South Africa's Lack of Summer Electricity Supply

Day 119: The weather was warm and sunny today. I didn't expect to have electrical power between noon and 2 pm.  In Durban, we've taken to checking the 'load shedding' schedule for the following day.  The days have been hot and the grid cannot supply enough power for demand.  Here's what MS Copilot says about the situation: 

Load shedding in South Africa refers to the deliberate and temporary interruption of electricity supply to certain areas. This is done to prevent the entire power grid from collapsing when the demand for electricity exceeds the available supply. It's a controlled measure implemented by Eskom, the country's primary electricity supplier.  The main reasons for load shedding include:

Aging Infrastructure: Many of Eskom's power plants are old and prone to breakdowns. 

Maintenance Backlogs: Delayed maintenance has led to reduced efficiency and reliability of power stations.

Coal Supply Issues: South Africa relies heavily on coal for electricity, and disruptions in coal supply can impact power generation.

Increased Demand: Growing electricity consumption has outpaced the capacity of the grid.

Corruption and Mismanagement: Poor governance and financial mismanagement have also contributed to Eskom's challenges.

Load shedding is scheduled in stages, with higher stages indicating more severe power cuts. It has significant economic and social impacts, affecting businesses, households, and essential services. 

 

Our Airbnb does have battery backup for essential electricity.  That keeps the fridge running and the Internet up.  However, lately it hasn't been completely charging and we're left wondering if we will have power during the designated hours.  As it's Sunday, there's still a chance of an evening shut down.  We'll just have to wait and see.

The 'Museum of the Future' in Dubai

One fascinating aspect of re-exploring the city of Dubai is seeing how it is constantly changing.

 

I was visiting the UAE with Jay and his sisters last December.  We had the chance to take a small look at the new Museum of the Future. We were sad we could not view the exhibits though, because all tickets were sold out for our entire stay. However, we did enjoy getting off the Metro to see the 3D-printed building up close.  We walked around it and were able to explore just the lobby.

 

You can read a bit about it on Wikipedia. Or visit  the museum's web site. 

I'm including these pictures today as Jay was clever enough to think ahead for our upcoming time back in Dubai.  Next month, we'll meet up with his sisters and a friend from Sri Lanka there again.  This will be how we kick off the beginning of our winter.  We have planned just 10 days together and when the others return to Sri Lanka, Jay and I will begin our exploration of parts of east and southern Africa.

However, so as to ensure we won't again miss the opportunity to see the museum, Jay bought online tickets this morning!  This time, we'll get to see more than the outside and the lobby!

Dubai Changes

Day 134 - Today one of the most interesting things that happened was Jay burning a few old suitcases, some back from Saudi days in the 80s.  They'd been stored in the covered shed in the back but the plastic, metal, and cloth materials had deteriorated.  They would never be used again.  They made quite a bonfire and a fair amount of smoke too.

I have been in contact with a real estate agent in Dubai to check out the current situation.  I have been wondering about getting a winter apartment in that part of the world.  It is a fascinating city and has morphed into something quite unique and, in fact, spectacular.  In 1991, when Jay and I went to work in the city, things were so very different.  It's like they've compressed development time four or fivefold.

 

This scanned image was snapped over thirty years ago. I'm proud to have had a hand in making it a globally important city by working for the Higher Colleges of Technology for five years in the early 1990s.

On Sunday night, we will be in DXB for around four hours but only in airport transit.

Now, We've Got Return Flights for March

Yesterday's blog post required this follow-up post. Yesterday, we didn't have return flights back to Canada after our upcoming winter away. However, we fixed that situation about two hours ago. 

Buying airline tickets is similar to gambling. There are few rules nowadays as ticket prices are set by computer algorithms from moment to moment. All the standard, old rules, such as round-trip tickets being cheaper than two singles are no longer valid for many busy destinations. I'm sure even the number of people checking out specific flights affects the price shown on travel websites. Knowing when to pull the trigger takes a whole lot of constant checking.

Anyway, we're happy that our total cost of coming and going was cheaper than if we bought a round-trip today. We've chosen to return on an Air Canada direct flight from Dubai to Vancouver. The new direct service is set to start at the end of next month.  So, we fly a little over four hours from CMB to DXB to catch the longer segment.  Our departure will be on March 17th with an arrival here on the 18th.  The Air Canada flight alone is slotted to take 15 hours and 55 minutes. That is a whole lot of time to spend in one seat.

