It’s crazy to think that South Africa is now experiencing its worst ever rolling blackouts! The crazy part is that we are getting used to it. We now check the schedules for a couple days and plan for the worst case scenario - which has been stage 4 Loadshedding taking place 3-4 times a day in 2 ½ hour blocks.
The days time blackouts cause major chaos in the work and study environments as many of our students are writing their year end exams - sometimes in a large room with no additional light. And our economy? Well who’s going to work out the amount of lost man hours due to lack of power?
Most of the time I manage to evade the electrical loadshedding by hiding on our deck in the sun with a book or my phone and plug out a blog. But lately it’s been happening so often that it’s become far more intrusive.
For the last two nights it’s been scheduled at dinner time - my least favourite time. If it falls between 4-6.30pm then I can make dinner slightly late and no one knows the difference.
But this weeks it’s been from 6-8.30pm. 5.30pm is far too early for dinner and after 8.30pm feels too late.
We’ve resorted to thinking of cold dinners that don’t require cooking. Tonight we had ribs on the BBQ with pre-roasted potatoes and toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches on the BBQ too. It took some planning and we ate cold potatoes but at least it was good food.
Last night we had simpler cold tuna noodle salad. I actually loved it. It’s one of my summer Go-to meals when it’s too hot for hot meals.
I had managed to keep some hot water in an urn earlier and soaked my noodles long enough for them to get soft. I added a can of shredded tuna, sliced precooked beetroot, sliced cucumber and some yummy feta cheese.
I parked myself on a wicker chair on the deck and watched the sun dip behind the trees as I ate my noodle salad.
If we can use the loadshedding hours to install some good habits then we are making a positive change to our lives. There’s no point complaining and I don’t mind taking a walk on the beach in the afternoon when there’s no power.
Hopefully soon our country will manage to pull itself out of this hole that we’re in and once again it will be a delightful land.
Here’s to lights and boiling kettles!
Those cheap little butane stoves are a good fallback. Last summer we cooked on one for about a week when our electric range died and had to be replaced.
Thanks! We’ve actually just ordered a 4 plate gas hob to be fitted next week. Seems like this loadshedding is going to continue for quite some time so we’re biting the bullet and making the change. Our previous house had gas and it was brilliant! Can’t wait to have it again. 😊
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Thank you @brumest and @qurator