As a Norwegian, I'm rather used to cold and wind. I was once in Johannesburg in late-winter-early-spring. It's one of the coldest experiences of my life! Indeed, the outdoor temperature wasn't too bad, but the wind was constant and what the fuck why are there like centimeter-wide gaps around doors where the wind just comes howling in so that you have to wear a jacket indoors?!
I am Canadian, I lived in Joburg for 2yrs. You are bang on: huge gaps in doors, windows that can't fully close and uninsulated homes. It was bloody cold in the winter, with my indoor temp being around 10C in the morning! And of course, all sorts of creepy crawlies appearing in my living room (scorpions, prawns) at random times. Loved the cloudless skies, however.
> I am Canadian, I lived in Joburg for 2yrs. You are bang on: huge gaps in doors, windows that can't fully close and uninsulated homes. It was bloody cold in the winter, with my indoor temp being around 10C in the morning! And of course, all sorts of creepy crawlies appearing in my living room (scorpions, prawns) at random times. Loved the cloudless skies, however.
I live in JHB, have been for most of my life. Still not used to how cold it is in the winter.
But the creepy crawlies? C'mon - you're in Africa, what did you expect? In my experience, the benefit of moving to JHB from the east coast was the lack of creepy crawlies!
I grew up on the coast, and there's no end to the wildlife (including creepy crawlies ... maybe the occasional leopard).
The east coast of South Africa is a pain to live in; monkeys frequently raid the garden, large, flying cockroaches get into any food, people will frequently find frogs and/or crabs getting into their pools, snakes frequently getting into the house ...
I'm from a place that (I'm told) has similar weather, and it's common for people from colder climates to complain about lack of insulation. The quick answer is, here you don't have winters that are as cold, therefore developers can get away with shoddy construction without killing its inhabitants... so they do. If you built something like this in Toronto, people would literally freeze to death inside, so it can't be done.
Also, take into account that spring/summer is warmer, and construction practices also have to take this into account.
According to the wikipedia article they jump and shoot ink and are generally very annoying, to the extent that there's an april fools day story that they were genetically modified...
