KEEPING a watchful eye on the weather so we can talk knowledgeably about it whenever the occasion arises is a very British thing to do.

Out here it’s also very necessary. I’ve mentioned previously about the very wet winter we have had. We’re now moving into springtime and it seems to be continuing.

Via our Freesat we still get UK national and Yorkshire regional weather and I can see it’s been flippin’ cold for you guys. I don’t think my mum has had a ‘proper shop’ at Morrisons for yonks because of the snow in Marsden.

Well, it seems that the excess cold you’re having should be back a lot higher up on the globe, but because it’s not we’re getting yours, if you see what I mean. I think it’s high time we all got our own weather back.

On top of the sodden ground – and sometimes because of it – we get trouble with our electricity supply. That is, we stop getting any! In Portugal supplies are predominantly run above ground which means the poles and pylons in exposed areas are prone to leaning and toppling. This also includes phone lines and the internet.

So out here very Wet Ground + Very High Winds = where are the candles.

This is the Alentejo version of being very PC – the Power Cut. Often they are so short it’s the blink of an eye, usually when you’re on the computer and haven’t saved your wor ... there it goes again!

Then again there’s the extended ones like the Saturday Italy played Scotland in the Six Nations Rugby Union game. Crucially, at about 3.10pm, no power. OK, there was plenty of daylight left and the candle hunt was relatively easy but the power didn’t come back until just before 9pm that evening, thankfully in good time for my Match of the day, phew!

When we first moved out here cuts were much more frequent, so things have improved. This last one must have been a doozy because all was in darkness outside. Even the bright lights of Ourique were extinguished on our horizon. More often cuts have affected a much smaller, regionalised area. Often that’s more galling. Nothing worse than looking over and down the valley to see the odd casa (house) light glimmering in the distance, the odd road lamp lit and yours isn’t. It can make one really paranoid!

Out and about in the days after the storms you can see the repair crews doing their bit. To give them their due they don’t hang about. I suppose no electricity supply = smaller bills = less EDP revenue, if I was at all cynical. Usually when the electric is back on the phone and web quickly follows because the phone hardwire out here fails with the domestic electricity, as opposed to the UK where it is independently powered.

One contributing factor to poles being toppled is that the storks build huge nests atop the most comfortable ones and as they and the nests are protected, the winds have a nice big top-sail to push against.

Bet you don’t have that problem with sparrows, do you?

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