Its a warm and clammy summer's evening at the end of the weekend which has been dominated, like everywhere in South Africa, by extensive power outages. I had to wait for the end of loadshedding before even thinking about starting this blog; I am grateful that our supply was timeously restored as opposed to our 4 hour outages which inevitably end up being 6 hours long and no sooner is power restored and we manage to charge up the battery pack for the home wifi, charge laptops and cellphones and its another outage.
It is depressing, frustrating, annoying (especially because we all know people who seldom, if ever, experience loadshedding) and as much as we don'twant to harp on about the subject it does dominate our lives as you have to check the daily schedule and plan your life around loadshedding; its the logical way to conduct life in South Africa. What is so infuriating as well is that there is no solution, no forward thinking plan of action, no practical and realistic solutions offered by any opposition party at government level; and during the last week it was decided that in the next year the electricity tariffs will increase by 37.5 percent. For a way below sub-par electricity supply. What other countries, besides war-torn countries, have their armies protecting the country's power stations? It is so wrong on so many levels and its not surprising that there are service delivery protests in Phoenix, KwaZulu Natal as the residents have not had electricity for 40 hours - this is going to become widespread unless something practical and progressive is done. The memes circulating help us to laugh instead of crying but the hypocrisy of both Zuma and Ramaphosa declining that the days of loadshedding is over and a 'thing of the past" is an absolute joke (speeches made before 2021).
On a brighter note (pun intended) it was our Tristan's 29th birthday on Tuesday, 10 January. Although we had celebrated his birthday on Sunday with him and given him his presents I still wanted to see him which I was luckily able to do during his lunch hour for a quick coffee before he had to go back to work for birthday cake with his colleagues. It made my day and lifted my spirits; and he had a great dinner that evening with friends to celebrate his last birthday in his twenties.
It was also Saziso's birthday on Tuesday; we gave her a lovely pair of sneakers (which she chose) for her birthday present and yesterday my Mom bought her a birthday cake to have a belated birthday celebration when she saw one of her sons and her granddaughter. She seemed to have a very special and happy birthday too.
I was at the office twice this last week which for me is no mean feat - as the boss returned from leave on Monday I thought it would be prudent to be at the office; and was again in on Thursday. It has been a long, intense and stressful week with long hours. The juggling octopus on the speeding hamster wheel routine has resumed.
Apart from trying to work towards fulfilling some of my personal goals, work and my daily routine of reflection, reading "A Quiet Peace", writing my gratitude list, doing the New York Times' Wordle and Duolingo, nothing hysterical or historical to report on.
Today I have been plagued with fatigue the entire day so have spent large portions of the day napping as I am just so exhausted. I did manage to water the garden in the cooler part of the late afternoon and Elmo had a ball, jumping at the spray from the hosepipe, trying to bite at the water spouting from the mouth of the hosepipe and getting thoroughly soaked in the entire process. I also manage to work on a few more of my photographic diary accounts of our Roaming in Rome adventures of 2019/2020 while listening to this incredible new podcast "Something Was Wrong" - even Johan was hooked and we binge listened to it for the part of the day when I was not napping. Season 1 is about "When Sara got engaged, she thought that she was marrying the Christian man of her dreams. Until a week before their wedding when she discovers — something is wrong." Its fascinating and I had so many deja vu moments back to my second marriage when I was subjected to emotional abuse, gaslighting, coercive behaviour and this all after we had uttered the "I do's" - before that as my Mom said to me many years ago, we were all conned by his charm, the perception of financial stability, mental stability whereas he was actually mentally unstable. The red flags only appeared after the wedding, frighteningly so rapidly after that day. No wonder I was so fascinated by these kind of experiences related in film, screen, podcasts and the like.
When I discovered the "Something Was Wrong" podcast on Saturday I thought about sharing it with Zen; but she beat me to it sending me the link a few hours later before I could send it to her. Clear indication that we are on the same wavelength and have similar interests; I am looking forward to seeing her and catching up with her very soon.
The last 10 days or so have seen the deaths of some celebrities - Pele, Lisa Marie Presley (she was barely dead and no post-mortem or autopsy yet conducted but because she was dead at the age of 54 due to cardiac arrest, the conspiracy theorists were drumming up a new false narrative that she had died because she was vaccinated - conveniently forgetting that Lisa Marie had battled addiction for many years with who knows what health consequences and it was public knowledge that she had been devastated by her son's suicide in July 2020, she literally was suffering from a broken heart - which is a medically recognised condition) and the legendary British guitarist Jeff Beck.
What have I been listening to and watching:
Podcasts:
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Queen of the Con
Scamfluencers
The Daily
The Damage Report
The Emerald Triangle
Something Was Wrong
Netflix:
The Crown - finished watching Season 5
Downloads and my usual bubblegum tv (Real Housewives of Miami, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Southern Hospitality)
Belfast Midwives
Black Snow
Call the Midwives
Chicago Med, FBI, Law and Order etc
Father Brown
Lingo
Will Trent
I am continue to read "Cilka's Journey" by Heather Morris
That's all for now dear Readers!
