I woke up this morning with a sense of dread. Did I have clean clothes and was there enough water in the geyser for a bath? Things pre-water-shedding I never used to even think about.

Our taps spurted out a few drops of water before drying up, and a nearby bucket was used to fill the remainder of the bath.

As I splashed in the bath’s 2-inch deep water, made so by my overweight body expanding the depth, I realised I hate water-shedding with a passion.

Those who have gone through two or three days of no water, but an hour a day of pitiful pressure-less relief, will know the joys of trying to flush a toilet with a bucket, only to have a family member decide they now really need to go again…

Oh, what a pity we cannot get our children to schedule their bowel movements!

Once more into the breach we go, bucket in hand and ignoring the smell.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I understand water pressure, gravity feed, and our whole Klip River and Spioenkop dilemma, but seriously: enough is enough!

And then, as I make a run into town to purchase a few much-needed groceries, I see them. Those sparkling, shiny cars, all clean and taunting me with their silent chant: “I’ve got water and you have nothing.”

The cars mock me silently, saying “Go back, poor man, to your home, to flushing toilets with a bucket and being too scared to empty the bath in case that is the last water you will see this week!”

So, yes, sue me but I hate clean cars!

Looking at the long-term weather forecast, water-shedding will be with us until at least month-end.

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