Last night in the South of Johannesburg and the North, most suburbs were plunged into darkness after transformers went down.
I think most of us were kind of prepared for Load Shedding about to begin but this is something serious and life without electricity is not fun.
Last night I arrived home from work and all I wanted to do was put the chicken in the oven, pour a glass of wine and sit and watch my soapie! Minutes later there was a definite noise as all power shut down and off went the oven, the TV and everything else electrical.
I wasn’t impressed and I’m sure neither were the other thousands of citizens affected, many on their way home from work and stuck in queues of traffic at non-working traffic lights.
Anyway we decided to go to Mimmos at Comaro View in Bassonia, but everyone else in the area had the same idea, so it was packed. I have to say though the staff were brilliant, and even though we had to wait a while for our pizzas, we could at least enjoy a glass of wine.
We are so used to electricity and it’s second nature to press a switch and expect light. I lost count of how many times I switched on the lights as I walked around the house.
There was nothing for it but to go to bed. We do have those little book lights, which are fabulous for emergency reading but it’s just not the same as the lamp light.
The power did eventually come back on just before midnight and the house was ablaze with light. Get up and switch everything off then back to bed.
This morning (Tuesday November 4), I was up bright (yes, we had power) and early and went for a run. Got home at 05:30, put on the washing machine and radio and went for a shower. When I came out of the bathroom, there was silence. No whir of the washing machine or chatter on the radio, only to discover we had no power again!
I was in a state. How was I going to dry my hair? I couldn’t have a cup of coffee and the washing was trapped inside the machine.
As I stormed around the house muttering under my breath, my husband stayed safely under the duvet, afraid to get up and face my wrath!
My journey to work which usually takes 15 minutes took 45 minutes! The traffic lights which weren’t working caused a back-up of traffic and everyone looked frazzled as they drove.
First world country…… definitely not but I still love you South Africa. Nowhere else in the world gets so much sunshine!
