It's been rather hot here the last few days between mid twenties and mid thirties celsius, so a thunder storm or two is welcome and I am kinda in the mood for it too. Maybe I'll make some hot chocolate with ice cream and sprinkles and put on a movie tonight - once the electricity comes back on that is.
We've been having on average 7,5hrs of load shedding spaced across the day each day this week - that's on stage 4 which is about the most severe that it gets (except for once when it went up to level 6). It is horrible for people that require constant electricity to work. Luckily I get about 1,5hrs of battery power out of my laptop, so I can still do SOME work, then I move on to other responsibilities. I enjoy that there is quite a bit of flexiblity in how I work.
Today was quite a slow day. It started with waiting for two hours for a handyman to arrive to replace a fluorescent tube that had blown in the kitchen. He was meant to arrive at 9am but only got here after 11am. I hate it when people don't stick to their appointment times and recently this happened to me with a business meeting and the person rocked up a whole day later - no apology - no explanation. I was annoyed to say the least. It seems like it's perfectly acceptable in this town and just the way things work. I don't like it one bit!
So after they took the tube away, it then took him and his worker another 2hrs to find a replacement tube. I'm not convinced and think I might get schnide when the bill finds my inbox, but they did solve my problem and they did get the job done, it just took them half a day to do it.
Trust me, in normal circumstances I would have changed it myself - but the ladder here isn't tall enough in it's A frame configuration (it's exactly the same size as mine which is in storage) and it's in the attic which I can't access without a ladder. I'm also rather vertically challenged, so can you see the catch 22 situation here?
I have a funny suspicion that this is going to have been the most expensive light bulb I've ever replaced. Still, I'm happy to fork out a bit extra to a small business that I know I'm helping to feed a family instead of lining the pockets of shareholders of big corporate enterprise.
We were only able to get out of the house for our plant nursery adventure after 1pm so by the time we got there it was exceptionally hot already. I'll write up another post dedicated to this nursery because it was very nice. It's not owned or managed by a conglomerate or corporate - it belongs to a couple of retirees who were very knowledgeable and gave us a warm welcome. I'd rather support these two than a supermarket chain version; and I told them as much which they appreciated.
I am trying to change my purchasing somewhat. I recently noticed that one of the largest courier companies here (which definitely has the monopoly on local business and is owned and run by Aramex International) has now started offering template style websites for a rather low, set price. While I haven't read through all the fine print of what that actually provides, it is a large company that has franchises in every province and almost every city in South Africa that are now going to be competing with the freelance website designers as well as the small web design businesses. They already have such a large monopoly on posting parcels, printing and packaging - now they are taking away another avenue at very low pricing. They have obviously managed to swangle a fancy deal for hosting and so on because they have a lot of clout and a well established name. It just makes me sad to know that so many of these large monopolies are cleaning out all the small businesses even though the work standard may not be of the same calibre and the level of personal care is probably going to be lower, people will still flock to get their website done there - why? Because they have a big name and are an established enterprise.
Don't get me wrong, I support this company as it is. I use them and even recommend them as couriers to clients of mine, BUT I don't like the ever expanding list of services that these large companies continue to plug into. Specialisation is becoming a dying art and small businesses which have already been decimated by the last two years of Covid 19 restrictions are now going to feel even more pressure and heat from these big names that are having to do more for less to make up their losses of having their doors closed during lockdowns. This is going to have negative knock ons for the "little people".
So while I'm still gaining momentum and I've hit the ground running, I feel like this was a bit of a throat punch... and it sucked to be honest.
I don't quite know what kind of strategy I will have to employ to face that competition, but tonight I will give it a think - while drinking hot chocolate topped with vanilla ice cream, a movie on in the background and a thunder storm raging outside.
