Phuthu Stay Phut, Don't go!

KwaZulu-Natal is home to one of the world’s premier butterfly centres – namely Butterflies for Africa outside Pietermaritzburg. This is a delightful place words simply don’t do justice, so you have to visit and experience the magic for yourself.

A spectacular walk-through Butterfly House allow you to admire brightly coloured butterflies from all over the world flying freely around you. The sounds of quails and finches, cascading waterfalls and gentle streams add to the magic. Green iguanas Smeagol and Deagol can also be found in the Butterfly House, and the same goes for a whole bunch of fascinating stick insects.

Apart from the Butterfly House there’s also a lovely garden and nursery, the Painted Lady Coffee Bar, the Butterfly Shop and a Monkey Enclosure where visitors can interact with Cotton-top Tamarin monkeys – charming and friendly little chaps. The Butterflies of Africa website explains that Cotton-top Tamarins live naturally only in Colombia in northern South America. They are one of the most endangered primates in the world, owing to the clearing of their forest habitat (more than three quarters of their original habitat has been deforested) and population depletion from animal trade. Currently there are more of these monkeys in captivity than the 2 000 to 3 000 Cotton-top Tamarins existing in the wild. And this population unfortunately continues to decline.

At Butterflies for Africa there’s also the Blue Caterpillar Art Gallery – a spacious showcase for local artists offering a wide range of tastefully presented artwork – and an African art centre with quality ethnic crafts. An education centre and function rooms are also available.

Ticket Prices

• Adults: R28
• Children (16 and under): R18
• Pensioners: R18

Other Info

• Entrance to the monkey enclosure at feeding times is R11
• Butterfly House tickets include an audio-visual show
• Guides are available in the butterfly house at no extra charge

Tel: 033 387 1356
Adr: 37 Willowton Road, just off the N3 in PMB

Well, besides the diverse cultural heritage that makes up our rainbow nation, we celebrate the fact that all of our contributions together edifies our beautiful country.

In 2005 a media campaign re-branded Heritage Day as National Braai Day – a culinary outdoor event all South Africans can relate to.

And as obedient, submissive South Africans we will do just that:
Braai.

Not that we want to, of course. We would much rather have gone about our usual business at work, being productive and all that. But seeing that a braai is what is expected of us and we all believe in unity, we will comply.

So whether you are having a backyard braai with phuthu, chakalaka and boerewors, a larney kebab-and-cous-cous barbeque on your patio or sitting around a fire burning a chicken and sharing Shaka Zulu stories, we want you to be proud of your heritage and have a fabulous day.

Happy Braai Day AKA Heritage Day!

It might be one of those things that you keep putting off but setting up an automatic back-up process for your computer is vital and should be of top priority. If your business computers crash or are stolen or even if they go up in flames it could take you months and months to retrieve business contacts, numbers and account details and some information/documents will be lost forever. Your business could suffer heavily which is not a situation that any businessperson wants to be in. Ideally you should set your computer up to do back-ups daily and you should have two portable hard-drives that you swop over everyday, preferably taking one off-site. If you work form home, store the hard-drive away from your computer in a safe place. The point is that it is not in the same place as your computer. If you are not sure on how to set up an automatic back-up system, or if you run a complex network then call an I.T company who would be able to discuss various solutions for you!

Answer to yesterday’s Brain Game:

Dr Piet. Since these are the only two dentists in town, it is certain they do each other’s dental work. Therefore Dr Jan must be responsible for the poor state of his partner’s teeth and should be avoided

September is Arbor Month, which in layman’s terms mean Tree Planting Month.

If you have any birthdays, anniversaries – or any event that justifies a gift – coming up, give life in the form of a tree. Another green idea: If someone close to you exchanges the temporary with the eternal, plant a tree (opposed to a lifeless tomb stone). It symbolizes life, is a great way of remembering someone special and you impact the environment positively.

Trees supply the most basic elements of life: oxygen, water vapour, food, shelter and fuel. We cannot survive without trees. This information provides you with a goal, all you need is a tree and a hole in the ground.

Trees of the year 2009

• Acacia galpinii (Monkey Thorn / Apiesdoring)
• Halleria lucida (Tree Fuchsia / Kinderbessie / Notsung)
• Pterocarpus rotundifolius (Round-leaved Teak / Dopperkiaat)

There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.
-   Minnie Aumonier

References:
Food & Trees for Africa
Botanical Gardens

Ulanda chipped one of her teeth while chewing on the remnants of a lamb chop bone…. or perhaps it could have also been the mielie or ribbetjies, she wasn’t quite sure which, but the food that Magda cooked for the braai were delicious so she couldn’t stop herself. Her mouth was too eina now to enjoy her melktert for dessert, so she decided to drive down the dirt road into town to go see if she could get her tooth fixed.

There were only two dentists in the area, Dr Jan and Dr Piet and on arrival she noticed that Dr Jan had a wonderful mouthful of teeth, Dr Piet’s mouth, on the other hand, seemed in urgent need of attention. With which dentist should she book her appointment with and why?

Answer in tomorrows Biz Tip

This weeks’ photo was taken by Vanessa Cracknell who has already received some international recognition for the shot by coming second in a recent photo competition run by The Telegraph UK. Well done Vanessa, we laaaaik it!

Click here to read what The Telegraph UK had to say about Vanessa’s photo.