Valentine's Day has never loomed large on my horizon, mainly because in my life I have received precisely two cards.... one from my best friend... and one that I sent myself!! To myself!
 |
| I love the cherub's face! |
To me, it's just another day with the same challenges that we faced yesterday (load shedding) and that we shall face today (load shedding) and tomorrow (guess what??)
And as I write this I am keeping one eye on the clock as we are in Stage 3 of Stage 4, and that means more off than on!!
Let me explain the stages:
Stage 1. Eskom (affectionately known as Eishkom) has to shed 1000 megawatts, so they 'share' the power that they have, and that means 1 load shed of 2 hours daily.
Stage 2. Upping the shedding, they have to shed 2000 megawatts... so 2 'outages' of 2 hours daily.
Stage 3. Yes, that means 3 x 2 hours 'outages' daily!!
Stage 4. You guessed it, 4 'shares' of 2 hours daily.
Stage 5. Now, this is the fun part.... Eishkom come to your house and blow out your candles!!!!
This is much funnier to read than to think about!!
We are teetering on the brink of a complete shutdown..... great fun. Eskom is bankrupt! And basically it all comes down to complete incompetence and lack of skilled people at the top... they are all in Australia, Canada and wherever!! And of course the fact that millions of people do not pay , so every month the losses add up. Throw in corruption and it doesn't take a genius to see that this situation has one ending.....
We are lucky here, we can easily cope with the 'rolling blackouts' as our traffic is light, we only have 3 traffic lights in our nearest town and people here are very patient and well-behaved. Our main shopping centres have generator power. But the bigger cities are a nightmare with traffic snarls and taxis pushing and shoving and small business' struggling to keep going.
Anyway. To all of you who are celebrating Valentine's Day, I do hope that you have your special scented candles at the ready.
Not to make the meal romantic... simply so you can actually see what you are eating!
Happy Valentine's Day!
