Community Blog

The elephant in the room! “… I’m just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood!” The Animals There is a fraternity of conservationists that call the lowveld region of South Africa home. They are a bush-wise, sun-bronzed, khaki-clad, well-meaning faction. They sit around board room tables, their agitated […]

Hi All We have a very large Elephant population in Zimbabwe with some folks claiming there are too many.  I’m told that there is something like 65,000 in Hwange National Park with Gonarezhou “housing” some 15,000 in their 5,000 square kilometres. Just 3 per square Kilometre is surely not a lot. Should we be concerned? […]

Hi All This weekend I drove down to Chilo Lodge on the edge of Gonarezhou and spent 3 nights in their self-catering lodges. Our outward journey took us through Mutare returning via the alternate Gutu route. They have patched up all the potholes on the 260km stretch between Chiredzi and Chivhu, so the long return […]

Hi All It is debatable whether one should be buried or cremated when your earthly days are done and dusted. My late brother, Roy, chose cremation and it was his expressed desire to have his immediate family to have a memorial for him somewhere near the Hwange National Park. So, last weekend three of us […]

Hi All Way back in the day, a band called the Mamas and Papas brought out a very popular song –click on Monday Monday to put yourself in a good mood for the day. I try to make a habit of waking up early on a Monday morning, joining the 5 AM club and sitting for a […]

Hi All I’m quite sure most of you folks have told a few White Lies in your lifetime. Did I hear you think “Not Me?” They are mostly told about inconsequential matters to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Real lies, on the other hand, are intended to deceive and most times cause major problems. The storyline in […]

Hi All It was so rewarding to see so many entries to our August Short story competition – 182 in total! Split evenly amongst the 3 age groups. It has taken us a long time to sift through them all working out which ones had merit or showed a latent talent for writing.  I can […]

Hi All Croco Motors does a lot of advertising with us in both the Nzira Travel Magazine and the daily Bambazonke Nhasi emails. We have also produced a 48-page hard copy Croco Magazine that was placed in their showrooms. Croco Motors are the Ford dealers in Zimbabwe, and they asked me to represent Zimbabwe at the […]

Hi All School term starts again on Tuesday and that means it’s time for the next Social Bowls league that Scotty Fraser has set up at Highlands Sports Club. The whole idea is to introduce people (of all ages) to the sport in a fun way with participants able to smoke or drink whilst playing […]

Hi All There’s a well-known adage that some folks are just “Born Story Tellers”. I’m not sure, though, that this statement is completely true. After all, everyone has a story to tell: Exhibitionists like to stand on a soapbox in places like London’s Hyde Park shouting out “hear ye, hear ye”; big drinkers relate their narrative down […]

Hi All, I drove down to Mutare last Friday to join 32 other players in the annual Goldberg Bowls tournament – it’s been a long time since they’ve had so many competitors. The standard of play was high and very competitive – lots of fun and comradery. Eleven teams played a Round-Robin of 2 wood trips all day Saturday […]

Emotions & Driving in Stressful Traffic Situations In addition to the four widely recognized factors – drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy driving – strong emotions are another major factor that increases the risk of a crash. When faced with challenging or unexpected traffic situations, most drivers, regardless of their age, become frustrated or angry. Besides […]

Hi All My late father was captain of his local Deeside Cycling club in Aberdeen way back in the late 1940s so we spent many a Saturday morning sitting beside him as he tried to explain to us four youngsters, the best way to fix a cycle chain or repair a puncture.  When we first moved back […]

HI All The flight back from Brisbane via Dubai is a long one taking over 30 hours from door to door. However, Emirates has some of the more modern planes around with comfortable seating and excellent staff to cater for all your basic flying needs. Very little jetlag this time around.  It doesn’t take long for returnees […]

Hi All I’ve written often, in the past, about how I like to plan my holidays around a major participatory sporting event. My youngest granddaughter, Hailey, is being christened here, in Brisbane, at the end of the month so I ended up competing in the Cairns Ironman 70.3 half ironman for a second time last […]

Hi All I flew down to Sydney this morning to spend time with my younger daughter and was duly picked up from the airport wondering what she and her partner had in store for us to do today.  Well, Dad, she responded, we are going to spend the morning touring all the leading bookstores in […]