Having not quite such a good day

Damn. I am not adapting very well to being permanently without mains power and feeling a bit floored. After the tree incident, we had around 24 hours with power back before the next problem took over.

The KPLC hotline told us that their technicians surveyed our transformer yesterday and deduced that the oil had been stolen (common problem), then after stuggling on for a while it blew. A time line on producing spare parts and getting it fixed is anyones guess; I was told, 'it may take some few days'.

It doesn't help that the gardener then piped up and said the same thing happened to the transformer near his home x3 weeks ago and it still hasn't been fixed.

We are very lucky to have a small generator, but it's not big enough to heat water. Yesterday we boiled water on the gas stove for the kids bath and I had the quickest (most agonising) cold shower ever. Next I expect we will run out of gas, then the local garage will tell us 'out of stock'. We're having lots of cups of tea with off milk.

We can't use the washing machine or iron as the generator is not big enough, but have figured out a way of pumping water to the roof using various extension leads, so at least we have cold water for flushing loos etc. On the up side, at least our mains power bills should be better this month!

We have lights and TV at night along with the endless generator drone, but have to switch it all off at bed time (my husband lay awake listening out for gunshots again...).

In other news, my email has been down for a week, quite a few tools etc have gone missing from my husband's garage since our night watchmen have been rotating and yesterday I found a bag of rubbish outside the kitchen door with human faeces inside, flying toilet style. This is a mystery to me as there are two toilets outside which are perfectly clean and kept stocked up with loo roll, soap, cleaning products, mops etc. by us. No need for plastic bags and newspaper. Everybody hotly denies leaving the bag there and got terribly upset with me and each other - accusations flying. The nightwatchman said he would 'investigate'. The atmosphere in the house today is strained. I wondered if it was some kind of juju/witchcraft gesture - but as far as I am aware have not fallen out with anyone. Nice though.

Merry Christmas!