Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2011-51

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IN THIS ISSUE

• Zvonko Springer continues his story of their working holiday
• We get letters from Carol Dilworth, Catherine Nesbitt, Elizabeth Parkinson, Irene Harvalias, and Jean Sterling
• Betty Audet writes about a much-used toboggan from long ago
• Joy Coetzee describes Christmas in South Africa
• Pat Moore forwards an article which declares that Santa Claus is a woman
• Sites are suggested by Bruce Galway, Carol Dilworth, Carol Hansen, Kate Brookfield, Pat Moore, and Stan French

Because the editor is suffering from a miserable cold and has no energy for editing, stories in this week´s issue will appear as she received them. In the first of them, Zvonko Springer and his wife have just arrived at the hotel "Trou aux Biches" on the island of Mauritius on their

WORKING HOLIDAY

Now I had to tell Ljiljana the silly story how I got to learn about the Mauritius silos during our candle light dinner in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant was close to the sandy beach and a nice breeze was getting through its open glass front. Soon after I took over the duty in the Bamburi works Mr. Ian Roberts alias Dick called me to his office. He was rather perturbed because the island of Mauritius had been hit by a strong cyclone that went together with heavy rains. The roof on one silo was not finished yet so the rain poured into its inside that was filled with cement almost to its half height. In my first reaction I said "blast of what´s inside". What had happened?

The mechanical engineer in charge of the machinery installation informed the Bamburi works that the two silos were ready to receive MS "Southern Baobab" first delivery of bulk cement. The ship sailed fully loaded with 3.500t and reached Mauritius before the cyclone hit it. Nobody could foresee that the contractor would fail to finish casting one of roof of the two silos at least. The cyclone with lot of rain hit the silo station so rain water poured through the not waterproofed roof shuttering and partly flowed into the silo interior. Later I thought about it a bit more and suggested to extract the cement through the manhole to form a cavity underneath the hardened layer as much as it would possible. When this had been done one should start demolishing the hardened layer from the top. Fortunately this layer was about 30cm thick only and it was not too difficult to remove broken pieces out of the silo through the manhole.

At present the Silo station consisted of three silos of 2.500t capacity each and a small packing plant cum a store for the paper bags. The demand of cement on the island was constantly rising so the idea was to put up two more silos of say 5.000t content each. Also one should increase the packing plant output and add a loading facility for the bulk road carriers. The berthing quay had been extended already to serve a terminal with a very large silo for the fertilizer needed in the agriculture. According to the new silo plant layout prepared by CIPAG one would need two bridges to span over the gap between the old part and the new extension. I was not quite sure what value of the wind pressure should I use in the structural calculation. The wind pressure depends entirely upon the wind velocity and I assumed up to 300km/h to be on the safe side. The silo foundations would have to be on piles drilled and cast in situ. The newly drilled samples of coral rock showed quite a good mechanical quality of rock. Thus I did not expect any problem in this respect.

Water-Lilies at Pamplemousse (Click to enlarge)

The next morning turned to be dull and the sky covered with clouds all over. José appeared at agreed time and after a brief consultation we decided to spend the day visiting the site after we have seen Mr. Rogers the director of MPC in Port Louis first. Mr. Rogers was one of the most prominent Mauritian and from a wealthy family of sugar cane barons. Later we would have enough time to go on a few seeing tours depending all upon whether the cyclone would bypass the island or not. As Ljiljana had joined us we went to make a brief visit to the Botanic Garden as we passed by Pamplemousses town. Since mid 19th century this garden became one of the island´s most favorite spot for visitors. Ljiljana almost flipped out seeing so much of "greenery" - she is a Taurus woman. There were many kinds of ferns, araucarias and a big number of palm trees particularly of the gigantic royal palm. The huge latans are covered with creepers and philodendrons yet we have not seen any orchids there. José promised Ljiljana to show a private collection of orchids in Curepipe for sure later. To distract her he pointed to a specific tree known as Talipot palms that have huge leaves measuring up to 3m yet it blossoms only once in their lifetime.

We rushed out of the Botanic garden as we had to go straight to Mr. Rogers who was waiting for us already. His office was in Port Louis center proper so Ljiljana excused herself with going for a short window shopping at nearby center of town. She would return at the agreed time to the office from where we would go to have the lunch in a noble restaurant that was in the same building. Our discussion started with a brief reconsideration of the subject I have investigated on my previous visit. The idea had to be abandoned definitely to build a cement factory on Mauritius to satisfy island´s fast increase of cement demand. The Mauritius is of the volcanic origin like all other of the Mascarene Islands. Thus Mauritius consists mainly of the igneous rocks. One could not find a substantial quantity of calcareous rock large enough to support the quarrying operation needed for a cement plant. Thus one decided to increase the storage facilities for imported bulk cement and its distribution either in bags or in bulk by ordering more of road tankers.

