No power or no water. It was just on 12 months ago that a destructive storm ripped through our area and left us without power for 30 hours. No power means no hot showers, cooking, sewing, watching tv or access to the internet, using of washing machine or dishwasher, no mobile phones or landlines. If you are lucky and can find some batteries the right size you can listen to the radio for current updates as you are completely cut off from the outside world.
On Tuesday a water main burst not far from where we live and as a consequence there was no water. No water means no showers of any kind - hot or cold - no use of washing machine or dishwasher, cooking is limited to something that does not involve water, no toilet flushing, having a sink full of dirty dishes. Using hand sanitiser instead of good old soap and water for many washes results in "sticky" hands. Trying to clean one's teeth using mineral water was a "frothy" disaster and one that would not want to be repeated again.
The water went off around 1 pm and had still not been restored at 11 pm when I went to bed although we could hear much drilling and could see bright lights around the area that was being worked on throughout the night. Getting up at 5.30 am on Wednesday morning found that we had a little bit of running water. The pressure was very low but enough to get a quick shower and organise breakfast. It was lovely to finally wash all that sanitiser off our hands and clean our teeth properly.
On driving out of the driveway I was confronted by this. There were two water tankers hooked into our water supply hence the low pressure but having said that we were very grateful for the flowing water again.
It would be interesting to know how many tankers would have been needed to cater for the needs of our retirement village as the property is spread out over 11 acres.
Looking further up the road this was the scene with many more vehicles coming and going during the time that it took to do the necessary repair work.
It took over 28 hours to restore water to the whole of the affected suburbs.
The plan was to head to the supermarket early on Wednesday morning if we still had no water and buy quite a few litres to at least give us drinking water and fill up a basin for handwashing. Once the water began to trickle again I did pull some jugs out of the cupboard and fill them up "just in case" it went off again.
So after these two experiences of no power and water for an extended period of time on each occasion I still do not know which is worse. I am glad that I was not a pioneer woman as neither of these life necessities would have been available to me at the flick of a switch or turn of a tap.
FNSI
Fortunately having no water did not stop me from using my sewing machine.
Two items remained on the sewing "to do list" before Christmas and they have now been ticked off. First up is the set of 3 placemats which were finished off last night when joining in the FNSI.
Miss M and her parents are big cat lovers so these placemats have found their way into their Christmas stockings.
During the week a peasant top was completed for Miss M.
As well as a twirly skirt for her.
That is it for me as far as my Christmas sewing is concerned. All that is left to do is the last minute food shopping as I have been asked to bring a fruit and cheese platter on Christmas Day. An easy one to organise.
The big red ball of yarn is still going. Another two beanies have been completed. That makes 15 beanies so far from that ball of red yarn. My knitting group is of the opinion that the ball is definitely shrinking.
I keep buying those berries each week when shopping and often add in some passionfruits as well. They go down very well on our breakfast cereal of a morning.
I caught up with some friends for a pre-Christmas lunch and was gifted this gorgeous bundle of 20 Tula Pink fq's. Now to find a design to showcase these mouthwatering fabrics.
That was the last
FNSI for 2022. Thanks to Wendy for organising and I look forward to joining in again in the New Year.
Back soon and in the meantime
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