Keeping us In the dark

Having flirted with disaster by mentioning that I felt cheated because there was no load shedding last night, when I was all prepared for it - light attached to battery, kettle boiled, candles in strategic places, matches in an accessible place - I woke up this morning at 6 to find that the lights had gone out. As a special treat, our end of Kommetjie, near the lighthouse, was allocated a 6-hour blackout for reasons unknown.

The weather was foggy - passing ships were sounding their foghorns, an eerie rasping boom drifting in across the sea - but there was no wind and an occasional patch of sunshine broke through on our walk along the boardwalk. By the time we got home, cloud had moved in, but the lack of electricity meant that there was nothing to do except work in the garden, and so I spent a pleasant few hours pulling weeds. Of course, no watering could be done as the pump couldn't operate. It was 10am before we realised that the rest of Kommetjie was unaffected and I hotfooted it up the road for provisions and a cappuccino.

The lights came back on at 12.30, when I could start the first load of washing, and HWCFA could get the power tools going! Refurbishing of the planks on the house carried on apace, while I got back to the computer to finish some deadline work.

When we first moved to Kommetjie 32 years ago, power failures and surges were common down our road. The infrastructure was poor at the time and has just got worse. We have always had a good supply of paraffin lamps in the cupboard! Last night I was told that, rather than keep on fixing the wires on the poles, which are always causing fires in trees and other exciting events, they have started laying underground wires. I hope these are not going to cause a proliferation of cable thieves in the area, because if so, I can think of a fine use for a cable myself!