Don't get me wrong, I do get irritated when I want to watch Orange is the New Black, and it is really damaging the economy with businesses not being able to operate, and of course the traffic due to traffic lights not working. There are other things that are happening that are so small and will never get reported in media, won't boost the economy, but sometimes a whole lot of small things can create something amazing.
Typically I call my kids in on school night at 6pm with grumbles of 5 more minutes and one last kick, then we bath eat and start settling down. I am tired and an episode of Master Chef jnr is very appealing, so when Dad comes home and the boys whoop with excitement that they can play Xbox with Dad and it is his problem to sort out if they are to play Lego Batman or Racing Cars. I get full power over the remote (well SVLN is still off limits for a few hours but that's ok).
This week we have been moving level 1 to 3 load shedding. Thursday we had no electricity from 2pm to 6pm, this excited my 3 year old, this meant that we could braai for supper. Having a braai and helping is a highlight in his life. At 4pm he and I got the braai out, he put in all the charcoal, we lit it together and sat watching it for a while. The complex kids were all swimming in our pool, so I threw him in the pool to wash off the black, picked up my kindle and sat with a cup of coffee reading Game of Thrones listening to the delighted sounds of Marco Polo. chicken kebab and salads for dinner left my Banting box ticked, and a content 3 year old (which is worth its weight in gold).
Friday night we are scheduled for 6pm to 11pm load shedding. I was not happy, I had a DSTV catch up full of unwatched series and a hard drive of How I Met Your Mother Season 9 and no electricity. Boys and I had had an early dinner a Spur and Dad lunch with clients so dinner was not a problem. I left the boys playing outside way longer than usual because no point sitting in a dark house when you can play in the sunshine. My 6 year old comes in and goes to his room and gets all his card games. For the next 2 hours the four of us sat on the floor and played UNO, Memory game, trumps, and snap. Some healthy rule debates in the light of our solar jars has a warm feeling to it. Bath and bedtime books by candlelight also has a certain appeal.
Saturday was the water. We had been notified for a few weeks that we would have no water for 25hrs due to routine maintenance that needed to be done. Filled up some jugs for the kettle and put a bucket out for the toilets. Now this is sounding like we live in a cave, fetching water from the river, and hunting for our dinner. What it sounds like to 2 little boys is "NO BATH TONIGHT" whoop whoop! A swim is just as effective and loads more fun.
Listening to all the conversations around, everyone was complaining that they have had enough of Eskom and they are going to spend the money and go completely solar and not give another cent towards electricity, and others were saying that if they ran the country they would do this that and the next thing. I was thinking that this is the best thing that has happened in a long time. environmentalists have been trying to get us to go solar and off the grid for years, all they had to do to save our environment is switch off the electricity for a few hours every day. If everyone put all their ideas out there, a country wide think tank would probably come up with an innovative solution. In my house, if no lights and no water means our family sitting down laughing over a card game, I say switch off the wifi, turn off the lights, I am not ready to collect my own water out the river just yet, but yes, load shedding could be just be the thing that saves us.
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