Morning Mirror Edition 189 - 21/ 6/ 2006




In this edition

Smalls



THE VICTORIA FALLS




The Victoria Falls is the perfect place to be on a Zimbabwean winters weekend !!

And the 67th Annual Mining Conference held at the Elephant Hills Safari Lodge brought home to me just how special this country still is.

Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and it is and always will be magical and breathtaking.

The Victoria Falls village has had a major facelift. There are Tourist Police to look after the tourists and they do their job diligently and efficiently. The hotels are not crowded but Tourism seems to be on the increase again thank goodness.

The shops are stocked with a delightful selection of good quality curios and Zimbabwean Objects d'art. There are bikes for hire, or beach buggies or trail bikes and go carts for the rough roads.

The Elephant Hills Hotel is absolutely striking, the decor cleverly incorporates the essence and mystery of Africa and yet remains regal, cool and imposing.

Instead of massed arrangements of flowers, which would have to be imported at great cost from other centres, the hotel uses beautiful soapstone carvings of hippo ponds with tastefully arranged bamboo shoots nestling in the water.

How subtle and original and artful !!

The service is impeccable, the waiters are friendly and attentive to one's smallest need and yet discreet and highly trained.

The food was excellent. We had a full on sit down banquet the first night for the 120 delegates to the conference, served with acceptable local wines or imported wines at a price !!

The next night we had a true African experience - the Bush Dinner, served under the stars surrounded by braziers to keep away the cold, with the tables beautifully laid and an excellent array of local and traditional dishes.

Marimbas played and young ebony skinned maidens kept us entertained while we feasted from tables laden with macimbi, mazondo, braised sable, fried capenta and sadza and relish.

Of course there was plenty of steak and chicken and salad too for the less adventurous tourist !

The logistics of serving over a hundred people under the stars and the brilliant full moon, in the magical African bush must be seen to be believed.

A sundowner cruise on the might Zambesi River brought back all those memories of days gone by when life was lazy and less stressful.

Elephant, hippo, crocodile and bush buck were apparent and the boat crew kept us entertained with gin slings and river anecdotes.

A morning jog on the golf course was however the "piece de resistance" Bushbuck, duiker, waterbuck and warthog were everywhere, watching me with their deep onyx eyes, suspicious yet unafraid. Those minute mesh spider webs were everywhere glistening with silver dew, hopeful of an early morning ant snack. It made jogging difficult as one tried hard not to stand on the diamond patterns.

Hornbills mewed like babies, vultures soared lazily in the thermals overhead as if trying to compete with the helicopters and microlites which forged backwards and forwards ferrying tourists eager to get an aerial view of the mighty Victoria Falls.

Back in the sumptuous conference rooms, mining matters were discussed heatedly, but all this seemed very far removed from the real things in life at the Victoria Falls hamlet.

Beauty, majesty, rivers and massive trees that all meet in harmony at the foot of one of the most amazing sights that Mother Nature has ever produced and it is all here to be found in Zimbabwe at the Victoria Falls.


CONGRATULATIONS



CONGRATULATIONS

Born to Maree (nee Kendal) and Matthew Brown in Adelaide, Australia on the 14th May, a bouncing boy, Owen Thomas. Granny Jenny is over there and is delighted with her first grandson!
Maree's email address maree.brown@dsl.pipex.com


SYMPATHY MESSAGES


CONDOLENCES

Joey Neville. Beloved Granny of Michael and Phyllida, Big Granny of James, Kris, Little Michael and William. A wonderful lady who will be very sorely missed. Thank you for being such a great granny to us all.


White - Miggs (Garden and Home)
Passed away in Pretoria on 13th May after long illness. Gone home rejoicing.
Danny, Colleen and all families


JOSS ALLAN
Dear beloved husband of Edna and father to Clive and Sharon, and the late Malcom, grandfather to Dylan & Connor passed away peacefully on Monday the 15th of May.



JOSS ALLAN
Dearly loved uncle, friend, & mentor of Heather, Brian and all the family.
Such a gentleman with an open heart.

MARGARET LEWIS (PEGS) MORTON - BELOVED WIFE OF ALAN AND MOTHER OF MARIE, SARAH, HILARIE AND HELENA
(Teacher for many years at Baines School. Died peacefully in Cape Town on 16th May after long illness)



CONDOLENCES
Hazel Cockcroft.
My deepest sympathy to Derek Cockcroft, ( my son in law ) his sisters Pat and Linda and their families on the very sad passing of their mom Hazel who was a lovely lady loved by all who knew her. She is now at peace, after much suffering.. Much love Esme van Jaarsveldt and family.

PRAYERS ARE NEEDED FOR OUR OWN DEAR CHARLIE TROLLIP, HIS MOM MARION IS BACK HOME NOW FOR A WHILE AND HE NEEDS ALL OUR PRAYERS.

PRAYERS ARE ALSO NEEDED FOR DR NCUBE OUR OWN ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON, AN BY THE WAY IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND HIM A GET WELL CARD, LINDY BROOKS WILL TAKE ONE DOWN TO JOBURG FOR YOU. DROP THE CARDS OFF WITH JANET AT SOLOMON'S SUPERMARKET.


TIDBITS


TIDBITS
At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. --Jean Houston

Fact of the Day:
It turns out that laughter might just be the best medicine.
Especially for diabetes. New research in Japan shows that a chuckle helps the body process blood sugar. A study of type 2 diabetes -- the most common form of the disease -- found that laughter was linked to lower blood sugar levels after a meal. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Promote good health and new possibilities: tell a joke to a fellow office worker, student or neighbour.


Hyper inflation cases in history

May 12 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe said on Friday its April inflation rate hit a record 1,042.9 percent, the world's highest. Here are some details about hyper-inflation and some infamous instances in other countries:
* ARGENTINA:
After decades of being a case study in ruinous inflation, Argentina returned to single-digit yearly price rises in August 1993. Just four years previously hyper-inflation was tripling prices in a month. President Carlos Menem recalled that when he took office inflation was running at around 5,000 percent a year. The austral, the currency at the time of his predecessor, had gone from being worth more than $1 to 690 per dollar.
* BRAZIL:
Fleeing from hyper-inflation in March 1990, Brazil's new government introduced one of history's most draconian monetary reforms and froze more than 100 billion dollars of individuals' and companies' money. Inflation had reached a record monthly rate of nearly 73 percent the month before. In July 1994 President Itamar Franco and Economy Minister Rubens Ricupero made a multibillion-dollar switch from the cruzeiro real to the dollar-backed real to drop monthly inflation from 47 percent to the low single digits.
* GERMANY:
Inflation is still a dirty word in Germany, where in the 1920s a wheelbarrow full of money was needed to pay for a loaf of bread. The Weimar government, saddled with a $33 billion reparation bill responded by printing money at a furious hyper-inflationary pace. In 1922, the highest denomination was 50,000 mark. By 1923, The highest value banknote issued by the Weimar government's Reichsbank had a face value of 100 billion marks. During the worst times, one U.S. dollar was equal to 80 billion marks.
* YUGOSLAVIA:
The economy of rump Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, collapsed following the disintegration of former Yugoslavia's single market in 1991. Like many inflations, however, Yugoslavia's had its origins in a budget deficit which was covered by printing money. The country went through a period of hyper-inflation and subsequent currency reforms from 1989 to 1994. Yugoslavia suffered hyper- inflation of over one billion percent in 1993. In December 1993, the cost of living rose 2,839 times from November, and over 6,000 billion times from early in the year. On the foreign currency black market, the only one that counted in rump Yugoslavia, $1 fetched on one day 3,000 billion dinars, up from 1,100 billion the day before.




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