Full marks for Vaccination Program but Power Grid Fails
This has been a week full of surprises but also frustrated hours of sitting in the dark!
I shared my blog on how I could Pay it Forward - Unexpected gift with you on Sunday, so take a peek if you enjoy reading a feel-good story as there have not been many of those lately!
Trouble-free Vaccinations
I had another pleasant surprise this week; we had registered online for our Covid Vaccination; healthcare workers were first to be vaccinated followed by the over sixties, but we had not heard anything further.
A friend who recently moved into a retirement village told me that she had gone to the local civic centre for her vaccination and that the whole process was a breeze; something most unlike any undertaking by our government.
I'm usually the gal who will defend her country, but when it comes to government failures which we have become accustomed to, I will not keep quiet!
The Covid Vaccination program however has changed that.
We drove to the Civic Centre, were ushered from one station to the next; no queues, very kind staff reassuring us that the Pfizer Vaccine is safe and the most effective one.
We were done in around half an hour; the longest wait was the fifteen minutes after the injection to ensure we had no allergic reaction.
Giving hubby the icy look as I don't like photos, but forgot that 80% of my face was hidden by the mask!
I took 89 year old Mom Lily the next day and she got VIP treatment as she had to be taken in on a wheelchair.
We both were very impressed at the kind manner in which they assured her that she was in safe hands!
A big thank you to our Government Health Department for delivering excellent service as far as Covid Vaccinations go!
Taking a Break
We had banked on wasting at least a couple of hours for our Vacs (Not vacation!), so used the spare time to drop something off with our friend at the very neat retirement village she recently moved into - note the barbed wire and electric fencing, something us South Africans have become accustomed to, but which other countries may find strange!
We went on to have a quick lunch and a very good cappuccino - I had a Mushroom & Cheese Croissant while hubby chose a Chicken Mayo Sarmie with the best potato fries I've had for a long time.
Being cooped up at home for months on end means that we really enjoy getting out and about and enjoy the simple things we used to take for granted!
Trouble with the Power Grid - Loadshedding
When it comes to electricity supply however, it is a totally different story; something called loadshedding happens periodically and of late REGULARLY!!!
Not having any power means no lights, no cooking unless you have a gas stove, no internet access as the WiFi disappears and most cellphone operators' network dies as they're not maintaining their battery backup. Hubby's cell network never fails, so his phone becomes our WiFi hotspot.
I find this soooo frustrating and I know my friend @papilloncharity can attest to this feeling of helplessness.
At least we are pre-warned as these are scheduled outages called load-shedding so we put all our regular activities on hold.
I rely heavily on an App called EskomSePush; the name actually curses our power supplier Eskom and only South Africans would understand this is derived from an expletive!
The app was actually removed from Google Play Store earlier this year, because they were sharing Covid-19 data which was really useful; the developers are fighting that decision.
We've been having loadshedding twice a day these past few weeks with one of the cycles at least being in the middle of the night!
This problem will be with us for a very long time because of gross mismanagement and corruption by Eskom; a very sad state of affairs!
One good thing to emerge from load-shedding is that the two hours when we're awake become family time and we end up laughing and chatting by candlelight; our bnb units do have emergency lights but I still prefer looking at those little flames dancing in the dark!
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Thank you very much!
Lasy week when I was doing my survey, I sent out follow up messages to some people. @papilloncharity was one of them, turns out he had a power outage and hadn't responded 😖. Luckliy he didn't mind me bugging him!!
Glad that you could see here what our situation is over here regarding the power blackouts @livinguktaiwan
I apologize once again and glad that I could help 🙂
These outages are sooo frustrating and really causing major losses in industries but the corruption is so deep seated that it looks like it will never be resolved! We only have 2 x 2 hour outages in a 24 hour period so I can imagine @papilloncharity's frustration.
Ha! I don't even want to talk about the blackouts that they have given the fancy name of Loadshedding Lady Lizzy. We have 3 of them per day, one is at night and the other two during the day. Those two cuts 5 hours of productive time out of a day.
If only they would give a person ample time to prepare for a blackout it can be handled, but if they suddenly start one when one is in mid sentence on the PC, it becomes a real problem. My old PC doesn't like it and I have already done some running repairs.
The downtimes are costing our country billions in lost revenue.
Just to think that when I worked on the high voltage towers, we had a surfeit of power and now we have this scrap generating system.
On another topic, I also became a walk in for the vaccination a week ago and you are right, as it was done very professionally. Have to go back in 40 days.
Glad that you guys got sorted.
We weren't all in agreement initially but my nephew who is an ER Specialist and my son who has read all the studies in-depth, both advised us to go as the Covid wards are filling up again and the chances of getting Covid and dying of it at our age, are immensely higher than the extremely rare occurrence of adverse reactions. We were very impressed with their efficiency!
As for load shedding, the loss in revenue is huge for big industries!
You should download the app EskomSePush as you will get up to date notifications of when to expect power outages.
Keep well my friend!
The daily deaths here should convince anyone that this is not the ordinary flu, that many naysayers claim Covid to be.
I have told Marian that after the vaccination if I started to walk like a zombie due to the government programming my mind to become controllable, then she must please find a gun and shoot me hahahah.
Dead right as if it grabs us we will be dead methinks. I still have too much to do lol.
Yes, corruption and blackouts are sure recipes for disaster, but who cares?
We have the App milady, but it's the sudden switches between the levels that gets us.
Thankfully our UPS is now working and when the power cuts, the UPS will give us an hour to switch the PC's off.
Have a slice of !PIZZA
@lizelle! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @papilloncharity.
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Maybe it will not be so pleasant after you get vaccinated.
These vaccines are not tested. You will be a part of a human experiment. You cannot know how the vaccines will affect you.
They are tested. They are not an experiment.
Every vaccine should get 2 years of testing before releasing to the public. This obviously was not done, because the virus appeared at the end of 2019. So they are not tested. We do not have any information about the long term side effects of the vaccine. Consequently, taking the vaccine is a risk to your health and to your wellbeing.
mRNA is not new coupled with multiple vaccine platforms. almost limitless money and concurrent/combined test trials. It is all perfectly feasible.
But I agree with one thing, it has the potential to be a risk. Its all about how you manage risk and perceive the risk potential relative to your other options. Everything is risky including daily life.
Summed up perfectly!
People listen and believe anything without doing proper research.
Indeed! :O)
Good evening @lizelle!
It is interesting, of course, all this, but ...
I walked this path myself when I fell ill with COVID-19.
And how all this was I can do a few posts in the Silver Bloggers community. At that time, a lot of things happened to me in terms of miracles!
Good luck in everything, health and well-being.
Thank you!
Very glad to hear you recovered @antikus369, miracles happen envery day!
I personally know a couple of people who did not survive and died a lonely death as their families were not allowed near them.
Keep on blogging here on Hive, your content is really excellent!
Well thank you!
Then I will prepare material about how I got sick with this terrible disease (caronovirus). We also have many people who have died from this disease. It's all about immunity, of course. And further. Everyone who leads a healthy lifestyle - the disease has little affected them. And those who smoked - yes. Many of these acquaintances of mine have died from caronovirus. Bad lungs were...
Yay! I got the Pfizer, only a little sore arm to show for it.