It is cold outside and a hot coffee is just what is needed right now. If we were having said cup of coffee, the first thing to get out of the way before getting to meatier matters is to discuss the weather, in not very complimentary terms.

The temperature dropped on Friday with the cold fronts that came in over the Atlantic and hit Cape Town first. This is one time I am glad I do not live in Cape Town. The wind picked up on Friday and was heard howling its complaining tone all over the place.

Do not be misled by the blue of the skies – it is cold outside. The weather is also confused just a little-ish bit. Look at the clouds on the horizon in the photo below – those look like rain clouds! In the middle of winter in the Highveld where it does not rain in winter. The deluge did not come, just a few drops, enough to dirty the car.

Che and I spent part of yesterday realising our off-the-grid plan – you can read more about it by clicking on the link above. We did not need it last night because we were not affected by load-shedding. This morning however we woke up to the beeping of the alarm, letting us know that it had been operating on battery power for 30 minutes.

Loadshedding on Friday started at 20h00, so I rushed home, filled the flask with boiling water for coffee later (it would have been instant coffee, sadly) and made a quick one-pot meal which I put into the Wonderbag to keep hot. When Che and his cuz arrived we had a nice hot and cozy dinner by the light of solar lamps. I wrote about the Wonderbag some time ago – for each bag bought by someone by North America (do not ask me why only North America) a Wonderbag is given to a household without basic electricity in South Africa.

If we were having coffee I would ask if you had read my Wednesday Windows post. I am rather happy with the way it came out – I wrote about The Three Castles Building in downtown Joburg, now gutted by fire and partially vandalised. I am quite proud of the post, for the following reasons:

1. I think the writing is rather good
2. The photos are fine for the post
3. It was not written in a hurry – took me 4 hours to write it – that is how long I need to spend on each post. Sadly most times I write in a hurry.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that Che and I binge watched Graceland season 1 and 2. He is not enjoying it too much, I like it though. It is light watching – I am looking forward to season 3. Season 1 was pretty lightweight. Season 2 got progressively darker and grittier. It ended with many unresolved issues, not least of which are (spoiler-alerts):

1. Is Mike really dead?
2. Where is the Paul/Juan Badillo accidental murder storyline going?
3. What is going to happen with the Paul/Charlie romance and baby storyline?
4. And, what to say about Paige…?!??
5. Off course we all know that at some point in the next season Sid is going to get his come-uppance (such an old-fashioned word “come-uppance”)

The show has been renewed for a 3rd season, and I think that the Bello/Odin Rossi storyline is going to resurface. Oh yeah, and I think Paul Briggs is actually in a deep cover as an FBI agent at Graceland ;-).

If we were having coffee I would ask you to not judge me too harshly for watching lightweight series.

The coffee has finished much too quickly. Let us part ways for now, and connect at the same time, same place next week.

Part of a weekly blogging linkup hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster.