Category: economic issues

What are the chances…?

Posted on

What are the chances of there being loadshedding over the next year or so?

Well, in this breakdown (no pun intended), Eskom (our state electricity provider) (occasionally, at least) details how much electricity we’re likely to need and how much they’re likely to be able to supply for the next 52 weeks

Green is good, i.e. Supply > Demand = no loadshedding expected.
Red is bad, i.e. Demand > Supply = there will be loadshedding.

Aaand…

Ah. Oh.

ACTUALLY QUITE RED.

To be honest, the red “worse case” blocks “only” stretch as far as Stage 2 (ish). That is, about 2000MW short. And without normalising or excusing the awful situation, I think that – right now – most South Africans would take that as being something of a win.

Especially as we’re sitting at Stage 4 this evening.

But of course there is no redder red than the red on this table. So actually the red means AT LEAST Stage 2, and could mean anything up to Stage 37 (or whatever). I think we need a purple and a burgundy and maybe even (terrifyingly) a black, so that we can really see what’s going on.

On the plus side, Week 13 next year looks brighter – quite literally – well, unless it’s not.

We should have our personal measures to mitigate this nonsense installed by the end of the month, all being well. Roll on that glorious day.

More to come

Posted on

Ugh. I does sometimes feel like this blog is just a means for me to moan. But taking a step back, and looking at the several (or more) years that I’ve been writing on here, I also feel that it’s reasonable for it to reflect my state of mind at any given time. Sometimes, that state of mind is influenced by personal stuff (no, the kitchen still isn’t finished and they’ve also managed to not connect the sink up correctly, so they’ve destroyed some cupboards as well), sometimes by life in general. Probably most often both, with some delicious interplay between the two.

But the last couple of months have been… bad.

Are things going to get any better? Well, hopefully, yes. But perhaps not just yet.

We have a few things to deal with before that:

It’s a lot.

The light at the end of the tunnel?
I want to believe it’s there, but I just can’t see it at the moment.

Lent

Posted on

I don’t think I’m going to shock anyone when I say that sometimes, non-religious people piggyback on the porcine derriere of religious rituals and festivals. Living in a country where the main religion is Christianity, I can easily document several examples: just look at Christmas (gifts), Easter (eggs) and The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (wait… what?!?).

Anyway, one more of those example would be Lent, whereby Christians observe 40 days of sacrifice to recognise the period which the Gospels record that Jesus spent fasting at the start of his ministry. Amateurs and non-believers usually use it as an opportunity to restart their failed New Year diet before comprehensively refailing it again at Easter (eggs).

This year – ok, especially this year – this meme from the popular Star Trek series seems just very apt:

The sun is shining, and the birds are singing outside. But I can only hear them because there’s no other sound because the power is off again. And one day, it probably won’t come back on.
And so, one plans an escape, but honestly, Where Are We Going?

Bed. I think that’s the answer. I’m going to bed. Wake me up in 40 days.

A breath of fresh Eire

Posted on

Exciting news in that we have booked some flights to Ireland for a break in the school holidays in June and July. Having only been to Ireland for the briefest of times before, I’m looking forward to seeing some more of it, and enjoying more than just a couple of airport terminals.

If you are expert on touristy stuff to do it Ireland – especially involving Dublin and Cork – please can you email me with your hints and tips on 6000<at>6000.co.za?

Also added into the visit will be the Isle of Man, and London and/or Barcelona, depending on how things pan out. Looking at the way that the Rand is tanking like a German-supplied armoured vehicle heading for Kyiv, I think we need to book everything over there as soon as possible.

I’ve had a quick at accommodation, and I’m already terrified – I literally thought that I’d added several (or more) extra nights, so plainly wrong were the prices, but then I checked and… it was all correct. Interestingly, accommodation in London (and I’m comparing like with like here) is about half the price: so only eye-wateringly pricey, and not ball-wringingly expensive. Is Ireland actually Norway in disguise?

Anyway, the flights are booked and so we’re on our way, even if we end up sleeping in a wheelie bin.

Happy days. Excitement. Probably some Irish beer. #6kTrip23

That’s better

Posted on

Over the festive break, I wrote about the tourists here in Cape Agulhas. How I recognised the importance of their hard-earned Rands for the local economy, but how much I disliked the crowds on roads and in the shops and restaurants and on the local cellphone networks, that were never made to deal with those numbers.

I said:

I don’t like it when it’s so busy here, but I get it: without these two weeks each year, there wouldn’t be anything here for the other 50.
But I am looking forward to some February sunshine and a beach to myself (and the beagle) again.

Well, this weekend is it. Cape Agulhas is back to its normal, sleepy self, and I’m loving it. Albeit that we had some business to attend to this morning, and then it was far too hot to head out for a walk. Tomorrow is looking full of promise, and the beagle is straining at the metaphorical leash to get out and about into the rockpools again.

There are a few fishermen out and about on the shore, making hay while the sun shines, but the angling competition starting this weekend is all about catching marlin and you need a boat, fluency in Afrikaans and the ability to sink A LOT of brandewyn and coke to enter.

It won’t involve me (I only fulfil 1½ of the conditions), and it won’t involve our beach.

And so tomorrow, early(ish) before the heat makes things difficult again, I thing that we’ll go and exorcise the ghosts of this Christmas just past with a nice little wander out to the lagoon and back.