Electricity

As some of you may know and others may not yet have realised, I am in Johannesburg at the moment. I am here because one of my closest high school friends is getting married, today in fact, and as this is the first of my high school friends' weddings that I can actually attend (one friend got married in Israel last year and another is getting married in Israel next month) I was not going to miss the opportunity.

And so I arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday evening, was picked up from the Sandton Gautrain by my cousin and was taken to his flat. I didn't spend much time in the flat on Saturday night, as I went out with Gina and the girls for a second miniature bachelorette, but when I arrived back at the flat in the early hours of Sunday morning, it was to discover that the power had gone out. Now, this wasn't too much of a problem at the time, since it was 1am and about time for me to get to bed. It didn't affect me too much on Sunday morning or afternoon either, as I went out for the day with one of the University friends whom I haven't seen in about two years. It did affect me on Sunday evening, however, when I arrived back at the flat at about 5pm to find that the electricity was still off, my cousin was visiting his girlfriend, there was no food in the fridge and every piece of electrical equipment that I owned was on it's way to being dead (if it wasn't dead already.) Cue Lara's silly freaking out about being left alone with no transport in a strange city before falling asleep. I woke up again at 10pm to find that the electricity was back on, and by Monday morning, Dan was telling me that it was fixed for good and that there shouldn't be any more problems.

Then, yesterday morning while Dan was at work and I was playing around on my computer, it went out again. So much for the problem being fixed!! Once again, it wasn't too much of an issue during the day - I had a hair appointment to get to and ten million things to buy for the wedding, and so by the time I got back to the flat, I wasn't so concerned that the electricity was out. I carried on with what needed to get done for the wedding, I read my Kindle a little (something that cannot be done after 5pm in Joburg, as there just isn't enough light) and when Dan got home, he introduced me to one of his neighbours and let me borrow his car (after dropping him off at his girlfriend's place) so that the two of us could go out for dinner. When we arrived back at the flat, the electricity was still off, but it wasn't too disastrous since my laptop had a bit of power and Phumla (Dan's neighbour) and I chilled in the flat and used up the rest of its battery watching How I Met Your Mother. By the time the laptop died, we were both tired and decided to hit the hay anyway.

When I woke up this morning and the electricity was still out, it was a serious issue. There were things that needed to be done - things that needed electricity. Most importantly, my hair needed to be straightened for the wedding. I had gone through so much effort to find a GHD, and after finally managing to find one, I couldn't use it! Dan had said that if this happened, I could come along to his office, but Dan wasn't here, having spent the night at the girlfriend's place. My phone also needed charging, but that was a sideline issue. Thankfully, Dan pitched up right on time and managed to give me a lift to his office where I was able to straighten my hair and write this very blog while I waited for him to get back from his meeting and return me to the place of no-electricity so that I can do my makeup and get dressed in time for the wedding itself.

So, because the lack of electricity has caused me so many issues over the last couple of days, I thought that I would write a post about what to do when there is no electricity. So, here it is:

• If your cellphone is charged, use it to surf the Internet, play games and chat to people over Whatsapp
• If you cellphone is dead, but your laptop is charged, watch an episode, watch a movie, write a blog, and charge your cellphone.
• If your laptop is dead, read your Kindle (or a book if you do not have a kindle).
• If your kindle is dead, write random notes about blogs that you could write, take a walk to the shops and do some window shopping so that you do not actually spend money unnecessarily. Or just shop. Either way is fun.
• If it is night, curl up in your bed/sleeping bag and fall asleep as soon as you can.

Here's hoping that I won't be going through a lack of electricity anytime soon! *Holds thumbs*