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| << December13, 2004 - Turtle Essays Edition no 115 dated 13.12.2004 |
January10, 2005 - Turtle Essays message dated 10.1.2005 >> |
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Turtle Essays edition no 116 dated 20th December 2004 ** Love to Travel? Find out how to make your money go further! Get your copy of ???The Travel Secrets Guide??? and start saving today! http://hop.clickbank.net/?Brerrabbit/infodawg ** Looking for cheap airtickets to all destinations. Try us! http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=26917872&siteid=41315606&bfpage=homepage" ** Get Instant Access to Hundreds of Work-at-Home Jobs Want exclusive access to the hottest freelance jobs online today? Signing up for trial membership of Freelance Work Exchange gives you access to cool projects like these. Write Articles for a Web Site Translate a Book Manage a Newsletter Mail Out Fire your boss and set your work-at-home career off to a cracking start today http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-1599689-10301357 ** In this edition Editor's Blurb Christmas in Cape Town. Carols by Candlelight ** Editors Blurb. Hi there folks! Welcome to the last Turtle Essays ezine for the year. My family have all finished work for the year and are on leave and I will be joining them once I have finished putting together this ezine. The articles I have written are a bit of a mixed bag this week as they include the good and bad sides of Christmas here in Cape Town. Yes! Cape Town like any other city in the world has two sides to it. In my articles I try and stay away from some of the negative issues as being positive is what I am striving to be. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my faithful readers and visitors to my website a very Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2005. I will be back in the new year but have not decided just when that will be. I'll just sneak up on you if you don't mind. Thanks once again. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman I've included some photos on my website with the articles. You can find them here. Http://www.turtlesa.com/ezine116.html ** Christmas in Cape Town There are nine days left till Christmas day and the mad rush is on to get everything done before then. The shopping malls are full and the parking areas even fuller. It takes an age to get anywhere on the roads as they are full of visitors from the other provinces in South Africa. Everywhere you look you either see GP number plates (visitors from Gauteng) or EC plates ( visitors from the eastern Cape). The authorities are also getting into the spirit of Christmas on the roads. Instead of being out there where they can be seen to be looking after the interests of motorists they are hiding behind bushes with their cameras to catch the unwary motorist who is speeding. I visited the local traffic department this week and there were no fewer than six of their vehicles parked behind the admin block when they should have been out on the roads. The organisation of the road builders is also putrid. In the middle of the Christmas rush with hundreds of extra vehicles on the roads they are busy resurfacing the N1 highway cutting three lanes down to one and causing delays of up to 30 minutes. Shopkeepers are expecting a bumper season and in the malls all you hear playing is ???Jingle Tills??? or should that be Jingle Bells. The old favourite Christmas tunes such as ???White Christmas??? are also to be heard. Who however has heard of a white Christmas in Cape Town. Capetonians follow some of the traditions left over from the British and Dutch who colonised this part of the world. We love our roast turkey with roast potatoes and heaps of vegetables for Christmas lunch. It's normally a scorcher of a day and there we are eating these large hot meals. It's ???MADNESS??? to those who don't live in SA but we just love it. Of course there are those who prefer to have a braai on Christmas day, but fortunately I am not one of them and in fact will celebrate Christmas twice as we follow the German and British traditions. The Germans celebrating Christmas on Christmas eve and the British on Christmas day. For those who love Christmas Carols places such as Kirstenbosch Gardens and some of the wine estates have arranged Carol singing evenings for the public. A visit to Kirstenbosch to see one of these concerts is an experience to remember. The beautiful gardens, the mountains, the shadows which creep silently over you as the sun sets,the smells of the various wild flowers, a frosty long stemmed glass of wine and a full picnic basket overflowing onto the lawn around you make the evening concert a memorable occasion. Christmas in Cape Town unfortunately also has a bad side to it. The beaches are normally crowded and many people bring alcohol along with them. After a long day in the hot sun and many drinks later and you have a possible tragedy on your hands. This year alcohol has been banned from the beaches in an effort to stop some of the fights that erupt as well as to curb the many drownings that happen when these drunks