Saturday I woke up with another urge to clean, I find it baffling as normally the thought is 'I guess I should do some housework', never before have I woke up wanting to do it! I had a few tea breaks though. I phoned my Dad at 10 o'clock with a cup of tea in hand ready to join him on his tea break. He's retired but still has a cuppa at 10am everyday, a little fact that delights me and makes me smile.

Later I FaceTimed my sister-in-law and we chatted for an hour. She's now on week five of lockdown. She had laryngitis a few weeks before social distancing started, and as Coronavirus started to emerge she was advised to stay at home as she's in the high risk category. Her voice is still croaky but she remains cheerful.

Then my aunt phoned me and we chatted for nearly two hours. It's the most sociable I've been all year!

The next day I woke up to snow flurries and high winds. And a power cut. If I gotten up just five minutes earlier I'd have had the chance for at least one cuppa before the power went out, but I'd decided to stay in bed for just a little bit longer.

The wood burner was lit and the camping kettle was retrieved from the back of the kitchen cupboard. I'd never had to boil a kettle on the wood burner before, I was interested to see how long it would take.

I sat dozing on the sofa and waited for it to boil (has anyone else found themselves feeling lethargic during all of this? Some days I have no energy at all - maybe it's all that cleaning?). I tried to read but couldn't keep my eyes open.

I gave up waiting for the kettle to boil after two hours and decided to just make the damn tea! The two glasses of water I'd had over the course of the morning just weren't cutting it. The water was just about hot enough, and, my goodness, I enjoyed that cuppa!

The UK Power Networks website said the power would be back on by 11:30am. At 11am the power was back, I clicked on the kettle, plugged in my mobile phone and sent Andy a text to say the power was back on.

And then it went off again.

I sent another text to Andy and settled back on the sofa with my book. 11:30 came and went and the UK Power Networks website updated to say power would be returned to us between 3:30 - 4:30pm.

My plan for the day had been to do some work work and do the ironing, both of which required electricity. If the sun had been out I'd have happily pottered in the garden but at times the hail was almost horizontal.

My phone battery was very low and slowly counted down to switching itself off. I sat wondering what to do. I had some Ryvita and soft cheese for lunch, and realised that if the power didn't come back soon things would start to defrost! I decided not to worry, knowing that it would be short lived - hopefully.

Without power and without any form of communication I had a glimpse of the true meaning of isolation, and I felt even more grateful for all the methods of communication we have available to us - so long as we have power.

The power clicked back on at 4pm.

Did you have a good weekend?
xx