Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Winter has finally presented itself in Cape Town.  And it was kind of like one of those go big or go home situations.  All or nothing.  Not only did the temperatures finally go down from the mid 20’s to a real Winter feel of about 15 on the daily.  We also had a pretty hardcore storm hit.

But you guys know this.  I’m just writing it out because when I look back at this post in about 10 years, I’m not going to know what the heck I’m on about.

The WCED decided to close the schools in anticipation of crazy winds and rain predicted for Wednesday and honestly I wasn’t that sad that I’d have to stay home and look after the kids while the storm passed.  I had great intentions.  We would play card games, eat hot soup, cuddle under blankets with freshly popped popcorn and delicious hot chocolate while we watched movies.  While they played, I’d work from home and we’d all totally nail this whole working Mom from home situation that’s supposed to be the ideal.

Howev’s the storm had other plans.

As Seth was up at 5am getting ready for his flight to JHB, the lights flickered.  Then they flickered again.  Then it all went dark.

And with the lights, went like, everything I’d planned.

We had no power.  No hot anything.  No TV to babysit while I tried to work.  And even my laptop wouldn’t work because I’d run out of battery.  All my fancy ideas went to crap while I wished for a cup of hot tea (which is totally weird because I don’t even drink tea regularly) and broke up the numerous fights between my cabin fevered children.

But all was not lost.  We had wood and it was time to make a fire.  The unfortunate thing was that we’d totally run out of blitz and none of the wood was chopped.  Never fear though – we had LOADS of discarded art to help stoke the fire.  Do you guys have that issue?  I mean we keep the good art and display it, but our kids come home with loads of it every single day – sometimes it just has one line on it but we must keep it, just in case.  Well, now we knew what for!  It was time to sacrifice it for the greater good.

But obvs, can you even have a fire without the need to braai marshies?

No you cannot.

The two go hand in hand.  And thank goodness we had a few left in the cupboard and so the kids were stoked that we could do something fun!  It would have been lekker with a cup of hot chocolate or like, chocolate and biscuits to make smores, but we’ll take our silver linings where we can find them.

Thank goodness for my Mom who popped in with hot coffee and lunch.  Although we would have been able to scrounge for something in the cupboard, it’s nice to have something hot in your belly when it’s raining outside.

We survived the day but then had to spend another whole day in darkness.  The electricity department was obviously dealing with a lot, when last I listened to the radio there was something like 800 houses without electricity. I get it.  We can’t all be first in line.  We called in on the Thursday and they promised that they’d be sending someone out that morning.  And so I sat.  Staring out the window, too scared to leave the house in case we missed them and then had to call again.

NOTHING.  Not one person rocked up.

Then we were going to bed and just as we had said goodnight, the lights suddenly switched on.

I don’t know which feeling was more overwhelming – the fact that the power was on, or the fact that I’d waited all day at home with nothing to do and they could just flip a switch and get it back on! Day wasted.  But the lights were on.  So all is good in the world again.

Although I missed watching series, reading by candlelight and sipping wine was not a bad way to spend an evening.

Anyway, I hope you guys all survived the storm relatively unscathed.  Have a super weekend!