   

I quickly located this photo from the Dubai Airport in my Flickr photo collection.  I took this image in April of 2016.  So, this was when we were coming back after a winter in Luxor, Egypt.

Almost Half My Life Ago

Today's six images are new to the Internet. However, they were actually photos snapped between 25 and 30 years ago. 

After getting home in the spring, I bought a dedicated photo scanner with the goal of getting rid of a huge box of old, personal photo albums. The images were paper dating back before my first job out of college in 1981. Most were taken overseas in countries where I worked or visited. Even photos from our first years in Canada were inside the heavy cardboard container as digital cameras weren't available in 1996. 

This summer, I've put over 1700 of them on Flickr; however, that's a small dent in the 34.2K photos now found under my account. Today's batch of 68 was taken between 1991 and 1996.  They were all of my time in Dubai when I was working at the old campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology - Dubai Men's. Lots were staff functions but quite a number were simply around the Foundations building too. 

In mid-November, we are planning to head back to Dubai for a month.  We wanted to take in the Dubai Expo and further explore what's happened in the city where we lived for five years.  Our last visit to DXB was a five-night stopover in 2015.  We are using Dubai as a jumping-off spot for the rest of our winter away.

Back for a Visit in November

 

Thirty years ago this month, I arrived in the city of Dubai from Manama, Bahrain. I went to teach at a campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology and stayed for five years. 

In all the years since then, Jay and I only visited the UAE once. You see, during our second winter of early retirement, in November 2015, we had a five-night stopover on our way to Luxor, Egypt.  So we've already seen the world's tallest buildings, man-made islands, and a few megamalls.

Expo 2020 has been delayed due to the global pandemic.  However, the city is finally throwing its large party from October 1st through March 31st.   So, we have decided to make the Dubai Expo a part of the upcoming winter.  We plan to 'stay put' a little bit longer than during our previous stopover in order to make ample use of free, senior season passes.

 

This is Time ...

From the day I discovered that Dubai was finally putting on the delayed Expo 2020, from October 1st until the end of next March, I've been extremely curious. I've been wondering whether it can be a part of our annual winter outside Canada. COVID-19 has meant we are still not completely set on what we might do during the upcoming November through April. We cannot quite figure out if tourism will be an option in Sri Lanka for us. 

This music video hit YouTube a few days ago. Our time in Dubai doesn't seem like a long time ago to us. However, my five years of teaching at the Higher College of Technology started in 1991. That means if we make it there this year, it'll be akin to a 30-year anniversary.  How fitting to have a World Expo in commemoration!   Many of my fresh-faced, eager Emirati students are now, most probably, grandfathers. Oh my!

 

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Weather and Stuff

Mornings lately have been starting out cloudy but by evenings things generally, clear out nicely.

 

There's not a lot on this week's to-do list.  In a way, that is fine.  It certainly gives me time to research topics of interest.  Today, I spent some time online looking to find a reasonable replacement wifi router for the apartment.  Additionally, we also thought some more about what we might do for the winter.  

The Olympics weren't the only event of 2020 that got postponed.  Jay read that Expo 2020 in Dubai will run from the beginning of this October until the end of April 2022.  

In 2015, we re-visited the city on a 5-day stopover when heading for a winter in Luxor, Egypt.  Not a lot in the UAE city was the same as it was during 1991 to 1995 when we lived there.  So, I imagine it'd be great to include another stopover there this winter too.  I'm sure the Expo will be very interesting and we would be able to see what's new.

Saturday is for Shopping

Yay. We are back to a familiar habit after our winter in Mexico as we did grocery shopping this morning. We'd not visited the Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam since last October. It felt good to find an old, familiar routine. 

In the afternoon Jay and I attacked the heavy box holding our pre-digital photos. We spent a lot of time pulling old pictures from albums and organizing them into groups for scanning. I really cannot venture an accurate guess as to how many there may be. There could be several thousand. Earlier, before lunch, I scanned one envelope containing a seemingly random forty or so pictures from Dubai. We were in the UAE from 1991 to 1996. 

The following picture was taken in our first apartment in Karma. We got a chance to see that the Al-Kifaf Apartment Complex is still standing.  We transited through Dubai on our way to Egypt during our second winter of retirement in November 2015.

 

Boxing Day 2019

Solar Eclipse




Day 56 - I don't think I ever witnessed as good a solar eclipse as the one today. It wasn't complete in this part of Sri Lanka, but it got much fuller than when I took the picture. By the way, I didn't risk my eyesight; I took the photo through an old, medical X-ray as the image reflected off the clear surface of a tub of water. The peak occurred at 9:36 am. The sunlight which remained was eerie and the birds and wildlife, perhaps imagined, got a little confused by the event which lasted more than an hour and a half.

