Try making conversation to a stranger, who was on a different planet to the norm, at 4 am, while the van was being stretched to its beyond maximum speed! No sleep- did not dare to- many coffee and diesel stops- a bad sandwich and a sore brain from creating conversation on subjects that I didn’t know anything about. 24 hours later, we arrived in my village. All stores and restaurants closed, so had to visit neighbours to beg for food and beer.

My house was now filled with boxes and furniture. In order to be able to live vaguely comfortably in the house, I had about 6 weeks of renovation work. Day 4- all went very wrong. Being the end of January, the weather can be very unpredictable. Well, I awoke to a light falling of snow. This was the first fall for 15 years. I continued to renovate. Snow started falling more heavily. Lights flickered, cut, came back on, and then cut. As my house relies totally on electricity for cooking, heat and hot water, this was mildly alarming. Inside temperature was nudging zero degrees C.

The next day, more snow fell, and still no electricity. The river Cesse was rising at an alarming rate and could threaten to flood the village. I continued to work, wearing 4 layers of damp clothes. My hands no longer belonged to my body and my feet were suffering from rising damp. I ate some cold food and dreamt of a hot cup of tea. By 5 pm, the whole village was covered by 12 inches of still falling snow, electricity was still a distant memory, and the river was about 8 inches from causing flood damage. The fire department was evacuating old people who may be threatened by flood, the Mayor was in attendance, and doorways were being blocked against rising water.