Barnsley

Woke up at 7am, after 4 hours sleep. Still no power.

Made my bed, and then fed Peggy and the cats. Xena turned up none the worse for wear. Then I took Pegasus for a walk to the other side of Barnsley to survey the damage. Considering what things could have been like here, things were not that bad.

The awning above the beautician's had collapsed (she picked a good weekend to go on holiday). There was a fridge on its side on the wrong side of the road, opposite where it could have come from. The landscaper's fence and gates had been caved in. There were two cars abandoned diagonally in the main street, and debris went up to about a metre above the footpath on the bridge.

Over the bridge, the power line was down in two places, surrounded by "traffic hazard / fire hazard" signs and quite a few trees were down. One person told me that they had a metre of water in their living room!

Spent most of the morning reading, as there was no TV or radio (other than the little earplug one I had for dog walking), or power on in general. Kevin woke up late morning, and I pointed out that we had to go shopping as there was only half a gas bottle left, no matches, no firewood, and no D cells for the lights. OK, if the power came on later in the day that wouldn't be a problem, but the best indication we had was that there'd be no power back on until maybe Thursday!

Despite not being keen to, we went to Stocklands in Jesmond. I knew after phoning Jenn that she had the power on there, and had heard that the shopping centre there had power, so it was the logical place to go.

Glendale

we caught the bus out just after noon. There was a bit of damage along the way (like the roof missing from a sports club house) and when we got to Glendale we heard that (only) Woollies and K-Mart were open (as they had their own generators). Taking a chance, we got off and checked out K-Mart for gas bottles and D cells. There weren't either there, and in the half light there were heaps of folk mulling around staring at where the D cells weren't.

However we did pick up a number of LED lights that either ran off two AA cells, or were wind-up dynamo types (Kevin's looked like it was a prop from Star Trek). Very effective at night While Kevin waited for the next bus, I went to a usable toilet and then into Woollies. It was rather eerie watching people shop in the gloom. No gas bottles or D cells there either.

Jesmond

Caught the bus to Jesmond. Wallsend looked very wet, and half of Nelson street was a disaster area with shop fronts blown out and debris lying in the middle of the road. There were reports of looting at the Plaza but I don't know how accurate that was.

Got to Jesmond, finally. Kevin went to the lay-by in Big-W and picked up the dozen D cells that he'd booked over the phone. There were no others left in any shop there. there were no gas bottles either, or so we thought. We went upstairs and checked the "Asian Supermarket" but they'd sold out. I went to Go-Lo and found eight butane bottles and bought the lot. We also bought two packs of a dozen " smokeless logs" for fuel for my wood/coal stove in the lounge.

Going back down stairs we bought take-away Chinese meals and waited at the bus stop for a bus that'd take us back to Glendale where we could catch the last bus home. Kevin bought some bags of ice while we waited and had to rush off because he'd left his mobile to charge at a phone shop.

The bus never came.

Or rather, it came way too late, so that we'd never make that connection at Glendale. Once we realised this, we went back inside the shopping centre and sat down  out of the wind and rain on nice expensive leather couches, and ate the take-aways.

I went into the Woollies there for some things and it seemed rather odd - not like there was a disaster on at all. And yet there clearly was because there was a run on quite a lot of groceries and supplies. The bread shop was posting times up to 80 minutes away for fresh bread. I was glad I'd bought two loafs on Friday night (and the pet food too), even though they'd sat in the trolley six hours before getting them home.

After that, with 10 minutes to spare before they closed, we went back into Big-W and I bought a 10 litre pot for soups. The pot could be used on the gas stove just in case the power didn't come back on. Then, well it was waiting for a taxi and paying $30 or more to get home.

Only we didn't have to. I bumped into a couple of friends and they gave us a lift home in their 4-wheel drive - hurray!

