Who knows what 2024 has in store for us. We thought the world changed after 9/11, but I would say it changed more so in 2020 and onwards. What these last few years have taught me is to be as prepared for any eventuality as you can – living in a country like South Africa teaches you that, but on the other hand, all that is guaranteed to us is right now, and we need to make the most of now.
Never mind this being my first post of the year, it’s my first post since the beginning of November. I was certainly not very consistent in posting & writing here last year. Each new year I keep telling myself I will blog more, but sadly, fail. Which is my fault alone. I get distracted easily, especially when I pick up my iPad & waste time in my spare time. I will spend ages on the Amazon kindle book site, looking for an interesting read, when I have so many books that I haven’t read, and I could be reading instead of looking for more books to read. I can spend ages looking on Netflix for something to watch, instead of making up my mind quickly and getting on with watching something. Or spending a bit too much looking at my Facebook feed. Thankfully I am not interested at all in Tik Tok, and I don’t spend much time on Instagram or X.
I need to stop wasting time. Life is too short to waste time. Maybe I have been trying to block out the current craziness of this world by losing myself in time wasting & somewhat mind numbing activities. Regardless, it’s time wasting and it’s time to stop it and use my spare time wisely and constructively.
Life in South Africa can be challenging these days. I remember years ago, before power cuts in South Africa were a common occurrence and I moaned about a power cut we had, a cousin of mine in Zimbabwe basically told me to be great full because at the time in Zimbabwe then, they were having serious water & power outages. Well, South Africa is now catching up to Zimbabwe. Some would say we have almost caught up. Eskom, our sole electricity provider, managed to keep the power on over Christmas and New Year, except for unplanned power outages. It was good to have two weeks of constant electricity over the Christmas period. Now we are back to planned outages/load shedding. The previous two nights the electricity kept going out, & then back on, for several hours after midnight. Which does our appliances no good. It’s easy enough to turn the geyser off, as it’s summer here, and the water in the geyser stays warm for a couple of days, so that’s not a hardship. Fridges and freezers are another story. As soon as the power goes off I go to the kitchen and turn the fridge/freezer switch off, so if there is a surge when the power comes back on, it doesn’t damage the fridge. It’s difficult after midnight, when you are sleeping and you don’t know if the power is going on & off. I also try not to have too much frozen stuff, in case there is a prolonged power cut. We have have a small petrol generator, but it’s still not something that we can constantly keep running during a prolonged power cut, only for a few hours at a time, and certainly not at night, because we live in a built up suburb, and have to be considerate of our neighbours. I know a noisy generator running all night would drive me crazy!
Never mind water supply. At the beginning of last year I bought a 950 Litre water tank, to catch the rainwater from our roof gutters. It fills up quickly during a good rain storm, and thankfully we have had good rains this year, so the tank is full. On Monday and Tuesday our street had no water because of a burst water pipe. Our city has an ageing water infrastructure, like many cities and towns around the country, but no budget to maintain the infrastructure, so instead of maintenance, it repairs only when necessary. Only when water pipes burst, they replace them. So, the water tank came in useful, as I knew it would. I can buy drinking water if I have to, but how do I flush the toilet when I really need to, if there is no water? If one has a water tank, it certainly makes life easier when there is no water. I also have numerous 2, 5 and 10 Litre containers of tap water, so at leas we can also wash and maintain our own hygiene, if there is no water. Living in a country with a failing infrastructure, one has to make a plan and to provide for oneself, wherever possible. I do understand that not everyone can buy a water tank or a generator, or even a few solar panels, to keep devices charged, and I am great full for what I can afford to do. With only two of us, we don’t need a larger water tank, or full solar power, & we cook on gas, so we do well enough with what we have when there are power cuts or if there is no water. Yes, there are countries that are worse off, but it helps to make sure you have back ups if you can afford to.
So that all said, I’ll end off by reiterating what I said at the beginning of this post – “What these last few years have taught me is to be as prepared for any eventuality as you can – living in a country like South Africa teaches you that, but on the other hand, all that is guaranteed to us is right now, and we need to make the most of now.”
Rants and Raves of an old hen. 