It's been a week

Interesting times since the last update. Storm Éowyn kicked the ass of the whole country, some places still haven't recovered. The storm happened on the 24th of January, early in the morning. I think the red weather warnings for Monaghan were from 6 in the morning until around 11am. I bought ratchet straps to help secure the washing line, which thankfully worked. However, our electricity went off at 3.30am on the 24th. We found out later that a branch had fallen on the electric lines which took out us and our two neighbours. Thankfully there wasn't too much other damage. A few trees fell down at the back of the garden and our barbecue went walkabout but thankfully should be repairable.

We stayed in Mum and Dads house for the weekend, hoping that the electricity would come back on at some stage. The lack of internet or phone access really hampered the flow of information. Ciaran gave us a lend of his generator on Sunday evening so we were at least able to stay in our own house. We were putting about €25 to €30 worth of petrol into the generator a day though so it wasn't cheap.

Paula was back to school on Tuesday and Patrick was back on Wednesday. Monaghan Institute were back open on the Monday so I only missed the 24th like everyone else. Our electricity eventually came back on Saturday 1st February, although I was in Glaslough with Patrick when it happened and Paula was away in Nottingham for that weekend. There are still people with no electricity quite near us so we are hoping that they get switched back on soon and that we have no setbacks in the meantime.

Paddy