Saturday 9 January 2010

Stuck in Harbour

We are stuck in harbour. The snow has almost cut off the village with just a few cars, mainly four-wheel-drives and the odd tractor, venturing out. This morning we had three days supply of food and just three months supply of wine. Dangerously low on both as you’ll appreciate.

With the supplies of salt running low we decided not to use it in cooking. We like to do our bit to help out the government in these difficult times.

We suspect the road through the village will drop off the council’s ‘must salt’ list following the announcement by the hilariously named Lord Adonis that councils must reduce salt usage by 25%. When that happens the village will be cut off as nothing, not even Waitrose delivery van, will get through. We’ve had no post for several days now, the dustmen have vanished, no buses are running, couriers no longer visit but somehow the newsagent, who is more than a mile away, manages to get a daily paper to us each morning.

So around half past twelve this afternoon we dug the car out of the drifts in the drive and set off for Charlbury…and the Co-op. Roads not too bad, bit of ice where the newly built bridge crosses the road and the scene of several icy accidents recently. All, apparently, involving teachers from Chipping Norton School. How weird is that? Anyway we managed to get to the Co-op but sadly their delivery lorry had not. Shelves were a bit empty, no fruit or veg at all, and the meat counter was starting to look like the shelves of an East German shop before the re-unification. Anyway we topped up with bread, some fish, oven chips (now how long is it since we had them?), milk, cans of soup and some pasta. We are now able to survive for a further ten days.

Pass the Ionian pilot – we’ll keep warm by planning the summer cruises.

The Crew

The Crew
On board at Lymington