A Typical Day

So How do we spend our days?

We normally rise at 5 or before - it is light by then. If we have been sensible we will have boiled a kettle of water the night before and stored the water in a Thermos flask - in preparation for the power cut which is inevitable. I sit and watch the sun rise - do some photography of plants in the garden - make a cup of tea or coffee and if possible watch the news - Sky, BBC, CNN.

Power can go off at any time - I try to work on the computer until we get load shedding - if I need to work urgently then I use the inverter - but not for too long as we need to keep the batteries charged in case of an emergency. Some days we get a few hours without power - normally we get long cuts - up to 17 hours in length.

So now no power - no water - and this can mean no telephone as well!

We get water from the pool to fill the toilet cisterns. We turn off all the electrical appliances - freezers etc as when the power does come back it often surges.

Our time and activities are ruled by the power supply.

We read, swim and talk - have a few drinks around lunch time and wait. I have tidy cupboards for the first time in ages - it passes the time to tidy up. I load the dishwasher and washing machine.

I have started to study the Tarot again. I play card games - anything to pass the time until we have power and can work again.

We go to the bank to try and get out some of our money - quite often the bank has no money to give out . We visit friends or they visit us!

The power comes on - it is lunch time but the priorities must come first - turn on appliances, make bread, turn on the computer and try to work - the Internet goes up and down making this very difficult.

4:30 and I stop work - Stinky - the Jack Russell - needs her ball throwing. After that we sit down outside in the garden and savour a drink before the light goes. As soon as dusk is upon us the dogs are brought into the house (our next door neighbours Labrador was poisoned last week) - we lock up and turn on the alarm system (there have been a number of armed robberies recently). Our evenings are spent reading, listening to music or watching a few selected programs on TV or a DVD or video. All this as long as we have power.

We have got used to eating a small meal at about 10:30 in the morning and a main meal at night - I have a gas stove and solar lighting so this is not too much of a problem. however, I am getting a master at one pot meals - saves gas and washing up!

And so an average day goes by.