It happened again – the transformer at the back of the huge Black Lion Hospital over the road from my clinic exploded. Blue flash; bang; power cut. This is a roughly quarterly event. The power came back quite quickly this time, suggesting we had been cut off not because of the transformer’s demise but because of circuit breakers doing their job.

A friend described a previous incident when he had been up on the second floor (he thought it was the third floor – he’s American…) and a similar flash and bang occurred. When he looked out of the window, all he could see was a cloud of feathers gently descending towards the road. Evidently a large bird (we have a lot of those) had short-circuited two power cables and had itself exploded. It reminded me of a time when Haile was driving me home and two precarious mains power cables above us were short-circuiting in the breeze and we drove on through a shower of sparks raining down on us from above.

Planning aforethought is a rarity in Addis. It certainly didn’t happen when a row of new cultural restaurants was built along a road with a still under construction but partially inhabited residential area behind. The restaurants rapidly became very popular with the locals resulting in their power requirements outstripping supply - so transformers started exploding and fuses started blowing. Overcoming this was easy – switch all the power off to the residential area completely. Some good friends were without power for much of a week, so the restaurants could continue serving. And what do you do about a destroyed transformer? Put another identical one in. Guess what? Bang.

The yellow and red “Anbesa” (or it could be “Ambesa” – they both mean “Lion”) buses looked quite new back in 2007. After our return in 2013 my first encounter with an “Anbesa” bus was when one veered off the road and embedded itself in the front of a small shop. The traffic jam was horrendous. They now all look battered and tired. It's fun to imagine how some of them that are the most damaged managed to achieve it – apart from the fact that they look like someone has gone over them with a ball pein hammer, they are missing lights, bumpers, paint, door seals, and the like. They obviously haven’t ever been repaired. There are fleets of new buses appearing, not least the now ubiquitous “Sheger Express” buses. Presumably the “Anbesa” buses will be slowly pensioned off as they simply grind to a halt. Or just fall to bits.

We returned to our gym this week, “Ker Fitness and Day Spa”, after a bit of a break. This was a new and fresh facility the very first time we came here back in 2007. Its deterioration was palpable as we walked down the threadbare stairway and into the changing rooms last week, not having used it for a few months – the men’s sauna had clearly been in regular use, and the paint on the walls is now vigorously bubbling off. All the lockers are broken; the benches are deteriorating; and one of the weights machines had a broken cable. Like “Anbesa” buses, once nothing works I suppose it’ll all just be replaced. But the thin plastic film over the screens on the running machines that should have been removed when unpacking? That’s still there. 10 years on.