The dimming of the sun wasn't the main event of the day. Today we took a trip to the nearby city of Negombo. After being in Sri Lanka for close to two months already, we hadn't travelled the mere 12 kilometers to the famous coastal city sitting on the other side of the International airport. We arranged for a van and driver at 4:00 pm through Nazir and he came with all of us.

First, on the way into Negombo, we stopped at a church that was one of the sites of the horrific Easter bombings. The Katuapitiya church has been beautifully restored with one small reminder. A meter square piece of glass in the new floor looks down at on pot-marked original section marred by the blast.

St. Sebastian's Church, Katuwapitiya




We continued into the city proper. We'd chosen to come in the evening to avoid the hot sun. An advantage was all the fishing boats were in and parked. The main fish market area was closed but Jay's sisters did manage to buy an assortment of dried fish for making curries.

Negomobo and Fish Market






Next came a twist of fate as a car passed. In it was Sundari, a former colleague from Dubai days and a resident of Vancouver now. She and kids also arrived in Vancouver in 1996 when I left the Higher Colleges of Technology. In fact, I think we shared one of the very same Cathay Pacific flights to Canada. I know we used to share a desk at Dubai Men's College.

I had heard that she might take a side trip here from India with some old friends. I didn't realize that their flight had arrived earlier here today. She happened to notice us as we were standing and halted a little tour of Negombo they were having. Our world is not really as big as some other folks imagine.

Our vehicle continued through Negomobo downtown and headed for Sea Street and a Rio Ice Cream shop. It seems there are only three in all of Sri Lanka and now I've been in two of them. Jay and his sister have hit all three! They went to the original one on a trip to Jaffna in the early spring. The sun was setting as we started to head to the city's main public beach.

It quickly became apparent that everyone had the same idea as the road was one large traffic jam. We got out of our vehicle and proceeded on foot.

Ice Cream and a Little Walk






The area was mobbed and the traffic cops did as best they could dealing with the onslaught. We walked around and then back out to the road where the van and driver had been waiting after they finally a bit past the beach turn-off.

We ended the evening with a drive around the city. Negombo puts up many colourful street lights at this time of year. We passed many 'nativity scenes' as many Christians live along the coast. Finally, we had a late dinner at Sameeha Family Restaurant. So much food! It even ended with Sri Lankan watalappan.

Late Dinner Time

Damn!

It'd been sitting by the gas fireplace for twenty years. Before that, the 2.5' vase spent two years in our rental apartment on Agnes Street. Prior to being in Canada, it had survived along with most of our possessions on a sea voyage in a container from Dubai. We bought the Iranian piece of pottery from Sharjah in the UAE in the mid-90's. Ceramic items used to arrive by dhow from Iran.

It now sits downstairs in a dumpster in five pieces.


Today, I was moving furniture so I could plug the Google Home Mini into a different location in the living room. I heard the familar object tip over and smash behind me.

Damn.

We'll Meet on the Embarcadero

We're already excited about boarding another Holland American cruise ship. It seems we just got off one in Rome so recently, but with two full weeks in between, these aren't really back-to-back. We've had just enough time to recuperate and let the local weather turn towards winter.

Before the MS Noordam heads to Hawaii and points beyond, we take a few leisurely days to move south. First, we spend next Monday in Seattle. We hope to meet up with some friends. It's been so long since we spent leisure time in Seattle, we have yet to do the Seattle's Great Wheel. It'll be nice hanging around Pike Place Market sipping either Starbucks or craft beers.


Daragh in Coal Harbour, Vancouver, BC - May 7, 2009
Then, before changing course westward, we dock at Pier 35 in San Francisco. We spend all of Thursday, the 28th there. Thankfully, I was able to message our old friend, Daragh. He's a friend from a long time ago and the adjective describes us all nowadays. We met this bloke during our days in Dubai. Time at the Higher Colleges of Technology was a different but delightful epoch. We have seen the guy a few times up here in Vancouver.

Nice to See You, Cairo - Day 6

Our weird sleep patterns worked to our advantage this morning, as we both automatically woke up at 4:30 AM, before our 5:00 alarm.

