Thursday, 17th September 2009
I arrived in Santander with my poor little car packed to the roof with my belongings, this made driving on the wrong side of the road doubly difficult as I had very limited visibility. Brittany Ferries had provided us with instructions for the best route out of Santander, I think this was done at the request of the local authorities but they had then shut the recomended route! Eventually I was on my way. The journey should have taken 5-6 hours but, being mean, I opted not to pay any tolls, unfortunately I not only opted for a scenic route but I went up and down every mountain in Cantabria and most of them had road works!!
I finally got home at 9pm, I had missed all the supermarkets on the way, if there had been any, but I had bought a 'bocadillo' at a service station and I had bottles of wine at home so I was not unduly worried, however I should have been.
I walked into the house and switched on the electricity but nothing happened. I tried again and again, I flipped all the fuses up and down but still nothing happened, finally I gave up, lit some candles and drank the bottle of wine.
Friday, 18th September 2009
Whatever plans I may have had for my first day they had to go by the board. I found a phone number for the electricity people and was told that my electricity had been disconnected as I had not paid. This was odd as I pay by direct debit, but I would have to go into Ourense to rectify the situation. An hours drive and an hours queue later I had rectified the situation ....I owed 9 euros and had to pay 20 euros for reconnection!! This was, of course, Friday and it was now afternoon so it was unlikely that anyone would get out to me to reconnect. I was faced with a weekend with no electricity, this meant no coffee, no fridge, no hot water. It was the thought of a whole weekend without coffee that really distressed me.
When I got home I phoned my son who had the bright idea of Camping Gaz, I had had some but unfortunately no more, so I made a trip to the local town to the 'ferreteria' where I acquired a kind of small 'fondu set' that ran on lighter gas, at last I could make a drink. Now my only problems were cold water and the incredible quiet!
I arrived in Santander with my poor little car packed to the roof with my belongings, this made driving on the wrong side of the road doubly difficult as I had very limited visibility. Brittany Ferries had provided us with instructions for the best route out of Santander, I think this was done at the request of the local authorities but they had then shut the recomended route! Eventually I was on my way. The journey should have taken 5-6 hours but, being mean, I opted not to pay any tolls, unfortunately I not only opted for a scenic route but I went up and down every mountain in Cantabria and most of them had road works!!
I finally got home at 9pm, I had missed all the supermarkets on the way, if there had been any, but I had bought a 'bocadillo' at a service station and I had bottles of wine at home so I was not unduly worried, however I should have been.
I walked into the house and switched on the electricity but nothing happened. I tried again and again, I flipped all the fuses up and down but still nothing happened, finally I gave up, lit some candles and drank the bottle of wine.
Friday, 18th September 2009
Whatever plans I may have had for my first day they had to go by the board. I found a phone number for the electricity people and was told that my electricity had been disconnected as I had not paid. This was odd as I pay by direct debit, but I would have to go into Ourense to rectify the situation. An hours drive and an hours queue later I had rectified the situation ....I owed 9 euros and had to pay 20 euros for reconnection!! This was, of course, Friday and it was now afternoon so it was unlikely that anyone would get out to me to reconnect. I was faced with a weekend with no electricity, this meant no coffee, no fridge, no hot water. It was the thought of a whole weekend without coffee that really distressed me.
When I got home I phoned my son who had the bright idea of Camping Gaz, I had had some but unfortunately no more, so I made a trip to the local town to the 'ferreteria' where I acquired a kind of small 'fondu set' that ran on lighter gas, at last I could make a drink. Now my only problems were cold water and the incredible quiet!
Saturday 19th September
There wasn't much I could
do in the house so I went to sort out what they called the 'bodega', not sure why as it had no wine, just a lot of wood and a lot of cobwebs, the cobwebs were of the size usually only seen in Indiana Jones movies! I needed to make some of the spiders homeless and then move the wood as this was to be my garage. I worked hard all morning carting away lots of rubbish, finally by 2 pm I had had enough so I had a cold shower!!! and some lunch. The only sound in the house was one of constant running water as the cistern in the toilet was broken so I decided if I couldn't listen to any music I would have to play some. One of my aims in retirement is to learn the clarinet as I still have the clarinet my son played at school! It took me ages to make any noise but eventually I learnt three notes and I could play them more or less consistently though my lips objected to the vibration. This also had the davantage of whiling away a few hours!Sunday, 20th September 2009
I decided to phone a friend, she's a great chatter, after an hour on the phone I realised this had not been one of my best ideas as my battery was now nearly flat and I had no means of recharging it!!
Monday, 21st September 2009
I awoke with great excitement, today I would have electricity!! After breakfast I drove to Vigo to find out from the bank why they had not paid my direct debit one month, they denied any responsibility, apparently there had been a change in electricity providers and lots of people had had problems. On the way home I bought some food as I was sure I would be able to cook the next day, but when i got home there was still no light. I was really lucky that the weather was beautifully warm and sunny and my 'galeria' faces south.
Tuesday, 22nd September 2009
Still no electricity! This is starting to get me down.
Wednesday 23rd September 2009
I start by going to the Town Hall. I an worried because my paperwork for the house says I have bought number 41 but the electricity bills say 36, I have been worrying about this at night so I have decided to ask for some kind of letter from the Town Hall stating that the numbers have been changed, which is what I had been informed by the vendors. The girl in the Town Hall denied any knowledge of number changes! This reduced me to tears of frustration, when I explained what had been happening Estelle very kindly phoned the electricity people who said they would be out. She also recharged my mobile for me! By the end of the day I still had no electricity!
Thursday, 24th September 2009
I went back to the Town Hall and Estelle phoned Fenosa (the electricity people) again. When I got home one of my neighbours arived with a bag full of fresh fruit and vegetables from her garden. At least I have plenty of salad to eat!
Finally a young man comes from Fenosa, he says he has been before and cannot understand why I still have no light, a little searching brings to light the fact that my fuse box is totally out of date and not working properly, he mends my fuses and gets my electricity back on! Hurrah! He also arranges to increase my power as I had the lowest power possible so if I had two electric gadgets on at the same time the fuses would blow.
Here endeth my first week, light at last!
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