snowed in again

Hi there, so here we are again up to our thighs in nice crisp snow. It all happened really quickly, so quickly in fact that we didnt get time to get dressed for our planned christmas shopping trip to Valencia before we had 10cm of snow as we got into the car. It came down so fast the windscreen wipers cleared an ever smaller space through which to see. So we abandoned that idea. Next week perhaps.

So what to do? Just wait it out. Well it snowed all day and the next night more or less and what a delight to wake up and see that lovely picture on the left. Might look pretty to you but not if you're an almond tree that has been broken in half and then fallen and sheered right through a telephone cable. So no telephone. Of course since the blizzard hit such a large area there were many other trees doing the same thing to electric cables, so you've guessed it , no electricity either.

One of the advantages of having a restaurant that is cut off from the rest of the world is that we have an ample supply of food in stock and no punters to eat it. With the threat of it all defrosting in sub zero temperatures (ha ha!)I bravely left the house in my wellies to go the hundred metres to the restaurant. "I may be some time!" paraphrasing Oates the great antarctic explorer and set off. It took me two minutes to grab a couple of spinach crepes and I was back to our nice cosy log fire. Didn't realise until I took off my boots that they were filled with some of the 45cm deep snow I had trudged through. And there is a handy tip for the body conscious ladies who want to lose a few pounds on their thighs, just try walking through that depth of snow and you find out what a wonderful work-out it is for the quadriceps.

So the evening was spent reading with a nice malt at my side, I can heartily recommend Imperium by Robert Harris, all about Cicero and the politicking in the roman republic. Great fun if you like that sort of thing. I can't remember the last time I was so sleepy but I kid you not I had a mid morning nap, a light siesta and a postprandial snooze before yawning off to my bed. I suppose that we are all so stimulated so much by life style and intrusive technology that we are all hyped up and can't relax properly. Just think if we had a different type of metabolism and we were forced to constantly have 3 or 4 sleeps a day. No more wars, less crime and violence, probably more sex.. But is that a bad thing?

So the next day, well rested I may add, I ventured out to see the full white Christmas scene and it was breathtaking. Took lots of photos and talked to some rather pissed off neighbours. No TV, no radio and no telephone, they moaned. One neighbour Vicente actually braved the cold to start shoveling the snow from his front door, took one look at amount of it and immediately retreated into his house. I didn't quite hear what was said in Valenciano by his irate wife but I reckon she said "how am I supposed to get the bread tomorrow if you don't get off your arse and make a path?" Once again the door opened grudgingly and poor Vicente started shoveling and muttering about his bad back. Needless to say I got out there with him and did my bit for the pueblo. Just like in the westerns when two great railway lines meet in the middle of nowhere we made a path that joined up. After all, the bread has got to get through!

Later on the day civilisation beat a path to Tollos and a giant mobile generator installed to give us temporary relief from a non-electical existence. Soon after the phone came back on and all was hunky-dory again. It just goes to show what a thin veneer our modern way of life is and fragile the technology we have built around us is to the weather. Well if this is what is in store for us with climate change I reckon they should start thinking of building our essential appliances out of sturdier materials, like the Victorians did. Cast iron mobile phones for instance.

And on that rather idiotic note I will close for now, obviously the cold has got into my brain.

David