Powerless....but not for long!

We have a joke here in South Africa that goes something like this:

A woman goes to answer the door and finds a hooded figure holding a scythe, on the doorstep. "Yes?" she asks. "I am the Prince of Darkness" answers the cloaked figure and the woman turns and calls to her husband, "Darling, the man from Eskom is here!"

(Eskom is our power provider! And we have Koeberg, the nuclear  power station, just down the road near Cape Town.)

Koeberg Power Station (thanks to the website)

Now when I wrote this, we had the Prince of Darkness on our doorstep too! Luckily I had just made the tea when the power went off, and the washing came to rest in the machine. We are fortunate in our little corner of the land, we don't have as many 'outages' (a cutesy name for a complete failure!) as in other parts of the country, and also our Municipal Electricity Department seems to be more efficient too.

Isn't it funny, within minutes of the power going, we had two neighbours popping in just to check that it was not just them! One had washing on the go, and the other one was vacuuming! Fifteen minutes later we were all standing happily chatting outside and not at all bothered about the lack of power. I did give a fleeting thought to Wimbledon later but I was sure that it would be back by then.......fingers crossed!

On Sunday morning the power went as well and Rob phoned to find out why and what! No problem, they knew and had already dispatched the engineers, and everything was under control. Sure enough, two trucks pulled up round the corner and while a couple of chaps fiddled in the electricity box, another one played with the dog next door and kept her amused by throwing stones for her to retrieve. She was quite forlorn when they fixed the problem and left!

Knowing how precious power is, we have done as much as possible to cut down on our usage. We have installed solar panels for hot water, we use low power light bulbs, I use cold water in the washing machine, we always switch off lights when we leave a room, we unplug chargers, we have a stove with a gas hob in the kitchen and best of all we have a wood burning stove in the lounge for winter warmth. We only burn alien invasive wood and we can cook soups and stews on the top and have a whistling kettle that we boil for washing up! And for a bonus, it makes the best toast ever!

Fire, kettle, toast and soup!

In the evenings we usually have a cat or two to drape round us, or over our laps. 

It does get a bit crowded though!

And we have a permanently warm bed-warmer in the shape of a little off-white dog who tucks in behind Rob's knees and keeps him warm all night!

Alfie, getting ready for bed!

Me? I have to use a hot-water bottle!