I read the news today, oh boy!

[Music Head]

and here I am building up the courage to leave my house once a week

[Ruby]

How does anyone get anything done without electricity? Do these blackouts apply to the business world as well? Thieves and criminals must be having a field day. Oh well it's the same old African story. Get into power and empty the state coffers into your own pockets. Then sit back 10 years later and wonder why nothing you have bought with the stolen money works anymore. Another breadbasket nation turning into a basket case.

We don’t get much done at all – most frustrating. The city bowl is exempt and there are one or two other areas that are kept online, such as hospitals – the rest of us must make do somehow. Not good for small businesses – the bigger ones tend to have backup generators but even then, conditions are far from optimal. Also, if you have the capacity to go off the grid with solar, the system must be registered with the city and you are required to pay them for the privilege!

Just have to be well equipped with candles and LED’s, fill up flasks, charge phones and make sure the car isn’t stuck behind the auto garage door! Alarms will work on battery for a while but won’t last forever and the disruption is also damaging some appliances, not to mention what’s stored in them – fridges and freezers particularly. This morning there was a communication from the city saying that we may need to prepare for water constraints as well because the pumps for the reticulation can’t operate without power for any significant period. Great.  

Someone developed an app which they named EskomSePush, lol! Tells you what the schedule is for your area. They are scrambling now to load stages 5 through 8 which were never expected to be implemented! We’ve been downgraded back to stage 4 today – 5 hours now, instead of 9.

I really can’t see an easy way out of this mess – it will carry on happening – the plants are old, maintenance hasn’t been carried out as it should have been – absolutely no foresight, no contingency plans, aaand we are supplying other countries. Why are we not harnessing the wind?? This lot couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag. It’s tragic.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/...%20sources

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/...ape%20Town

[Jerome]

@ Ruby - geez sounds like a nightmare.
@ MH - classic! Had a good laugh about that one.
@ CH - as it so happens I have been on an active volcano. Mount Cameroun was right next to the hotel we were staying in when I as contracting for the oil companies. One evening the hotel started shaking. We thought it was an earthquake. Turns out Mt Cameroun was erupting - albeit a small eruption. We went up the side of the volcano to have a look at the lava. It was moving really slowly down the side of the mountain - the eruption was not from the top but from the side of the mountain about three quarters of the way up. The thing I remember the most is the next morning we caught the rubber duck out to the rig which was moored about a mile away from the harbor. The whole sea surface as far as you could see was white from the ash fallout. It was one of the most surreal things I have ever witnessed. This was about 1998/1999 if I remember correctly. A memorable experience indeed. Also the most spectacular electric storms I have ever witnessed. A light show better than any rock concert ever staged. I used to sit on the balcony of the hotel room and just watch the show for hours on end. Spellbinding!

---

Maybe Vangelis got it right when he wrote about 'Soil Festivities' - https://uk.yahoo.com/news/plants-emit-ul...42671.html

[CRAZY-HORSE]

damn, dude (Jerome)
everything i'd love to do, you've already done...

which begs the question....Angelina Jolie?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

back to the devastating bushfires we currently have in New South Wales:

87 major fires are still burning with a total perimeter of over 11,000Km's

heres the article if anyone is interested: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia...spartandhp

[Jerome]

damn, dude (Jerome)
everything i'd love to do, you've already done...

which begs the question....Angelina Jolie?

Not quite everything. And some of them weren't planned - just a question of being in a particular place at a particular time.

AJ does not appeal to me at all - she's a strange fish. Now as to who I really like - that would be telling. And she's not famous either...

BUT some that I do like are

Kristen Scott Thomas
Margot Robbie
Paulina Porizkova
Juliet Binochet
Emmylou Harris
and an unknown waitress in Babin Kuk, Croatia - she was mesmerizing. I still have sleepless nights...

[Jerome]

MH - can you please send your address to jerome@auralscapes.com - for some reason I have lost it. Can't remember where the hell I saved it to. Getting old!

[Music Head]

MH - can you please send your address to jerome@auralscapes.com - for some reason I have lost it. Can't remember where the hell I saved it to. Getting old!

no no no
please don't make me go to my e-mail
haven't been there in years
then I would feel compelled to clean that mess up
I sent it to you via PM before
here it is again

Ed Husbands
28 Buck Trail Dr.
Lancaster, KY 40444

that's in the USA

anyone who wants to come visit
just give me a days notice
fun for all

[Jerome]

Thx my man. Your Xmas goodies are on their way. Enjoy.

[Jerome]

MH & CH your packages will be with you shortly - before Xmas anyway according to tracking data. CH - yours has landed in Perth. MH - yours is on the road from Connecticut - should be with you later today (20th). Ruby & I are going to have to wait awhile before getting out goodies. It is what it is.