Home

It was a relief to get home. I was glad that we'd had dinner at Jesmond. We packed the bottom of the fridge with the ice bags and Kevin lit up the wood/coal stove in the lounge with the fuel we'd bought that day. He started making pea soup to a Dutch recipe.

Sometime in the night - utterly exhausted - I fell asleep on the sofa, surrounded by dogs. I woke up at 4am to Xena's meows to be let out side. She'd been in since 7pm that night so I let her out, found my specs, and went to bed again.

Yes, I know when I posted on Friday, I said I wasn't going out, but I did. I needed to get pet food before running out, so I went to Glendale on the bus. I'm glad I did (as I now have pet food for the animals, which would have to have been got anyway) but I got stuck.

Glendale

I noticed as the bus left that there was a giant puddle outside the Joinery, and that the creek was only 30 cm (a foot) below the bridge (it's at least 5 metres deep) but by then it was a bit late. Got to the centre and did my shopping. I missed the 2nd last bus at 6:36pm  but felt safe to get the last bus at 7:27pm.

It never came.

A government bus rolled in at 8:10pm and was stalled there. The creeks and roads were flooding due to excessive rain. Cardiff, Edgeworth and Wallsend were flooded, and traffic couldn't get through. Then a woman and her son turned up. She was panicking saying how high the waters were, and how I couldn't get a taxi. She sounded in hysterics - apparently the bridge near the golf course had flooded, and MacDonald's nearby was underwater - but parts of the carpark there were flooded. Aldi's and elsewhere were flooded out. I gave the son 50c and he called his father.

I used my mobile and phoned home - got mycosys after half a dozen tries. It was almost 8:30pm and rather than try and phone for taxis that couldn't come (and after talking to the security guard who wasn't hysterical) I decided to go to the cinema which was still open. I got a hot meal of Wedges & sour cream, a drink, and went to watch Shrek the 3rd. OK, it's not as good as the first two, but it's not that bad either - and I got to take off my wet jacket and hat, have a hot meal, and relax for a while.

I came out at 10:30pm and conditions were unchanged. I wasn't the only one still there (and the mother and son were gone), but everyone else had cars. The flooding had receded so it was now worth trying to get a taxi. I got the Woollies staff to phone for one (Woollies and Coles were still open) waited for it. Only, I'd had wind all day and the runs off and on, and the five minutes I went to the toilet the taxi came. Woollies phoned again and finally I got a taxi.

I had a full trolley full of supplies, and was starting to get tired and cranky. We drove off over the golf course bridge, past the MacDonald's (where there was a huge giant puddle)  and all the way to the bridge at Barnsley, only to find that it was closed due to flooding (the creek was now 30 cm above it). I got the taxi to detour an extra 10 km via Holmesville and got home.

Home

Didn't get home until just before midnight. Kevin had some hot chi and food ready for me. I tried to post something on LJ but there were too many power surges and the PC would reset. Gave up on that and went out looking for Xena. Didn't find her, though all the other animals were inside.

Finally, the power went off entirely at 3am.

I didn't get home until 8:30pm last night. What I found when I got here was that the power was out. It was a wet and windy night, so it was sort of expected that we'd have one of the 2-4 blackouts you get here in Barnsley. I passed a couple of emergency vehicles on the way home.

It was amusing to try and do everything in the semi dark, including feed all the pets. I finally found a torch and then the batteries for the lantern I bought last time there was a blackout (gives good light, and easy to carry). After that as done, I had Peggy and the cats inside with me. Luckily I'd bought a curried beef at the Chinese take-away in Westies before coming home - it was still hot and tasted so good under the circumstances.

Spent most of the night in the semi dark - after I lit three candles I turned off the lantern and just... ...sat there. It wasn't (surprisingly) unpleasant or boring to do. After a while I went to bed, but woke up about 1:40am when the power finally came on (and turned on the TV and bed light which I'd set for just that).

It's a funny thing, but instead of a disaster, everything felt more like quality quiet time with myself.