God forbid this should ever happen to you tonight or any other night, but in the unfortunate event should you be South Africa's Next Top Load-Shedding Victim, here's a few things I'd suggest you'd do, they usually help me pass the time.
Before Reading this article I suggest you touch wood now, as Karma would have it, you could be the next victim of a Load Shedding TONIGHT!
Daytime Load Shedding
It's not that rare, but in most cases you're at work and your productivity is limited, see this as a blessing in disguise and go out and get yourself a good lunch in the next area with some electricity or go on home and catch up on what's on your PVR.
Unfortunately Daytime junkies such as Soap Sluts will be the most affected with the power outages, whether thier at work or at home, the PVR won't be taping Sunset Beach and you'll be missing your lunchtime therapy with Dr. Phil and relief counselling with the people of Salem afterwards. Your dinner's probally ruined because you've lost your Rachel Ray insipiration but fortunately, this gives you the time you so desperately seek to escape the Daytime world and actually toss a good salad or go for that jog around the block. Use the time effectively and cancel out being a couch potato with some regular excersise and exceed life-span with a good excersise so you'll be able to catch the 'un-cancelable' ever-going, on-going long running 7th Heaven in it's 451th Season, which we hope it never reaches.
Weekend Daytime Load Shedding
Nothing beats a relaxing Saturday morning in bed catching up on the week's programmes you've missed. The worse thing is being victim to a Two Hour Power Outage, which fortunately is the max time you could experiance one is quoted to being up to 2.5hours so why not go out and shop and get some of your Fav TV shows you've missed on DVD, some Act II Popcorn (pref Butter - enduldge) and a tub of your favourite ice-cream! Hopefully by the time you return home the power will be back and you'll be all stocked up for a marathon of your fav shows!
So The Power's Off At Night- What to Do?
Private PVRavtice
God forbid but should you get home tonight and the powers off (*Quickly touch wood*), the first thing I suggest you do is phone at friend in a different load shedding area, not too far off and aks them to kindly slot in your fav shows onto thier PVR (that's why getting your best mate a PVR for Christmas wasn't a bad idea). I suggest you talk them into checking out new show, Private Practice which premiere's tonight at 19h30 on M-Net and urge them to check out the Brothers & Sisters finale following at 20h30.
A good friend, even if they don't watch the show will do it for you; a great friend will without a doubt do it for you and a best friend will invite you over for a TV dinner and your favourite shows. It's time to evaluate your friendships in crisis times like these.
Brothers & Sisters
So they don't watch what you watch and sometimes you ask yourself why the hell are you friends then you realise you work with them... should your social circle be ignorant to what's on TV, simply threaten your friendship with them. We all know how crisis' can turn us nasty and there's nothing worse (ask a LOSA than missing the Lost Premiere due to a blackout).
If your friends fail to come through, the next best thing is family. This is why you should make sure your parents have PVR or at least one other sibling who shares similar viewing interest in you. In demanding times like this when work is overloading, and so is the TV schedule, PVR has become an essential in family lifestyle. I mean nothing beats socialising over your own marathon on CSI's with your family.
Hopefully if your lucky a family member will live close by in a different load shedding area and will happily record your favourite show. However should your family be like mine and have a PVR warning of its being too full with limited space the next best thing is to phone up your Gran and ask her to tape your shows and in return come over for dinner the next day and enjoy it, Your able to score both ways with a free meal and some of your shows. Providing your family got Gran the PVR she wanted so she can tape The Bold and the Beautiful and watch it later because she's in the kitchen at the time!
CSI: Checking Schedules Investigation
Karma's a bitch, you know that right! So 10-1 your power's gonna be outed during your favourite night on TV (and fate's little sick sense of humour will put it back on during the last three minutes of the show so you can die wondering why the hell Bo and Billie are making love when his married to Hope). What we suggest you do is kick Karma's ass with an Exit Stratergy and pick up the latest Dish Guide (since the EPG will be unavaliable) and investigate that schedule for repeats.
Luckily if your favourite shows are on DStv you've hit jackpot luck because we all know DStv's unspoken motto is "So much more... Repeats", and you're guarenteed to catch that episode of Damages again sometime later this week.
We suggest while you have lights you take the time and write down when and where your favourite show is rebroadcasted again and clear the time to watch it or record it.
