What a difference a day makes!

24 hours ago, we should have been enjoying ourselves and looking forward to the new year. Instead we were all freezing cold and feeling pretty miserable as we had endured a day without electricity or water, and in freezing conditions too!

I'd woken in the night, because the air con unit was beeping. I looked at my phone to see what time it was: 2:30am to be precise. And then naturally I woke Ed to tell him!!! At that point, we didn't know what was wrong. It was only when we woke properly at 8am ish that we realised that a lot of snow had fallen, and the switch had probably tripped due to the coldness and moisture in the air. Ed got dressed, and went off in his home made salopettes (black bin bags) down the drive to the fuse box. That was on, and ok, so there was obviously a bigger problem. Now if you are home and you have no electricity, you ring up the supplier, tell them, and they fix it as quickly as possible. Of course we are in someone else's house with no idea who the electricity supplier is, and even if we could call them (we couldn't as my mobile phone had died) we don't speak Italian to convey our problem. So, we opened the iPad to send an email. And of course, there was no WIFI connection as that requires electricity, so Ed set off again (this time in real salopettes) to see our neighbours and friends Sue and Klaus. They were in the same predicament as us, and were keeping warm by their lovely woodburner and feeding it with an endless supply of logs! We found it difficult to do that as we only had a few days of wood left as it was our intention to leave here on Saturday!

With Jasper and Maya desperate to get outside and build a snowman, and yes, we did have THAT song several times over, they dressed in as many layers as possible and set off on a mission. Maya lasted about 10 minutes as she got snow in her Wellies. Jasper was keen to get the snow shifted, so he stayed out for a lot longer.

It was lots of fun, but cold. And therein lies a problem, when you don't have a way to get yourself warm and dry, or get clothes dry. After lunch, they went out again, and then as the sun set behind a large hill, the temperature really dropped and they came in and got changed and sat in their sleeping bags. It was rather dark in the trullo as there are no windows, and cold too, so we sat by the fire with the daily ration of logs, warmed up and sang campfire songs.

Our New Years Eve dinner was supposed to be homemade pizzas, but that went out of the window as the oven is electric. Instead Ed whipped up some pasta and sauce on the gas hob whilst we kept as warm as possible.
Tonight we STILL haven't had our pizzas as I'd started cooking before the electricity came back on. But as it came on at 5:30pm, just as supper was ready, it meant that tonight we have had done some celebrating! We've had the remaining crackers and some party poppers, and we have enjoyed a glass of champagne, rather than have it as a token gesture. So apologies but my "dry January" is starting as of tomorrow! I think we have a legitimate excuse for having New Years Eve a day later than most!

What a difference a day makes, but more to the point, what a difference electricity makes!!!

Clare