Major storm last night, starting around eight. Power dipped - crashing my PC. It came on a minute later, went off a few minutes later, came on a minute after ... I had decided to leave the PC off, seeing as power seemed unreliable. I woke up sometime during the night, and power dipped again - so, clearly, this continued through the night.
This morning it rained heavily around six. Really heavy rain; and I could see signs of heavy winds during the night. When I turned on the internet, I saw a message sent by our Councilor around one in the morning: Six towers have collapsed, the live power lines fell onto the N4 Highway, totally blocking the highway. That's near where my mum lived; east of Pretoria. Due to the continuing storm, there's nothing they could really do at the time, so they'll reconvene this morning to come up with a plan. 8 Substations are affected, all turned off!
Again, we're lucky - our power is on!
I spoke too soon! Half past eight the power went off! Which is a problem, because I need to bake bread! And given the number of outages, and the severity of them ... I suppose we will have a long wait. Sigh ...
An uneasy truce on my bed. They both want to be near me - but Mini still doesn't like Sybil.
I did give Sybil her meds, she took them like a champion! Made no attempt to spit it out.
I took the ferals their breakfast, but with the continued rain, I just went and took a bowl inside the Wendy, with Spitfire Vimes doing his standard hissing at me.
I was pleasantly surprised when the power came on only 2 hours later! Apparently branches had fallen across power lines down the road - impressively fast repair work!
In the meantime, I cleaned the litter boxes. Under Lady Sybil's supervision. This is becoming my current bane - I really can't let that slide. With the load shedding in the evenings, and it getting dark soon after I get home, it's more difficult to clean the litter boxes - can't see what I'm doing.
Now I've put the bread on the go. I must keep record of how much liquid I add, when I see the machine isn't coping, because the dough is too dry. The recipe doesn't add water - so I read the directions, and there they add 2/3 cup of the water used to boil the potatoes. No milk, though.
Message from our new mayor updating residents on the situation in Pretoria East. Clear evidence that the cause of the collapse is that people have been stealing sections of the towers to sell for scrap metal! Apparently there are sections where the metal has been 'replaced' ...
I'm really glad that we have a young mayor. The amount of energy required to get this municipality on track ... he won't be able to get visible results, so the best he can do is keep us informed on what is happening.
I've packed vegetable stew in three bags - I'm getting quite a collection of ready meals. Or 'freezer meals' as they're called. The trick is to cook more meals than I eat in a week. I've now got a selection of stews, with and without meat, plus vegetables, plus potatoes - so I can take out a mix of my preference. Or, as I plan on doing this week, make rice to go with a vegetable stew plus some meat.
Crap! I completely forgot about load shedding, from four to six this afternoon! So I decided to put on the rice ... not enough time to wash the pot, so I'm cooking the rice in the vegetable stew. While that was cooking, I washed the dishes. Again. I had also helped myself to a bowl of it with roast beef - yummy!
Rice was not quite finished, when the power went off again ... just for a few seconds. Pressure cooker carried on as soon as it came back. PC on the other hand, crashed. Sigh ...
When I was done, I thought it would be a good idea to freeze another half dozen eggs. Yesterday everything went so smoothly - I got cocky! With the silicone tray, today ... yup! The inevitable! Poured two of the eggs into the freezer ... sigh ... washed everything I could ... lost two eggs ... managed to balance the other four all the way into the freezer.
I fear that the potato bread may not be completely baked ... I'll see when I get to the center. Next time, I'll know to use a different setting, one that bakes for longer.
Well, it's ten to four ... better turn everything off ...
Aaand it only starts at five! I had just turned everything off, when the announcement came through!
I sent our updated schedule through ... tomorrow evening, we'll be enjoying Stage 5 again! My tenant asked 'Stage 5?' Yup! I mentioned the interview where Eskom warns of Stage 10 in winter ... we'll probably get a power schedule instead of a load shedding schedule then. Power will be on less than it is off now. Then I said how I'm cooking freezer meals now, so that I'll have quick meals ready in winter ... and you know what? That's not a bad idea! If I can turn everything raw into cooked meals ... the meat that takes time to cook, like the lamb ribs, chuck roast, stewing steak ... all the stuff you can't just toss in a pan, fry, eat.
I mentioned earlier that the trick is to cook more meals than I eat in a week. Well, I'm not cooking seven meals in one go ... and I don't eat every evening. Some evenings I just have some cheese.
Just one small issue: my freezer space is now used to the maximum! Ha Ha Ha! I'm not doing things in the best way possible, yet - still learning. Like the potatoes, and the butternut. I should have mashed more of the potatoes, so they don't take up so much space in the freezer. I'm doing better each time, as I realise opportunities for improvement, and apply them.
Oh, lovely! Mewthos seems to have stopped growling and hissing at Lady Sybil! He's still not keen on her presence, but at least he now just walks away. No more.
Well, might as well publish ... load shedding again from midnight till two tonight ... sigh ...
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