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Loadshedding survival guide

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For those of you who are not South African, this basically sums it up:

Either way, we’re left playing this pretty terrible game of checking the loadshedding schedule and then preparing for the apocalypse.

Granted, I don’t have little ones to feed or a business to run from home but this is how I survive loadshedding, especially on Saturdays when I’m at home alone and the electricity dies.

1. Charge all the things

It’s imperative to your mental well-being that you charge your devices, people.

Don’t fool yourself that your battery will last or that you just won’t check your phone much.

It’s at that important moment that technology will fail you, my friend. Better safe than sorry.




2. Grab a book



It doesn’t matter if you grab a real life book with pages that need to be turned with your actual hands or an ereader/tablet to get your digital book fix – Just immerse yourself in a book and that sweet electricity will be back in no time at all.

3. Get your candles ready



Always have your candles at the ready, people! This is not a drill! Make sure your candles are strategically placed throughout the house and have matches or a light within reach at all times. You don’t want to be caught with the lights off and you’re running around looking for candles now do you?

4. Always have food ready



If you’ve checked the schedule and know the electricity will be off then make sure you will have some form of sustenance while you wait out the darkest time of your life day.

5. Take a nap or just relax



Consider your source of entertainment or work being snatched from you as a compulsory holiday. Take a long bath (with candles) or stretch on your bed with the windows open and think happy thoughts while you drift off into dream land. Everyone deserves a break – that includes you.

6. Tea is your best friend


Tea will never leave you. Tea will always listen to your sad stories. And if you’ve forgotten to put the kettle on before the electricity died, tea also comes in an iced option and it’s delicious. (Fine, coffee can be your friend too.)

It’s your turn – How do you survive loadshedding?

All images courtesy of Robyn van der Merwe 

More of Robyn's posts on her blog, follow her on Twitter or check out her Instagram.

Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

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