Not alone....

Just heard that late last evening many parts of Europe (in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy) were affected by a blackout due to a failure of a power plant in Germany.

Albania is not alone having put up with this sort of problem for many years, and until last year the shutdown lasted several hours every day for complete lack of power. The situation is better today, at least in Tirana, although finding oneself in the dark can still be a daily, albeit brief, occurrence so far into this fall/winter season. Snow has already covered the mountains above 1,000 meters, temperatures have dipped quite a bit here this week (almost near freezing point at night); thus, the shorter sunny daylight hours are relished by all as much as possible.

While yesterday the electrical stoppage was only 5 minute long, today it lasted about half hour, but, unfortunately, it’s never a good time when it happens. I was in the midst of cooking and the sun had disappeared early behind some dark clouds when everything shutdown unexpectedly. Obliged to exercise patience that I normally don’t have when in the US, I just sat down and forcibly rested for a while. The results of my culinary efforts, however, did not suffer from the interruption, and I really enjoyed my dinner that included a veal, old fashioned, roast with mashed potatoes that melted in the mouth, while sipping a bubbly Italian red wine (OltrePo’ Pavese Bonarda that I’m familiar with since way back then…)...all of which were bought upon my arrival at the large modern supermarket (Euromax) in the outskirts of Tirana!