As our flight left at 8:10, we found the 6:00 Dubai Metro start-up time a bit too late. So, we rolled out to the road with our bags to catch a taxi to the airport. The fleet is run under some transit authority now and the early morning ride cost the same as it would have back in the 1990's.


The flight was nondescript and that's a good thing when flying. I watched the in-flight information to see that we did fly over the Sinai and not far from the recent downed Russian airplane. I felt perfectly safe. Media really does twist perspectives of true, actual danger. If statistics alone were used, those who keep telling us to be careful, would be a little more nervous about staying home.


We are now two time zones behind Dubai, meaning we will be ten hours ahead of Vancouver time for our winter here. Getting out of Cairo airport took extra time, but our driver was waiting for us. The drive to our downtown hostel was typical for the city. That means lanes are to be completely ignored and the bravest driver gets to the destination first. (Unless, that bravery turns into tragedy.

The guys at our accommodation remembered us, although we were last here in the spring of 2014. We even ended up in the same room.

Ah, downtown Cairo! It has an energy about it. We found our favourite restaurant of the area. We took a nap in the afternoon and it ended up being longer than expected.

In the evening, we joined the throngs on the streets. Talaat Harb is the fashion street so it's really busy regardless of the day of the week.

We have three full days here before we take the train to Luxor.

Up and Down the Creek - Day 5

The Dubai Creek is a saltwater inlet. Although natural in origin, it was enlarged and improved through dredging starting more than 60 years ago. To me, it is the most important focal point of the city, although recent developments exist far from its original center.


We are staying on the Deira side but today, we wanted to revisit Bur Dubai. It was a pleasure to the the far end, opposite Al Ras has been redevoloped. In particular the buildings around the abra station is attractive, although a tad touristy. I love that area of town and were I to seek a place to live, I'd opt for something in the old Bur Dubai area. I'd wish some more of the money from the massive real estate boom had been put into that part of the city.


Taking the open boats called abras now costs 1 UAE Dirham. That is only about $ 0.25, so although it's doubled in the last twenty years, it would still be classed as a bargain. Getting across the creek can also be accomplished via bridges, and tunnel, and now an under-the-water Metro line. Still there's nothing like the smell of diesel and wind in one's hair. We went once in the morning and walked around Bur Dubai. We also went back over at night. It was a nice way to finish our time in this city.

Size Matters - Day 4

Here's something I have probably never said before, nor will again: We spent our day at the mall. In this case, we spent most of our day at the Dubai Mall.


I have never considered shopping a form of recreation but we did want to get a closer look of the Burj Khalifa, even though the tallest building in the world can be seen from quite a distance. That area is surrounded by the largest physical shopping mall in the world. Much of Dubai is built for shopping. Alas, even in the cheap hotel we are in, it's a bit noisy at night as Nigerian and African business people are getting their wholesale purchases ready for export. The stuff they buy won't fit in their rooms, so they use the hallways for packing (during most of the night).

Today, we didn't buy any items but walked around looking at the various mall attractions. Oh, and we saw the newest Bond film, Spectre.




We got there at about 10:00 in the morning and stayed until we saw the first song displayed in the fountain of the 24-acre, man-made lake. Of course, it is the world's largest choreographed fountain system in the world.


Go big or go home.

What's Inside All the Mega Buildings? - Day 3

Okay Thomas, you were right: One can't go home again, even if it was only home for five years.


I used to think of anything past the old World Trade Centre as being on the road to Abu Dhabi. Yet the city of Dubai now extends out along that corridor in spades. We took the Metro out to Palm Jumeirah, you know those artificial islands which can be seen from space. Approaching that area is like coming to another city, much less all the stops for the malls, and "special cities". It was all more than a bit overwhelming. I spent some of my time, gazing from inside the A/C car, trying to recall the desert with the patches of life if taking that route twenty or twenty-five years ago.

It's hard not to jump to judgments, but I will keep my unworthy opinions mostly to myself. I guess importing a whole city and necessary infrastructure is a noble choice. I did feel a little sad at seeing so much change from the Dubai I used to know. That's probably primarily due to my age and the tricks of reminiscing.




I can see the allure of flying in for a holiday just for the sun and warm water, I guess. However, I am still pretty happy we chose to hang out in cramped, old Deira and life along the creek.

After returning from the morning out, biryani lunch, and another too-long nap, we walked around Al Ras in the evening. We walked over to Palm Deira Metro and went just one stop. That is probably the oldest part of the city with the spice and gold souks.





Sparkling gold cannot help but lift anyone's spirits, even if one's no more than window shopping.