Since we wrote here yesterday, we’ve had three load shedding sessions of 7½ hours without power, an eight-hour session with no WiFi, and a five-hour session with some animal sounding as if they were trying to dig their way into our bedroom last night. Could it have been the porcupine Tom saw on two late-night occasions?
Neither of us cared to venture outside in the dark to see what it could have been. Even Tom, with his poor hearing, could hear the rambunctious scratching sounds coming from the bedroom’s exterior wall. I guess we’ll never know what it was unless we stumble upon it while we’re outside on the veranda in the dark.
Lately, mosquitoes have been so hungry for my flesh that we can’t stay outdoors after about 8:00 pm 2000 hours. They seem to get worse when it gets dark, even more so than at dusk. Once winter comes, we’ll be excited to stay outdoors much later.
Last night, when we returned from another fun dinner at Jabula Lodge & Restaurant in the dark, we found Ms. Bossy Kudu waiting for us at the edge of the driveway, along with her youngster and another female. No more than moments after we entered the house, the three of them were in the back garden waiting to see if we had some pellets. We did. We freely offered them a few good-sized portions, which they devoured with enthusiasm.
I should mention how grateful I am that Dawn and Leon, owners of Jabula, who have special ordered my low-alcohol wine, Four Cousins Skinny Red, and also have special ordered hamburger meat without the usual fillers that restaurants often include in their burgers in South Africa, such as sweet sauces and flour. Dawn ordered the plain mince (ground beef) and personally cooked the two unless burgers for me last night, topped with “real” cheese instead of processed cheese used on most burgers.
On the side, I had three perfectly prepared fried-in-butter (not oil) eggs, cooked to my liking turned over medium. It was a perfect meal. Rather than leave them with a partially used bottle of red wine which would spoil before we return in a week, we always purchase the entire bottle, bringing the remainder home with us. We so appreciate their friendship and their caring service with their thoughtful attention to detail.
Before too long, we headed to our bedroom, turned on the air-con, and settled in for a few episodes of BritBox TV series, Shetland, which friends Linda and Ken (now back in Johannesburg) recommended. Oddly, season two of this series is missing. If any of you know where we can find Shetland’s season two, please let us know. We searched online with no results.
Right now, we’re doing a free 7-day trial of Britbox through Amazon Prime, but we won’t be able to get through all the seasons (even without season two) when we only watch two episodes a night. We set up my laptop atop the wooden kitchen cutting board to keep it from getting too hot on the bed. We’re willing to pay for Britbox for the next month to complete the series.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll pack and head to Louise and Danie‘s house where we’ll stay over, for one night, while they fumigate the house until the regular service provider returns from his two-week holiday when he’ll come out and take care of a second treatment. We’d have to move out again for another 24 hours at that time too. Instead, we’re hoping he can come after we leave for Kenya in 25 days, on April 8, 2021.
Load-shedding is expected to start again soon. As all of you know, lately, many WiFi issues have impacted our ability to upload posts in a timely fashion. Most times, the WiFi stays active without the power running, which we’re hoping will happen again so we can continue this post, add some photos, and upload it in a reasonable time frame.
Well, it’s after 11:00 am, and the power didn’t go off as expected. We can anticipate it will go off at some arbitrary time later today and tonight. It’s nice to know in advance, allowing us to plan accordingly, but that’s not always possible. With Eskom, the unreliable South Africa power company, such inconsistencies are typical.
That’s it for today, folks. We intend to post tomorrow after we move out of the house for 24 hours. So, please look for us then. We hope you have a pleasant Sunday, wherever you may be.
Photo from one year ago today, March 14, 2020:
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| This kind man, Mr. Ganapthay of Cholan Art Village, made the experience of visiting his nine-generation family’s bronzing business all the more special to both of us. For more, please click here. |