This was a while ago , but I thought I would add it so we didn’t forget such an interesting day.
When we got up on Saturday morning, we were very relieved that the power was still on. I was up earliest, and I noticed that the Wi-Fi router looked like it had rebooted, which was a bit strange. The power flickered a few times but stayed on—so far, so good.
People slowly got up and Ben and Emma were still planning on going to the market. They texted a friend of Emma’s who was already there to see what it was like in Abergavenny. There was much discussion as to whether they should go or not as it was pretty windy outside, but didn’t look too bad.
We all had a luxurious breakfast of smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagels. Ben and Emma heard nothing after texting their friends so they set off.
The remaining four of us chilled out and played Articulate … Sue and Harriet wiped the floor with Sam and me.
At about 10:30 the power went out… strangely the light at the top of the stairs stayed on which was a bit confusing (It turned out that they have Solar and a battery, so I guess it was the battery that kept it on…. but not for long).
Ben and Emma returned as the market had been cancelled 30 minutes before it was due to start, slightly annoying for all.
So we played more Articulate and then Code words which is a real brain strain😀 but a lot of fun…the newbies Emma, Sue and I won😀.
Taking the van was a real bonus as we had the Jackery battery and a big strong camping light. Emma also had one so we could light the rooms, and continue playing our games. The house kept warm quite well so we weren’t cold, and also we had a wood fired stove in the lounge with a plentiful supply of wood. The landlord appeared just to check on us, which was good, and told us that the electricity board was aware that the village had no power.
We had a cold lunch of brie, olives, sourdough bread and cold meats. (The food haul from M and S in Chepstow!) In the afternoon we went for a short walk up the hill and the light was stormy but beautiful. There was a park and typically, Ben and Sam reverted to their childhood and started playing on the swing, as did Emma. You can see the results in the video here.
We walked back down to the cottage and got the fire going and chilled out , listening to some crazy real-life horror stories from Ben and Emma that would make great films. We had met a couple of people on our walk and they thought the power might be back on at about 10, but as it went off quite late compared to other places in Wales, we will probably be at the back of the queue.
We met some other local people who told us that there was power at one end of the main village of Tintern, so we decided to go to the pub for dinner in search of hot food!! Three of us got in the van and three in Harriet and Sam’s car. I was leading and got it completely wrong with directions and we ended up doing a 5 mile loop through crazy forests where the road was littered with twigs and branches from the storm. Luckily, we got to Tintern unscathed and had a pretty decent dinner in The Anchor pub next to Tintern Abbey which was fine but a bit lacking atmosphere. It was very quiet and they kindly gave us some tea lights to help light the house when we got back.
We returned home and sadly the power had not come back on. So we relit the fire and chilled out before retiring to a very dark upstairs. We took bets on when the power would be reinstated!! By this time we were all starting to crave a cup of tea but at least we knew that we had the option of the gas rings in the van for the morning cuppa!