Eastern Jhb Callies November 2008 newsletter
Patrick Craven
Eastern Johannesburg Caledonian Society
PO Box 15049 Farramere 1518
Chief: Fred Brokenshire - Secretary: Janette Pollock - Newsletter Editor: Patrick Craven
NOVEMBER 2008 NEWSLETTER
DIARY
Saturday 6 December, 19h00. St Andrew commemoration and Christmas Party, St Andrew's Church Hall, Ocean Street, Kensington. Tickets R35, Children R15. Please early for this very popular function; phone Jean on 011 849 1627.
As usual, please bring a small present (max R20) marked for Man or Lady, or if for a child, his or her name.
_____________________________________
CONDOLENCES
To May Lally and all the family and friends of Jack Lally who passed away in October.
BEST WISHES
To Fiona Wood, who has been in hospital for an operation, and Duncan Dick, who is still not well.
CONGRATULATIONS
To Margaret West on becoming Chief of the St Andrew's Scottish Society. We wish her all the best for her year in office.
To Lyndall Bronkhorst on her marriage.
Happy birthday this month to: Isobel Gorman, Emily Craven, Sandra Turton, Daphne Herold, Chris Duncan, Walter and Rae Zimmerman, Ailsa Goddard, Bradley Pryde, Stella and Pamela Gerrish, Maureen Morland, Tom Clark, Andrew Hartgill
Happy anniversary to: Lyn and Peter Forbes, Pamela and Andrew Christie, Sharon and Martin Zellerer, Marian and John Martin, Daphne and Russell Herold.
Welcome back
To Alex and Joan Sorrell who are back in South Africa for a visit.
Caledonian Congress 2009
Next year's Congress will be held here in Gauteng, from 9-11 October 2009. A committee chaired by Jean Kelly is already hard at work making plans. If you have any good ideas about venues, sponsors, fund-raising, etc or to volunteer to join the committee, please phone Jean on 083 602 1552.
D'ye ken
1. Which cave on the island of Staffa inspired an overture by Mendelssohn of the same name?
2. Which town has recently been voted, for the second time, as the "most dismal" in Scotland?
3. Where is the Deep Sea World aquarium?
4. Why has Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi been in the news in Scotland?
5. Which Scottish city is building a controversial tram project?
Did ye ken?
1. Which Scottish engineer coined the term 'horsepower'? His name is still used as the measurement of power. James Watt
2. What important position is currently held by George Burley? Scotland National Football Team coach/manager
3. Who is Sir Fred Goodwin and why has he been in the news? Sacked Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, "first victim of the financial crisis''.
4. What and where is the House of Trousers? See below
5. For what did Chris Iwelumo become notorious on 11 October 2008? He missed an open goal for Scotland against Norway, from two yards out.
The House of Trousers
Tigh an Truish is a 18th Century Inn sitting next to the famous 'Bridge over the Atlantic', on the beautiful Island of Seil. Tigh an Truish means 'house of the trousers' and comes from the period after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion when kilts were banned. Islanders heading for the mainland (then without the benefit of the bridge) are supposed to have stopped here to swap their kilts for trousers.
Where in the world is the biggest Highland Gathering?
From Janette Pollock, via Bells Fraternity of Connoisseurs, Sept 2008 Edition 30
While the Cowal Highland Gathering is the largest Highland Games in Scotland, the Caledonian Club of San Francisco holds the largest Highland Games in the world. The club has hosted a Highland Games event every year since 1866 and over 50 000 people attend the spectacle at Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton California.
Scottish Logic
From Geraldine Devine
A man in Scotland calls his son in London the day before Christmas Eve and says, I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.
'Dad, what are you talking about?' the son screams.
We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,' the father says.
'We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Leeds and tell her.'
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. 'Like hell
they're getting divorced,' she shouts, 'I'll take care of this,'
She calls Scotland immediately, and screams at her father, 'You are NOT
getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?' and hangs up.
The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. 'Okay,' he says,
they're coming for Christmas and they're paying their own way.
Society reports
Cape Town Caledonian Society
From Chief Peter Ross
As we are just about to celebrate St Andrew's Night I would like to tell you about St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university town and a pilgrimage centre for golfers from around the world! The town is situated on a wide bay on the north-eastern coast of Fife. St. Andrews University is often compared with Oxford and Cambridge universities. The student population, at St. Andrews, has a significant proportion of English undergraduates, among them, famously, Prince William, who was responsible for a substantial increase in the intake of female art history students during his time there!
According to legend the town was founded pretty much by accident, in the fourth century by St Rule, a custodian of the bones of St Andrew in Patras in southern Greece. In a vision he was ordered to carry 5 of the Saint's bones to the western edge of the world where he was to build a city in his honour. Struggling ashore after being shipwrecked, close to the present harbour, he built a shrine to the Saint, on what became the site of the cathedral. St. Andrew became Scotland's patron saint and the town its ecclesiastical capital. To hear more, come along to our St Andrew's evening on 6 December.
