LS 6 Thursday

I forgot to mention that mippies folded their towel into their water fountain again night before last, so yesterday morning I found the area around my armchair kind of wet. I had to mop it all up, re-fill the reservoir for them ... not impressed!

Another thing I forgot about, regarding the draining of batteries, is: once drained, they should ideally charge without interruption until full! And with the Magneto, that's 24 hours! I've just checked the schedule, I can run the Magneto light down by Monday morning, then take it to work and charge it here until Tuesday.

I'm currently running down my smartphone - got videos playing, with sound on the earphones, plus turned on the torch. It's just about eight, and I'm at 38%. It was 46% at quarter past seven.

With load shedding until eight again last night, I didn't bake a fresh loaf of bread. I'll need to do that tonight - the dough is now 4 days old. And I'll only need 2 or 3 slices for tomorrow. I'll have to eat the rest over the weekend.

I am, however, looking forward to either a hot bath or shower tonight! Again, no chance of either these past two evenings. It's pretty cold now, winter seems to finally be on the way - so a lukewarm bath is out of the question, and since I don't sweat ... I hope I'm getting away with it. I'm miserable, uncomfortable and cold, though.

There's currently a huge outcry over a court ruling that hospitals, schools and police stations should be exempt from load shedding ... it's a bit of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, hospitals and frail care facilities should absolutely be exempt from load shedding. Lives ARE lost! On the other hand, though ... the more exemptions, the higher the chance of total grid failure!

In my opinion, they should remove the exemption from Ministers! At present, that's the only official admission - that Ministers are exempt from load shedding, but there are hordes of more ANC members who are currently exempt from load shedding! Now they granted a week's exemption from load shedding to Port Alfred, because some ANC bigwigs are holding a conference there! The whole friggin' town! Okay, Port Alfred is relatively small ...

As was said in yesterday's 'Daily Friend' podcast: It shows utter contempt for us, ordinary citizens! Tax payers. Voters. We're treated with utter contempt.

Anyway. It's Thursday, which means grocery shopping. Fun fact: I don't need anything! I found a recipe for cooking lamb ribs in a pressure cooker, so that's what I'll make this weekend. I have all the ingredients at home. I have enough cat food for the ferals still in the freezer. 

Half past ten, phone battery down to 11%. Quarter to eleven, down to 8% - crying to be charged, ha ha! Five to eleven, 6%. And now a colleague has borrowed my plug! Quarter to twelve, battery at 2%. It just occurred to me that these smartphones might not cope with a total drain, so I'll start charging as soon as my colleague gives me back my plug. He usually leaves at noon, so I can wait 15 minutes ... okay, ten to twelve and power is 1%.

Right. Charging now ....

I've had no response to my two mails, so I sent a follow-up. To Sir Fruit I wrote, in all caps 'may I please be granted the courtesy of a response?', to my financial adviser, just 'Hello?'. He just called and answered my questions - still waiting for the tax certificate, should get that soon, though.

Just did my budget. Which looks surprisingly good. I'll be able to take Lady Sybil for her steri this month. Vimes will have to wait another month, I'm afraid. Also, I think I'll need a trap for him. He greets me with the Spitfire Hisses every single time! Hopefully, I won't have to buy electricity again, this month.

Oh, crap! I knew I had forgotten something: fruit juice! Sigh ... still ... having skipped grocery shopping this week, helps. Speaking of fruit juice, Sir Fruit just called. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good signal, so I asked her to write, instead.

Got mail! Sincere apologies, and a promise to deliver the missing items tomorrow, as well as a pack of Smoothies by way of apology. I wrote back, that I'd be placing an order on Monday, hold off delivery and include all in one. Let's see what happens. I did explain that Friday delivery is a problem, as we close early.

She wrote back just 'yes, it will be included in your next delivery'. Her written English seems not too good ... ah, well, it's the service that matters, not the language ability.

Anyway. I suppose I'm going to have to mow the lawn tomorrow afternoon ... not looking forward to that. Especially since the ex tenant has avoided mowing several of the rough areas ... which was precisely what I had hoped his moving in would reduce. Instead, everything is in worse condition than it was when I last mowed myself. Sigh ... I've decided to mow as I please. The back lawn is a 10, 15 Minute job. No problem. Out front, I'll do what I feel like and leave the rest ...

Especially with our time now completely dictated by Eksdom (which is Afrikaans for I'm dumb, as in stupid).

I'm worried, though. We've been at Stage 6 for a whole week ... no indication of any drop in stages, which will most likely lead to higher stages being implemented. Only, at present, we have only 2 more Stages. Nothing above Stage 8. Yet. It's also worrying, that all insurance companies have now explicitly excluded damages caused by total grid collapse - and the rioting & looting expected to follow such an event - from all cover. So, whatever household or business insurance you have, has become practically meaningless. I wonder whether break-ins during load shedding are still covered?

Well, it's ten to five ... better publish now, as I can never be sure that I'll have internet at home ... if I even bother to turn on the PC tonight. Load shedding again from midnight till four, and then from eight to twelve tomorrow. On Saturday, from two to six in the afternoon / evening, then again ten to midnight. See what I mean about having my time dictated? Sigh ...