] and then collecting oil lamps. Then of course I had to find fuel for the lamps. More groping.

I eventually relaxed in my armchair by lamplight and actually fell asleep again. I woke again at nine. Still no power. Fuck again! I hauled out the camping stove to boil some water for tea. I discovered that the regulator had come loose and the gas had all escaped. The cylinder was empty. Fuck yet again!

So Herself and I spent the day gagging for tea. No sign of power returning.

By mid afternoon I had had enough. I headed off looking for a replacement gas cylinder. I knew they were hard to get so I went to the shop where I had bought the current one. Discovered the shop didn’t exist any more. More fuck! Decided to try a camping shop I knew of a few miles away. Parking there was a nightmare but eventually I got to the shop. They didn’t have the right type. I tried the car accessory shop next door. No, they didn’t have them but recommended another place which was a couple of hundred yards from the first place I had been to! Fuckity fuck! Drove back again. There was a very helpful chap there who informed me that my cylinder was now obsolete and he was out of stock anyway. I had used up all my fucks by this stage.

I decided to give up and go home. By this stage it was late dusk. I was a couple of hundred yards from home when suddenly the local houses lit up. Great! Power was back. I put on the kettle as soon as I got in.

Later I decided to make my bean stew. I chucked half a dozen tins of beans in a saucepan and made up a grand wodge of mashed potato [with lashings of butter] while the beans were heating. It was all delicious.

Later I could feel my stomach fermenting. Them beans is deadly yokes. Sure enough I was the first to crack one off. The first of many.

Storm Darragh had finally arrived.