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| << February21, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 122 dated 21.2.2005 |
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Turtle Essays edition no 123 dated 28th February 2005 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" ** In this edition: Editor's Blurb Budget Day in Cape Town Water saving tips and ideas ** Editor's Blurb Hi there folks! Welcome to al my new and regular readers. It's come to that time of the year in my household that I must get out and get all those little jobs done before winter sets in. Everybody else has the same idea and I'm running around fixing things at a school and here at home. I've decided to change my wooden faschia boards which are badly in need of replacement for the new maintenace free plastic ones. What have I let myself in for? Up and down ladders and climbing scaffolds like a monkey and nearly killing myself when a ladder topples or the old boards suddenly let go and nearly take me with them. There are other problems as well. Nothing these days is the same size as it was 20 years ago and guess what? The faschias are narrower than the ones I am removing so will have to plaster part of the wall and paint as well. Oh well, spose I'll just have to get on with it hey! Our SA Finance minister read his budget speech this week so have included some comments he made as well as water saving tips for those of you who are interested. I think I've said enough for one week. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman ** Budget Day in Cape Town S A Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel presented his annual budget to the country today, Wednesday 23.2.2005. Over the last few years SA residents have actually looked forward to the budget. Most years there have been a tax cut or two and most tax payers have had a Rand or two more to spend. The Minister loves his SIN taxes and every year adds a bit more to the prices of cigarettes and liquor. This year he continued the trend by adding 52 cents to a packet of cigarettes and 11 cents to a 750ml beer. Ouch! ???What with the high cost of water due to the drought conditions and the increased price of beer and other liquor what are we going to drink???? I suppose the Minister has to balance his budget somehow and as long as he gives me an incentive in income tax ( a lower tax rate or reorganising of tax brackets I suppose I cannot complain about beer prices). Personal taxpayers were given a bonus of R 6.8 million according to newspaper reports but I suspect that that is incorrect. With 43 million people in the country that's about 16cents per head reduction for the year, What a con if the figure is correct, It should most probably read R6.8 billion. Teachers have been ill treated over the past number of years by the state. Demands have been made on them as the education system has been changed and changed again and they have not received any subtantial increases in pay for a number of years. Teachers in South Africa in my opinion have one of the worst jobs in the country. With the introduction of rights for everybody, the pupils get all the rights while the teachers cannot lift a finger even when being abused by a learner. I from time to time assist with maintenance in a school and enter classrooms while teachers are busy teaching. If only parents could see how their kids are behaving they would send teachers medals on a daily basis for putting up with them. Well done Trevor! the teachers need some incentive to do this terrible job. Crime in South Africa is something else that has escalated out of hand over the past few years. Life has become cheap and police have had their hands tied as new laws have stopped them from carrying out their tasks. Many police stations have not had transport, and even worse, have needed protection from outside agencies as they were unable to protect themselves. In the old days a policeman was a force to be reckoned with and anybody trying his luck with one would end up in the back of a police van on his way to the cells. Today the police have to pussy foot around a criminal who has committed an armed robbery or any crime for that matter because he has rights. Over the last couple of years the police in many intances have given their lives for a mere pittance. No sane person would become a cop for what they are paid. It's no wonder we have so many crooked cops! This year the Minister has budgeted to give the police R5-billion to increase police pay and raise police numbers as well as to increase police officers from the 139000 in 2003 to 165850 by 2008. It's about time. The criminals here in South Africa have had a field day and it is time that they are give their just deserts, ??? Time behind bars???. Many of the so called criminals sitting behind bars at present are their because of the job situation in South Africa. If you have NO WORK how are you expected to live. Committing a crime will put you behind bars but at least you get fed and have a roof over your head even if its not as comfortable as you would hope it to be. The Minister has tried to look after this aspect as well. He has dropped company tax by 1 % as an incentive for companies to create jobs. South Africans enjoy lots of sand and sea and sun and fish in our acquariums but take no precautions against the effects of the sun. The Minister has abolished excise duties on sun protection creams and other products in an effort to stave off many of the cancers caused by the sun. The budget gives a little with one hand and takes back with the other. If you plan your life within the budget you could have a good time this year. ** Are any of the following affecting you? High water bills. Water restrictions. Hot weather and drought conditions. Garden using too much water and forever thirsty. Attempts to save water not effective! Answer yes to any of the above? Great! I've found just the ebook for you, where you can get more than 20 practical tips and low cost ideas to save water. Interested? Visit http://www.landscapingsecrets.com/?hop=brerrabbit today and gain instant access to the practical tips this book has to offer and start saving water immediately. Hurry over to http://www.landscapingsecrets.com/?hop=brerrabbit today to grab the bonus 25% discount being offered. Water is precious! Start saving it TODAY! Please read the disclaimer found at Http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html before purchasing any products. ** Water saving tips and ideas As everybody knows we are having a drought here in Cape Town and as the dams are very low some tight restrictions have been implemented. Every day tips of how to save water are published in the newspapers. I have decided to add a couple of my own as well. Swimming Pools: Swimming pools are very difficult to control at this time of the year. It's hot and windy and water evaporates quickly. At the same time the water in the pool is filled with dust and muck which ends up in the filter. To clean the filter one has to backwash and this drains the pool of hundreds of litres of water which in most instances is pumped down drain pipes and ends up running down the streets and into sewers. Instead of pumping the water to waste do the following: Take an old type rubber dirt bin (round one) and fit two cross members through the sides at about three quarters of the height of the bin. Get a sponge cushion about two inches thick cut to the size of the inside of the bin and place it on top of the members. Drill a hole at the bottom of the bin and fit a pipe to it which will allow the water to flow out of it . Backwash your pool into the bin from the top, the dirt will be filtered out by the sponge and the water will flow back to your pool. Once your filtering is complete wash the sponge, ready for next time. The above should save you hundreds of litres of water. Toilets: If you have underground water get yourself a plastic water tank and set it up a metre or so above ground. Fit a pipe from the tank to your toilet cistern and link into the mains pipe to your toilet by means of a T piece. Make the link between the stop cock to the cistern and the cistern so that you can switch off the mains water. Fill your water tank using rainwater or from your underground supply and pipe the water to your cistern. Don't forget to fit a stop cock on the pipe from the water tank as the mains water when switched on will push into the tank if the tap is not switched off. Kitchen sinks: Kitchen sinks waste a lot of water when rinsing hands and food while cooking. If you have a double sink which is connected to a drain by means of one pipe make the following alterations to the fittings and you could save yourself hundreds of litres per day. Plastic piping is cheap and all you need to do is seperate the two sinks from one another. Use one sink for the dirty washing up water and soapy stuff. This is channelled into the drain as per normal. Use the second sink for rinsing dishes, food etc and then channel the water directly into a container outside with a pipe leading into your garden. That way you will not pump soapy water into your garden and be able to use the cleaner water which normally goes to waste. Outside Potplants. Outside potplants are a problem. Roses especially need oodles of water, which drains through the plant after watering and then runs away. To solve the problem of water running all over your patio and going to waste, place the pots over cement gutter chanelling and channel the overflow water directly into your garden. You can water two plants for the price of one. ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. Latest Topic : Fire at Lions Head Pub http://turtleessays.blogspot.com * 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 ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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March07, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 124 dated 7th March 2005 >> |
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