take to the water. A number of deaths have already occurred in the townships where fires have broken out and destroyed hundreds of shacks. The shacks are wood, iron and plastic structures and are built so close together that when one catches fire the whole township goes up in flames before fire fighters can get close to put out the blaze. The unfortunate part is that the residents lose everything they own when this happens an in many cases are lucky to escape with their lives. There have been two large fires in the last week with a number of people having lost their lives. Road accidents have been horrific. A number of the mini bus taxis have been involved in accidents and when this happens up to 20 people get injured or killed. The authorities are now advocating larger vehicles to be used as taxis and the unfortunate part is that when there is an accident even more people will die. This Christmas give a thought to hospital staff that have to be on duty. There lives become hell as they have to deal with victims of road accidents, muggings, rapes, murders and gunshot wounds. Many of the victims are drunk when they arrive and are abusive and sometimes threaten hospital staff. Who would want to be a doctor or a nurse in these circumstances. Enough of the tragedy of Christmas. Cape Town is a beautiful place to visit and if you are careful and stick to the normal rules of society which you will find in any city of the world you will have a truly magnificent holiday here. Lets see you all here soon. ** Carols by Candlelight The local Rotary club of Kirstenbosch organised a series of Carols by Candlelight evenings at Kirstenbosch Gardens this week. When the gates opened at about 5.00 pm people arrived in their thousands to enjoy a picnic on the lawns of Kirstenbosch while they waited for the 8.00pm start. Kirstenbosch was as usual in peak condition and the walk through the gardens together with hundreds of people and their excited kids was most enjoyable. The lawns where all the concerts are held were packed with people and as it started to get dark they all lit their candles. This created a lovely warm glow on the faces of the people as the candle light took over from the daylight. The evening started with the singing of some carols and in between a narrator told the Christmas story. At the end of the evening the carol ??? Silent Night??? was sung and everybody was asked to stand and hold up their candles. Everywhere you looked were candles being swayed from side to side in unison with the singing . It was a sight that brought tears to my eyes. At an event like this all sorts of funny things take place. Grandfathers, have a rough and tumble with their grandchildren and knock people over in their games. Mothers have to run for a toilet with small kids who have waited too long. Worst of all are the kids who get separated from their parents and then scream their lungs out. To me the funniest were two ladies who arrived late and wanted to sit in the centre of the large crowd, As I was sitting on the edge of the lawn they had to push past me to get to the spot they had chosen. One of the ladies was carrying two heavy bags containing their picnic supper. On seeing me sitting relaxing she decided that her bags were too heavy to carry and instructed me to bring her bags and follow her. Me! a perfect stranger who she had never seen before. Without further ado she dumped her bags and went marching off into the crowd with her friend and I straggling on after her. When she found her spot she proceeded to move everyone around her out of the way so that she could spread out her blanket. Her friend who was with me watching all this could only say, ???Never again, never again!??? The poor dear was totally embarrassed. As soon as I could I dropped their bags on their blanket and made a beeline back to my seat before I got any further instructions. My wife of course thought all of this was a big joke and had a good laugh at my expense. The carols by candlelight evening was a great success and a spectacle when the candles were lit. Kirstenbosch worked its magic as well. There are so many lovely happenings in Cape Town at this time of the year and I'm sure that most Capetonians would love you to join them in celebrating Christmas. Join us when you can. ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. Topic : Fire on the Tygerberg http://turtleessays.blogspot.com If you have not visited this blog before, do so as there are some unique photos on site. Your comments will be appreciated. ** Like to have your own rose garden. Find out how to do it from an expert. Here is his link: http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** Lotto Loser? Change your luck today Give yourself a winning chance http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/shaneomac2 ** Please read the disclaimer at http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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| << December13, 2004 - Turtle Essays Edition no 115 dated 13.12.2004 |
January10, 2005 - Turtle Essays message dated 10.1.2005 >> |
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