You’re busy cooking dinner for the family. The food is starting to smell good but it will still be some time before it’s cooked enough to be safe to eat… Next moment you’re ordering pizza over the telephone. Or maybe you’re busy on the PC, working on some homework that’s due for the following day which you left till the last minute. It’s still early in the evening, the project’s looking good and another hour or so should produce the perfect assignment… 5 minutes later you’re between the covers of your bed hoping for the best.

What do these events have in common, you’re probably wondering? Well, the strange endings of both are a direct result of Eskom and its infamous power cuts, or the more pleasant term, ‘load shedding’. Go and read that paragraph again, aren’t those exactly the ways you would react?

This load shedding has caused quite some inconvenience in my life both at home and at school. For example, about two weeks ago my school held their annual inter-house swimming gala. Everything started off just great, but then – Bam! – load shedding kicked in. This meant no commentating, no announcing current scores and, worst of all, no surround sound music for the opening cheerleaders’ dances. I recall finding this last fact quite amusing on the day, as the strains of someone’s battery powered CD player reached my ears in the stands a split-second or two later than the steps of the dancers…

I find that in my area, load shedding only occurs once or twice in the day and usually lasts for two to three hours at a time. Here are a few tips from me which I find helpful during a dark spell:

• Prepare dinner much earlier than you have usually been doing so as to ensure that you don’t end up feasting on Debonaires every other night. Even if you don’t eat immediately and it goes cold, it’s still better than eating it raw.
• Listen out for the times your area will be experiencing load shedding. If it’s any comfort, Eskom doesn’t randomly decide that you’ve been a bad community and need to be punished. They actually work to a specific timetable. The website www.eskom.co.za/live/loadshed has information on the load shedding schedule. Otherwise if you’re driving through Joburg you can tune into Highveld stereo on your radio for the times.
• Get to work on that assignment at least two days before the due date. A big NO NO to the night before, especially if the work involves your PC.

I wish all the best to you and coping with this crisis. Perhaps one of us BAs will come up with a solution. The growing popular choice of relief, however, is a personal home generator, but that’s a whole new blog.

See you next week.