M-Net viewers must remember all 19h30/19h00 shows are rebroadcasted then next working day at 17h00. 20h30 shows are usually aired on Sundays (and fortunately Load Shedding is lite on Sundays). 21h30 shows are usually repeated in the mornings at 11h00 or on another M-Net channel such as M-Net Series (however sadly, not within the next week).
Go shows are repeated everywhere and anywhere, and if not, the entire season will be rebroadcasted again somewhere. Check Saturday and Sunday nights for Go encores.
M-Net Series shows have 3 encores and so you can just set the recording to record the next repeat (which is 6 hours later). ActionX usually rebroadcast thier shows in later timeslots as well.
SABC 3's prime shows are rebroadcasted at 23h00 and some comedy series after midnight on Saturday nights. However not all SABC shows are repeated.
Soaps are always repeated and luckily for you, most local soaps, with the exception of eTV's Scandal are repeated at least twice again. (SABC is famous for double airings on two different channels). Remember Egoli viewers can watch Egoli Marathons on Friday Night from around 22h30. eTV international soaps such as Sunset Beach, Passions, The Young and the Restless however are not repeated again, however fortunately with international soaps, missing a day will not harm anything with time moving so slow in them!
Hit International SABC 2 shows are repeated on Weekends and Weekday nights at 23h00, while comedies on SABC 1 are repeated on a Thursday Night from 22h00.
5 Essentials during an Outage
When you least expect it, bling blam during the middle of Brooke telling Ridge she wants to be with... (The power switches off). I suggest you have the following handy and avaliable;
1. Chocolates - It's stressful missing your favourite shows in the middle of important revelations such as who murdered Mary after committing to a season long relationship to find out, only for Eskom to anul that relationship. Chocolates help and need not be cooked either, it also raises endorphins - which mean handling Blackouts with some ease.
2. Fully Charged Stuff- Everything chargable from your iPod, Laptop, Cellphone, Camera and Video Camera should be fully charged. Delagate the usage of one item at a time so should the Blackout be longer than 2.5hours (which its rumoured to have been) your electronic goodies can be preserved over the time!
Why not take the time to start a new Facebook Album with some pics of you and your loved ones, or film a local version of Brothers & Sisters with your family. Get back into music and dance in the dark with your iPod, or text message your best friend and ask them to keep you up to speed with what's happening with Jericho! The best thing would be getting on your Laptop and turning down the CPU speed, brightness and everything that consumes battery and go online for binging session on TVSA and blog, ask questions in the forum or just chit chat about whether or not missing Karabo's new hairsytle on Generations is actually that important to you!
3. Food and Snacks- It's statistically karmatically Murphey's Law that the power goes off just before you make dinner or during dinner. Sure you could hold out another two hours to start on that Lamb Chops and Mash Potatoes you hoped on having, but why not in the mean time have a Snack basket avaliable with sweets, buscuits and everything to keep you going. Invite the neighbour over and try talk them into watching one of your favourite shows or while missing any of your favourite shows, try come up with what you think is happening in tonights episode or some fanatical storylines. This passes the time and can be really fun.
4. Candles- Have more than a dozen candles around, but be sure not to let fires get started. Use the candles to soften the mood at home and destress from work and just relax in the tub or with your loved ones. Reconnect, because often TV is like our spouse and demands all the attention, now give your attention to your real loved ones (but not infront of the PVR Decoder- that's just cheating).
5. Books- Since the birth of the TV, your reading's probally taken a shot down, why not get back into your favourite book. I suggest that all households should have those touch-now power needed lights (avaliable from Glomail) or if you don't have it make sure you have sufficient light from candles and get back into that Jackie Colins book right now, you'd discover it's probally more scandalous than Grey's Anatomy.
Whatever the time, use Load Shedding to your advantage and take a nap, why not dream about what's going on in the world of Neptune while missing Veronica Mars, fantasy probally will be more heavier than that actual reality, but resting will leave you refreshed once the lights are back on!
What we don't suggest you do is Bitch at Eskom especially during the dark, it gives you wrinkles and with a blackout, don't be blind to a long lasting deaging effect Eskom's giving you.
Should you area be scheduled for regular Load Shedding at hours which inconvenience you and your TV viewing, buying your Grandmother that PVR may seem like a good solution. Alternatively TVSA is here for you to catch up with discussions and/or recaplets about your favourite shows.
So the next time there's a Power Cut (*knocks wood*) don't be caught in the dark about what to do!