This will not end well

With the economy as it is at the moment, unemployment rife and actual inflation a whole lot more than the figures say it should be – R52 for a litre of fruit juice: WTF?!? – you can’t blame South Africans for wanting to try and save a bit here and there.

But there are things which you should try yourself, and there are things that you shouldn’t. Lest we forget that during lockdown, homemade pineapple beer became very popular. But homemade alcohol can be dangerous. Pineapple beer killed at least two people and another homebrew killed 19 more.

So, one can only imagine where this idea is going to lead:

Honestly, what could go wrong? I mean, I can’t be alone in seeing ruined engines, garage fires and yes, some people drinking the stuff “just to see how it tastes”.

Biodiesel is produced through a multi-step process called transesterification that requires the mixing, heating, cooling and filtration of the oils or fats combined with methanol and a catalyst.

Methanol is what killed those 19 people.

Common catalysts are caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) or caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).

Ah Jesus. Caustic soda is called “caustic” for a reason. Potash is what dissolved Desmond Tutu’s body.
I’m just saying.

The process is quite intricate but does not require higher-grade chemistry.

While this line is clearly meant to indicate just how straightforward the process is, I can’t help but read it and think that we’re going to have people who only got to Grade 7 in General Science having a pop at making gallons and gallons of this highly flammable liquid in their homes.

Several websites provide guides on the process,

Oh, well that’s ok then. As long as the loadshedding doesn’t take the internet out at some vital stage or other.

Despite the alleged savings which could be made, I’m putting this article – and the whole idea of homemade diesel – down as a really bad idea.

Don’t do this.

Get the balance right

Quite a few decisions are still to be made about the trip up North. And many of those decisions rest upon the quandary of balancing spending money and having fun. It seems pointless to spend a huge amount on flights and accommodation going overseas on a break and then have a crap time not doing stuff because you’re forever just watching the pennies. But then equally, it’s dangerous to overspend: something made far easier thanks to our weird government stance on Putin and Russia, and the scary amount of inflation in Europe.

And so we’ll do our best to have all our ducks lined up in advance, and then maybe adapt our decisions once we’re actually there on the ground and can see what things are really like.

One big decision is around the last Saturday of the trip, which was all organised in London, but now maybe a trip further North might be required. That would require sorting some accommodation, changing flights and making several (or more) train trips, none of which would likely be cheap, but then do you just choose to splash the cash and enjoy the experience on this one thing? I’m leaning towards a yes, but a final costing of that 24ish hour diversion might point me the other way.

Lots of calculations to do. Lots of decisions to make.
Must get the balance right.

Off again – and that font?!?

The issue with our ailing power utility – so we were told – wasn’t the years and years of rampant corruption, but rather the guy who was in charge. He was in the process of stepping down when he gave that bombshell interview about all the corruption and was politely(?) asked to leave immediately.

So, now that he has gone, everything should be ok. Right?

Wrong.

Weirdly, it seems that he wasn’t the issue. So we have no idea what the problem could actually be*, but there clearly is a problem of some sort. Because I’m sitting here for another 10 hours without power today, because of the ongoing demand and supply problem. We want 31.3MW, they can only give us 24.7MW. And if you don’t cut the power to cover that shortfall, everything falls over and it’s a very bad thing.

Those figures come from this tweet from last night:

And I actually love the way that they’ve done their best to cushion the blow by using a whimsical font. Who do we think came up with that idea?

“Not looking great on the grid figures tonight. We’re dangerously short and we need to tell people.”
“OK. Send the twee… no… wait. Do you have a kind of handwritingy font we could use?”
“What?”
“You know. Something a bit fun and disarming.”
“But we’re the official state power utility. Shouldn’t we be using the official state fonts?”
“Well, yes. But let’s show our human side. Just something a bit playful and quirky to take their minds off the awful numbers.”
“Well, I mean, I have got this one…”
“Like, actually Oh Em Gee! It’s So frikkin perfect! Look at the devil-may-care lack of connection on the loops! Observe the mildly curved downstrokes! The capricious overshoot on the Es and Ms! Do it!”
“Er… right. The numbers are still bloody horrendous, though.”
“Who cares? It’s so pretty! Quick, just click SEND before the boss comes back!”

I imagine that’s pretty much how it went, anyway.

Sadly, using my scientific brain, I was able to see through the eccentric and unprofessional choice of typeface, and I’m actually pretty worried about just how bad the situation is. But hey, it’s so easy to get bogged down in bad news. I guess that we should take solace in the fact that they haven’t used Comic Sans yet, so maybe we’re still somewhere just above rock bottom.

* although there is still that years and years of rampant corruption thing, but… surely not?!

What are the chances…?

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

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.