Black Out

Have I mentioned the power issues in South Africa??? Evidently, the greater Cape Town area (I am not sure exactly how widespread an issue this is in South Africa, but I am willing to bet it is huge) - outgrew its power grid in 2006. Mind you, they were warned that this would happen in 1998. But it seems someone thought they knew better. Uh huh.

As I sit here, in downtown Cape Town, I am typing in total and complete darkness - my only source of light is the screen of my laptop. I can hear the rather loud hum of generators outside my slider (remember the picture from last night? well, picture all that with no city lights).

Since we got here in February, we have become rather used to the scheduled, rolling blackouts at the office (usually on Thursdays), but they last for a minute or 2 and power is restored. Generally, the power will cut out 3-4 times and then you are safe for another week.

This is my second black out in my apartment in Cape Town. The first one was not so fun and I will simply tell you that the security guards at my building are quite nice and they seem to know me now as I was locked out of my apartment with no way to get in without power (security doors and elevators do not work without power - hmmmm - someone should have thought of that!). That power outage lasted at least 4 hours and came back on sometime in the night.

Since I can barely see the keyboard, I guess I will have to stop working for this evening. Darn.


PS - I think I am going to invest in a rather large flashlight tomorrow. Do you think that is a reimbursable business expense? Sue?????