the powers that be

If any of you are using electricity for cooking and have been wondering about switching to gas, I can heartily recommend it. (Unless, of course, you live in a country that actually works....)

Last year, after a series of serious power failures (Capetown was without power for 3 days because someone dropped a screw into one of the Nuclear Reactors at Koeberg, I kid you not!!!!) we decided to make a backup plan. So, when we renovated the cottage, I put our old hob and oven in there, and replaced it with a more efficient electric oven (still prefer that) and gas hob.

At the time we got a 14kg gas cylinder. Well it has lasted over a year! I finally had to refill it yesterday. OK, before we get too excited, we have to bear in mind our appalling eating habits, let's just say if we ever went off Take Aways, KFC would see a noticeable drop in revenue :)

But, given the scary state of affairs here, it is good to have it. Some person in the top echelons of our National Power Supplier, ESCOM, neglected to realise that a) things wear out eventually and b) demand for power keeps growing. OOOOPS.

When Capetown ground to a halt (very expensive too, businesses lost millions), I happened to be there for a design seminar. Try and imagine what it was like trying to get through rush hour traffic in a major city with not a single traffic light working!!!! And huge high rise buildings which rely on airconditioner for ventilation running on generators, some without backup were just plunged into darkness, computers crashed, it was like something out of Hollywood!

Anyway, naturally there was outrage and QUESTIONS WERE ASKED. Like:

• how come there was no backup when the nuclear reactor got screwed (hee hee). It seems the other one was shut down for maintenance, parts were needed and it could not get up and running for a while!
  
• Or what contingency plans were in place for future growth, answer...none!

So the head honcho, whose annual salary would support a small country, had to do some ducking and diving and lots of bulldusting, but the facts emerged.... apparently ESCOM already produces less power than the existing infrastructure needs, and we have been warned of ongoing blackouts around the country, the new catch phrase is "load shedding". Almost every night we get these POWER ALERT screens popping up on TV, red says we are about to have a major shutdown unless people immediately save power, switch of all appliances, lights etc. Then a bit later there is usually an orange one to say thanks, it is stabilizing.

To make up for their blunder, escom are now fast-tracking the building of nuclear pebble-bed reactors around the country.... don't even get me STARTED on that one!!!

So once again, South Africa lives up to its weird 1st world/3rd world dichotomy, never a dull moment I tell ya!

In the meantime YIPPEE for our gas hob, best investment we've made in a while!

NOW AND THEN

Some of the changes are good, like no longer having to be taken off a ship through the surf on someones shoulders or in a basket!