East London Caledonian Society
From Chief Dave Rankin
I had some fun in October by using Congress to startle some of my students.
It's always difficult to drive home that management and unions actually want the same things out of life and that success in business requires reconciling the two sides.
I could see that I was being indulged rather than believed, so I tossed in the comment "I was having a drink with COSATU's National Spokesman at a congress last weekend, so I know what I'm talking about".
The students could accept me drinking. They weren't so sure about why, being such an unrepentant free-market buccaneer, I would mix with the "opposition". Point made and they started paying attention again.
Maybe I should have told them which congress we were attending, but that would have spoiled the affect.
News from Scotland
Harry Potter fan's lucky day
Ben Spencer, Daily Record, 14 November
YOUNG Harry Potter fan went to Edinburgh to see where her favourite book was written ... and bumped in to JK Rowling in a cafe.
Dulcie Horn, 15, travelled all the way from her home in Devon to the Scots capital to tour the spots where JK wrote the first Potter book.
She and her godmother were on the way to the famous Nicolson's cafe, where JK would go to write while she was struggling on benefits, when they stopped off at another cafe, Florentines.
And just as they left their table after their meal, JK walked in and sat down at it.
"She was lovely," an amazed Dulcie told the Record yesterday. "She agreed to let me have my picture taken with her.
"She was eating carrot cake and said I had a lovely name. I was gutted I didn't get her autograph but I was so ridiculously starstruck I couldn't speak.
"It was a complete coincidence that I bumped into her and it was an amazing experience. I am a huge Harry Potter fan."
Dulcie's mum Laura, of Hatherleigh, Devon, added: "She was staying with her godmother in Edinburgh for half-term. And she told her that she knew it was sad, but she wanted to see the cafe where JK Rowling used to go to write.
"They stopped off at a different restaurant on the way to Nicolson's so it was even more of a coincidence that they met JK there."
JK has told fans on her website how she would go to cafes to write while she was living on benefits with baby daughter Jessica.
She said: "Whenever she fell asleep in her pushchair, I would dash to the nearest caff and write like mad.
"I wrote nearly every evening then I had to type the whole thing out myself. Sometimes I actually hated the book, even while I loved it."
JK used several cafes while writing Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone but Nicolson's, now called the Buffet King, is the most famous.
The cafe even has a plaque on the wall to mark its connection to the millionaire author.
The clearance sale with a difference.. it's for houses
Tom Hamilton, Daily Record, 14 November
DESPERATE house sellers are to hold a multi-million-pound clearance sale. More than £16million worth of properties will be up for grabs. And £3.7million - or 22.5 per cent - will be wiped off their value.
About 80 homes in east and west central Scotland will be sold at knockdown prices. Some will have up to 40 per cent discounts and almost £100,000 off.
The sale will be on a first-come, first-serve basis, with sellers looking for quick cash sales. If buyers conclude missives on the day, they will get up to an extra £5000 off.
Leading developers, building firms and property investors are taking part in the one-day sale in a bid to ease their slump.
It comes after new figures showed a 41 per cent slump in the number of house sales across the country.
It has also been revealed prices have dropped four per cent in the last quarter.
Tomorrow's sale is being staged by estate agents Countrywide in Glasgow. Mairi Eckford, Countrywide's managing director in Scotland, said: "We believe this is the first event of its type in Scotland.
And this is a window of opportunity for first-time buyers, families, landlords and investors.
"The reductions are for one day only and will go back up to their normal levels.
"The sale prices are not typical of current market values. This is a golden opportunity to help developers, builders and investors clear their stock and kick-start the local housing market."
Properties in the sale include modern and traditional apartments, terraced, semidetached and detached family homes.
Prices range from an £8000 farm cottage in Ayrshire to large detached family homes in the Glasgow area costing £500,000.
The biggest discount is on a penthouse flat in a converted school in Kilmarnock. The developers put it up for sale at £245,000. Its new one day only price is £155,000. And if it sells tomorrow, there is a further £5000 discount.
Recent figures revealed a 70 per cent slump in the number of new mortgages being approved.
Figures revealed yesterday showed the largest price fall in house prices in Scotland in at least 16 years. The cost of homes dropped four per cent in the three months to November, according to the Scottish House Price Monitor.
The figure represents the largest quarterly fall in the Lloyds TSB Scotland survey's 16-year history. The average house price is estimated at £165,398 - down from £172,185 in July.
Don't forget: You can get this newsletter via email. Please contact me on:
Best wishes to you all. Patrick