The rain is here. The electricity has gone.   As I typed the eight words above I did have the thought that those words alone say it all! But my readers expect more than that.   Over the last eight to ten weeks there seems to have been increased load shedding. Certainly where I live, […]

It was a new car and the time had come for its first tyre change. So the hunt began.   Armed with the phone numbers of all the known tyre suppliers inLusaka, I started on my quest to find out who had what and how much. What became very clear very quickly was that no […]

Robert A Heinten said ‘Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something’. This is very true of the bar code which is now found on every manufactured product that we purchase.   The history of the bar code dates back to 1948 when the […]

In terms of human communication it’s always very difficult to imagine how we would get along without speech. With estimates of approximately 6,800 languages spoken on earth, half of these are located in only eight countries; Papua-New Guinea 832, Indonesia 731, Nigeria 515, India 400, Mexico 295, Cameroon 286, Australia 268 and Brazil 234!   […]

Dung Beetles   There are thousands of species of dung beetles, of which some 1,800 are found in Southern Africa alone. Overall they occur throughout most of Africa and Madagascar. They come in a variety of colours and sizes – bronze, green, black and so on. They have a wide thorax, short clubbed antennae with […]

Trees create a garden. The rest is decoration! I had been thinking of planting a few more small to medium size trees and took my time considering the many possibilities. The franjipani is beautiful and very eye-catching in full bloom in October but not an attractive tree once the dry season comes. It also occupies […]

‘Pzazz’ at Zebra Crossings   Is there any wrong time for a pizza? We chose an early Monday lunch-time served hot, and first out of the wood-fired oven.  Zebra Crossings Café has always been a place to escape to for fresh platters and a good cup of coffee served in the open air. Authentic Italian […]

Zambia’s Railways  –   A Vital But Underutilised Resource Recently RSZ (Railway Systems of Zambia) have had the concession to run Zambia’s rail system taken away. Some would say, about time too! Let us face it, they have not improved the infrastructure or the motive power or the rolling stock. In fact, quite the contrary, all […]

A pre-sunrise start from Lusaka, heading North, has one reaching the outskirts of Kabwe just when one is feeling ready for breakfast or, at the very least, a cup of coffee. And do you know what? Fig Tree Café, just seven kilometres south of Kabwe, on the left hand side, are open at 6 am […]

January 9, 1973, the Rhodesian Government led by Ian Smith announced the abrupt and unexpected closure of the border posts between Zambia and Rhodesia at Victoria Falls, Kariba and Chirundu. Ten hours later, it was further announced that Zambia’s life giving copper was to be excluded from this closure. Three weeks later, on 1 February […]

Link Zambia 8000, Pave Zambia 2000; the two latest programmes to improve and increase mobility in and around Zambia. And correctly so. Roads are the lifeline of our country and the catalyst for development. But let me tell you a story of a specific road. In 2008, within a few days of the nation receiving […]