Mike's Blog

Hi All The one thing I enjoy about Zimbabweans is the way that the less able, elderly folk are taken care of by their immediate community. For some it is just something that happens in the rural village; for others it is generally helping with an “Old Age” organisation. Yet one of the most unheralded groups […]

Hi All The main reason I decided to study at the University of Natal in Durban was so that I would have ample opportunity to master the sport of Surfboarding! Many a lecture was skipped when there was a westerly offshore wind when us “Surfers” would rush off the North Pier to catch a swell. […]

Hi All I lived in London for the best part of a year in the late 1970s. Computers were “Coming of Age”, so I soon found employment using my Computer Science degree. The company I worked for was developing software for a Hotel Reservation system, ensuring valuable experience for my future computer programming career. I […]

Hi All I last played rugby way back in about 1983 – full back or fly half for the 3rd team at Old Georgians. There were so many guys playing club rugby in and around Harare in those days, that in 1984 OGs had a social 4th team playing too. In 1981 we (the thirsty thirds) were […]

Hi All A good friend of mine, Dave, once told me that in ideal road conditions one should never have a car accident – as long as you stick within the speed limit, don’t drink and drive, and are wide awake. Well Dave, it’s not so simple in our current traffic circles!  The first thing that comes to […]

Hi All Troutbeck has, over the past 50 or 60 years, proudly established itself as the central hub for tourism in the Eastern Highlands – all roads lead to Troutbeck! The main tarred roads taking one there from Harare are all in good nick, making the drive to this destination a whole lot more pleasant than some of our alternatives. […]

Hi All, Way back in the 1980s the, then very influential, Computer Society of Zimbabwe used to hold an annual week-long Nyanga conference alternating between the Troutbeck and Montclair Hotels. They always invited leading authorities in computing and accounting, like chairman John Dawson, to give lectures and lead discussions on recent trends. Computers were in […]

Hi All Over the years, I have, literally, spent hundreds of nights in our Eastern Highlands. The most memorable trips have been when I’ve stayed with close friends or family in a respectable cottage or lodge for three nights or more: where there has been no TV or Internet; where evenings were spent huddled around […]

Hi All If you’ve been brought up in Zimbabwe and had a decent education (Gifford Tech in my case!) you will probably have been taught about the wonders of our outdoor life. You should, surely, know about the Big Five wildlife believing that to see all of them is something you must do before you meet up […]

Hi All I’m of the opinion that one should set aside one day of the week to do something completely different to the daily workday grind. Such a day is universally known as “The Sabbath Day” – when you switch off from the humdrum of day-to-day life. Those with deeply religious feelings will, on their […]