Winter + Loadshedding = Kak
You’ve heard me say before that loadshedding is just a fact of life here in South Africa. You know you’ll have it, you know you can’t really escape it, so you just learn to deal with it.
That being said… loadshedding in winter is a whole new level of hell.
I’ve mentioned before that houses here don’t have central heat or air conditioning and they don’t typically have double glazed windows. In our house, during the other three seasons, that’s really not a big deal. With the way the house faces and where it sits on the street, the sun usually warms up the upper level and the lower level tends to stay a bit cooler because of the shade.
When I arrived here last August, winter was pretty much over. South Africa was rolling into spring, the vineyards were coming to life, and the days were warm with cool, but not cold, nights. This is my first full winter here and let me tell you, I did not expect this.
I mean, I knew it’d be cold. Kim would often tell me how cold it was over our video chats, but the whole “no central heat” thing never really sunk in. Last winter we bought a couple of small space heaters off Takealot and they are fantastic. They take the chill out of the air and keep the bedroom warm at night.
Having those in the house should make the winter days tolerable.
Eskom, though, had other plans.
This winter we’ve been playing “Loadshedding stage bingo”. One day it’s stage 2, then stage 4, then stage 3, and even stage 6… and sometimes that’s all within a single day. This has made keeping the house warm a herculean task… especially on cloudy and rainy days. It’s hard to keep the house warm when your power is out from 2-3 hours at a time during the day.
Sidenote: I have become a bit better at scheduling around loadshedding… things like turning the geyser on so there’s hot water for showering and planning meals based on the blackout times and how long things take to cook.
Even having a fire in the fireplace is struggling to warm the house… and burning through R120 - R150 ($7-10) worth of wood a day isn’t really a solution.
Both of us have been broken by the combination of loadshedding and cold winter days. It’s only the middle of July and I cannot express how much I want it to be spring.
At least this Saturday is supposed to be a nice day. But if you know, you know, and that means another round of cold and wet weather is coming right after.
Hierdie koue weer kan my byt.
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