Barnyard

This painting is a little different from the birds and animals I have been painting the past few months, wondering about the simple life without the crime and grime of urban existance. The last week or two have been very difficult with Graham being away on business for a few weeks, I have had to take care of all the Entrecard drops, it is no fun dropping for three sites.

To add to my woes our local electricity supplier has brought in load shedding, which means my power is cut off for a few hours a day. The worst part is it is cut off at different times of the day and when I check the schedule, our suburb is not on the list. So!! right now electricity is a luxury. Added to the problems EC have had I suddenly get cut off in the middle of the drops.

Whats really annoying is that the power supplier can sell power to all the neighbouring countries and supply big business with power at below cost, but the normal resident "Joe Soap" has to foot the bill. Now they want a fifty percent increase in tariffs in order to fund the building of new power stations which will only come on line in five or six years time. Bad planning.... bad management.. greed... all so typical of Africa.

When the new government took over there was an excess of power produced , so they mothballed half a dozen power stations and paid the new management millions of dollars in performance bonuses to really screw up an effective and well run system. If this was a political blog I would really make a meal of this article, instead of skirting around some of the more pertinent issues that have lead to this crisis .

Not that any of this has anything to do with my art, other than the fact that it makes life as I have become accustomed to very difficult. I suppose Africa is no place for sissy's and I am starting to wonder what I am still doing here. My family is fragmented and living in other parts of the world, they probably saw the writing on the wall a long time ago.

Maybe the rickety old windmill depicted in the above water colour painting will generate electricity as well as water, then I would not have to worry about the greedy corrupt management and government running our electricity supply .

Oh well! "I suppose I am allowed to dream" of facilities that once were considered normal, mundane, routine functions of a supposed modern, progressive country as somewhat of a luxury, reserved for the privileged few who get paid obscene bonuses for their inadequacies and mismanagement of public utilities.

Ok! now that is off my chest I hope you enjoy the painting.