A generally disappointing generator experience but the coriander is happy

I do realise that it will all end well but this has been the week that was in terms of our generator which, instead of fixing all problems has created a cavalcade of new ones most of which have to do with wiring issues. In short, it has been on and off and not doing what it should, like run the oven and cooktop which was why we took this path in the first place.

The kitchen has been full of electricians pretty much every day for most of the week. They seem to arrive at 2p.m. and work until six or seven or eight or nine when things go wrong. Why can't they arrive early so they are not working through dinner time? It's a good question and one which came to mind but did not get asked because this is Africa and it would be seen for what it was; a ridiculous question.

The fact that I spent three days of the week pretty much sleeping because I came down with some flu type thing means that I cared less than I might have done about not having a kitchen or not having dinner. Not that it was anyone's fault. Well, maybe the ability of the electricians to wire things as they were needed to be wired but I won't go there. It is, as I told Manuel, the man behind the generator (and air conditioners and various other things) a lesson in humility. He and we clearly have major lessons to learn. He said his wife said the same thing and said she would keep praying. I am not sure the prayers are working.

I did not have the heart to tell him on Saturday that the new fan in our bedroom is making a clanking noise. I waited until Monday to do that. It is quieter though. When it is not clanking. It is also huge and brown and while it suits the room, it does make a statement. As Greg said to Manuel: 'Holding two of those we could fly to Karonga!' Crazy Australians I am sure he was thinking but he did laugh.

Anyway, it has been decided that we need to restore the inverters (batteries) so that when the power goes off the system immediately resorts to inverter and is seamless... the genset it seems needs time to kick in. I did suggest this in the first place and was dismissed by the various male minds around at the time. 'Told you so,' does spring to mind but I am too gracious to say it. Or maybe not.

We will then set up the genset to be used manually when we need to cook. This will save us diesel which might be useful given that the power was out for 16 hours on Saturday in an ominous First!

Gensets aside all goes well otherwise although my supplies of wine are running low and I have been thoroughly ruined again through time in Oz where one gets to drink more than reasonable wine all of the time. I will have to switch off some of the tastebuds to return to an appreciation of South African wine. It is not that SA does not produce good wine because they do but rather that what makes its way here is not in that category and even if it were, it suffers from transport and storage.

The rains are steady but not heavy and the herbs in my pots are doing reasonably well although I have had to mover them all to one end so they get a smattering of sunlight. Some of them have been crawling desperately out of the pot in a battle to find some rays of sunlight. The garden is really very shaded, which, while lovely, is not conducive to growth on many fronts. Although the corainder does seem happy which is great as this is one of my favourite herbs and I have seen it rarely in fresh form in Lilongwe.