Dessert For All

Load shedding has been inconvenient recently, and it is slowly getting to me. For example, today I had planned to bake something to enjoy over the week yet load shedding hit and messed that plan up. So here I am just having to make do with store bought dessert, sure it is nice but not as good as something that you've made yourself. Some fear that this will be the regular until sometime in April as they say they can't keep up with the demand. As for me, I've just had enough of our country not being able to give us a basic necessity 24/7.

The Load Shedding Strikes Back

This weekend Eskom is back at it again implementing load shedding around the country, what is the story this time? Well whatever it is it hits us at 20:00 to 00:30 the next day so tonight is an early night. Tomorrow can be spent sleeping in and relaxing for the week to come.

Hands in the Air

 

I should have realized that we were in the middle of rolling blackouts when I saw all the shop assistants with their hands in the air holding bank card machines as high as possible to try capitalize on the weak signal. It was only when I reached the long queues at the tills that I realized that the ANC has once again messed up our economy. 

It is the ANC's birthday celebrations this weekend so I expect no load shedding as the corrupt party would make sure nothing jeopardizes their festivities, they got to look good as for the rest of the people... oh well.

Please turn off the Lights

No this is not Earth Hour but the reality of what we live with here in South Africa.

In the past when load shedding has happened, our home was affected between the hours of 2pm to 6pm which was fine as I was normally at work during that period but today when the ANC’s Stage 3 load shedding hit, it was 6pm in the evening and lasted way after we went to bed. I mean we don’t have the budget to install a battery solution to counter these rolling blackouts so it is down to oil lamps and the gas cooker.

Yesterday I had to answer two questions for work and below are the questions with my adapted answers.

Question One: What gets me out of bed in the morning to come to work?

Answer One: I would like to say money is the raw primary reason but my main incentive is found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 which instructs “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’” The absolute cherry on the top is that I enjoy my work which makes it easy to get out of bed. I am excited about the possibilities at work, about learning more, about getting it right, and becoming better at my career. I care very much and believe in what I am doing. Should the day comes when I don’t tick all these boxes, I would start looking for a new career stream.

Question Two: What are the elements that are stopping me to get out of bed besides the cold?

Answer Two: Hard one as I am a morning person and cold is a major factor in me sleeping in. Traffic issues might also be a factor but this is negated in my case as I travel against the traffic except yesterday where I had to take 2 cats to the vet and had to drive into the evil heart of rush hour traffic. This didn’t help one iota in getting out of bed yesterday. I love and need my 8 hours of sleep and if disturbed while sleeping, I battle to wake up and get moving the following morning.

I feel that this load shedding is putting a damper on my spirits and if it continues like this, it might make me reconsider moving on to a better place which I could call home. I wonder what the opportunities are like in the States, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand for a Search Engine Specialist. And if I do decide to leave, Africa will always be in my heart and I suppose I should ask the last person to leave South Africa to please turn off the lights but at this rate it won’t be necessary due to load shedding.

Freedom Day Reflections

Where were you on this day 21 years ago? Can you remember? Most South Africans can as this is Freedom Day where there were long queues of people waiting to cast their first democratic votes. I remember exactly where I was, in Durban.

Reflecting back on the 21 years, what has changed? Oh there goes the power yet again. For 21 years Eskom has been struggling with aging power stations and have nothing to show for the 21 years. They even had to take out two moth balled power stations dating back to the 1960s just to try keep up with their bad planning and little maintenance. Oh well the money had to go to pay the corporate bonuses.

On this Freedom Day, I come across the coal fired Pretoria West Power station sitting idle doing nothing, it was a perfect photograph for my Freedom Day. Reflecting on the 21 years we have come since the first democratic elections, I am excited and yet why am I so sad at the same time? We have done many things right along this journey but at the same time things have fallen apart due to corruption and greed of a few. The poor grow poorer and the rich richer in this new South Africa of ours.

Okay I am getting off the topic of today, doing some research, I found that there are talks to get this over 50 year old power station back up and running again especially for the peak periods when load shedding has become a norm. So as it may look tranquil now, this old lady may come to our rescue and rescue we need indeed.