Broken Limbs & Braai Vleis

Just my usual wrap-up of the weekend. Penny, the girlfriend of Paul’s cousin left yesterday for six months in the USA and Brazil, where she’ll be training and defending her Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion title. Anyway, on Friday evening, Paul and I went to a farewell for Penny in a law firm above Billy the Bums. We didn’t really know anyone there and Penny kept dishing out a vile sweaty-sock tasting alcohol that is the Brazilian equivalent of Cane, so we headed home around 10:30 or so.

Saturday was more eventful, after a slow start. We ran some admin tasks around Durban, including Paul getting a new CD player fitted in his car, and me having my annual blood test for my Eltroxin levels- I didn’t even have my usual panic attack / dizzy spell after having the blood drawn.

Of course, the combined efforts of the Saturday Independent newspaper and East Coast Radio had me furious with their very convincing April Fool’s joke- imagine no electricity on Tuesday Best TV night?!

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http://www.tios.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3185150

Cape drains KZN power

April 1, 2006

By Roy Barford

A government proposal to alleviate Cape Town's power problems by diverting electricity from other provinces will leave Durban, and other parts of the country, without power for up to 12 hours a week during inconvenient times.

It was decided at a cabinet meeting yesterday that because Cape Town was such a major tourist destination and was so important to the national economy, the city could not afford such lengthy periods without power.

Seven of the country's other eight provinces - with Gauteng not affected because it was also too important to the national economy - would each be required to lend its power supply to Cape Town for a set period one day a week.

Durban city manager Mike Sutcliffe confirmed the situation and said he had been in Cape Town this week to discuss the technical aspects of the process.

"At the cabinet meeting it was proposed that we need to go ahead with this process, for the good of the South African economy."
Sutcliffe said Durban would need to choose one day a week, either Tuesdays or Saturdays, when the city's power supply would be transferred to Cape Town.

The hours would be between 10am and 10pm on Tuesdays or 1pm and 10pm on Saturdays.

Concerned

"We are concerned," said Sutcliffe when asked about the problems relating to power outages in the city. "However, we are a growing economy and we all need to contribute to this, especially with the 2010 World Cup approaching."

The eThekwini council will meet on Wednesday to make a final decision on which day would best suit the city to have power outages.

Sutcliffe said if passed, the implementation of the power supply transfer would probably begin a month from today, on May 1, and would last for between three and four months.

One of the major problems associated with power outages was traffic flow, because robots would not be functioning.
Metro police spokesman Supt Alex Wright said it would be more convenient for police if Durban were to opt for Saturday afternoons and evenings to be without traffic lights.

"Traffic volumes are a lot less on Saturday afternoons than they are on Tuesdays," he said.

"We have contingency plans to cover major intersections where traffic might be a problem, but we won't be able to cover all intersections."

Sports fans will be furious to hear that they will have to miss out on prime time television should the council opt to have power outages on Saturdays.

Sharks rugby CEO Brian van Zyl said he hoped the power outages would be scheduled for Tuesdays. He said, however, that the stadium had generators on standby in the event of power cuts at night games which, including this evening's game against the Reds, would not be affected.

Cape Town stockists of generators have run out of supplies and sales around the country - excluding Gauteng - are expected to soar. None of the Durban retailers contacted by The Independent on Saturday was yet aware of the possible power cuts, but said if that were the case, they would increase their stocks.

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I then spent a good portion of the afternoon lying out in the sun with my iPod on, and reading Dan Brown’s Deception Point. I’m 100 pages in and so far it’s decent; not the bollocks that was Digital Fortress, Brown’s other non-Robert Langdon novel.

On Saturday evening though, as we were getting to ready to go to Robin’s duplex and play Settlers, we received news that Paul’s 86 year old grandmother had fallen while attending a wedding in Pietermaritizburg, and had either dislocated or broken her leg. Megan, Paul’s sister, was at the wedding, so fortunately there was immediate family with Mrs and Mr Redhead. We were on the verge of going up there when Paul’s parents got back from rugby, and asked us to stay while they went. So Saturday evening was spent at home waiting for news, while attempting to play Dune Emperor, finally getting to see the very crap-looking StarCraft (I fail to see why Koreans are still crazy about this?!- it at least gave me an idea for a column about over-hyped games) and watching some ActionX softcore porn, which had some surprisingly good production values for a change, if a ridiculous story about a bunch of numbskulls on a farm who don’t realise that if they had less sex, sold the wine they make for fun, and just rewrote a cheque they lost, they could save their ranch.

Anyway, Paul’s gran will be back home most likely on Friday. She did break her leg and had to have surgery in a Pietermaritzburg hospital. Of course, at the age of 86, they can’t put you under general anaesthetic. She had to have an epidural, and was knocked out with a sleeping pill while the orthopaedic surgeon put pins in her leg. We’ll see how she recovers, but it’s going to be difficult for the whole family to make adjustments to the new situation.

On Sunday we had a family braai as a combination celebration of Paul’s father’s birthday (on Monday) and Penny’s farewell. Given the circumstances though, there ended up being a lot less people there than intended- just me, Paul, Penny, Micah, Gran B, Megan Wolf and Paul’s parents who came back from Maritzburg.

In the evening, back at my home, Paul installed my new graphics card and a new much quieter power supply. I just haven’t had the chance yet to test it with anything demanding.

We then watched Army of Darkness, and while some of the dialogue is funny and worth quoting, the film tends to often resort to wacky slapstick of The Three Stooges variety. And seeing as I’ve outgrown that, the cult appeal of the film has largely been lost on me, I’m afraid.

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In other news, I should be starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Micah next Monday evening. Last night, Shirley, G and I all went to observe a class. Considering the way you get thrown around by your clothes, I better invest in a tough-wearing gi pretty soon. And I just may have succeeded in getting Paul to take part in group classes, after telling him that G was considering doing it. At least then they’ll have a grappling partner each.