Ljiljana arrived at the agreed time and we broke up our meeting with the delight of a lady´s company. Mr. Rogers told the newest data about the cyclone movements in it was obvious that it would hit the island soon. The fourth stage of alarm had just been issued he told us. I asked how many stages do they have and the straight answer came as to five only. And what happens if the cyclone gets stronger of the fifth stage that has the wind velocity over 250ml/h (about 400km/h)? Mr. Rogers´s blunt answer came like a gunshot, "There is NO MORE OF - JUST HELP!" Nonetheless to this information we had an enjoyable meal and rather pleasant conversation particularly as Mr. Rogers liked obviously Ljiljana´s presence after all those men´s business talk.

Colored Earths (Click to enlarge)

José suggested making a sightseeing tour of island´s south although the weather was not appealing at all. It was overcast and the ominous signs of an approaching cyclone were evident. José choose the most western route by passing places like Flic on Flac and Bambous aiming for Chamarel. Unfortunately one of the most popular sights there the Colored Earths showed rather dull as there was no sunshine. I have visited this site on my previous trip I found the Colored Earth just splendid. It is unusual geological phenomena not fully understood as the colors of violet, purple and red, brown, blue, green and yellow remain unchanged despite torrential downpours in this unfavorable climate.

Le Morne Brabant (Click to enlarge)

At island most southwestern tip is an isolated peninsula known as Le Morne Brabant. It is a basaltic mountain with a peak at 555m ASL that dominates a beautiful sandy beach some 600m wide that is difficult to approach by vehicles. Le Morne Peninsula was declared a World Heritage Site because it was used by slaves´ hideaway as from the late 1700s. French soldiers arrived to the peninsula in 1835 and proclaimed that the slavery had been abolished. A story goes on that the slaves seeing soldiers thought that they had come to take them into the captivity. Thus they all decided to throw themselves off the mountain into the sea deep below.

To be continued.

NOTE: Zvonko sent a large number of pictures along with this series of articles. They are arranged in several albums here. These albums will be slow to download as they are very large files.

Album 1: Mauritius Island on Arrival

Album 2: Pictures when Cyclone Gervais hit Mauritius and some from better days

Album 3: End of holidays by the way of Reunion and Djibouti

CORRESPONDENCE

Carol Dilworth writes: Congratulations on No. 50! Here´s Simon´s Cat to help you celebrate:

ED. NOTE: The ad at the beginning of the clip was all broken up on my screen, but the cat was fine.

Catherine Nesbitt writes: Congratulations on the 50th newsletter! What an accomplishment! I am impressed by your diligence and dedication. Thank you for each and every issue of The Tale Spinner. There always is something to ponder, and to learn, and to give your readers a chuckle.

Please, Dear Editor, may I have some more? (Another 50 issues would be wonderful!)

ED. NOTE: Thank you for these kind words, Carol and Catherine. It´s no wonder I am sending out this issue in spite of being tempted to skip it just this once. I know my readers will accept my excuses for errors or omissions, especially when I attribute them to illness. ;)

Elizabeth Parkinson, Dixie Augusteijn´s daughter, writes: We are stymied as to why Jean´s e-mails and newsletters are not getting through at this end. I have just been on the phone with Sympatico technical service (based in El Salvador!) and he was able to access Mum´s computer remotely and check all the settings. Jean´s e-mail address is there as a "safe" e-mail, and should be allowed through. I was able to watch the screen as he did it, so could verify what he was seeing.

Dixie is doing well - some of the medications she has been on for the effects of shingles have side effects of confusion and memory loss. The doctor has reduced this medication and Mum is feeling much more like herself.

ED. NOTE: This is good news indeed, and I know all my readers join me in wishing Dixie and her family a happy and healthy Christmas.

Irene Harvalias, replying to my request for accounts of acts of kindness, writes: The other day, my granddaughter and her husband were standing in line at the Super Store to pay for their groceries, and the lady in front of them had apparently just received a free turkey because she had spent over a certain amount of money. So she turned around and said to my grandkids, "Would you like a turkey? I don´t need one." And she handed them her free turkey. How nice was THAT? And the kids had invited our family for Christmas dinner this year!

Jean Sterling comments on a number of items in last week´s issue:

I was sorry to hear about Dixie, but I´m glad that she is surrounded by her loved ones who mean a lot to her.

The fact that the Baton Rouge story was about interaction between the races reminded me of an act of kindness done for me several years ago.

My car, which was getting on in years, ceased to function, so I was walking along the side of the highway. A black woman stopped to ask if I would like a ride to the nearest gas station. I remember her well. She looked quite formidable, and she had some crab traps in the back seat. Sitting beside her was a young boy who was maybe three or four years old. I remember thinking that she was OK as she had this young fellow sitting beside her. She took me to a gas station which was a few miles up the road, and needless to say, I thanked her profusely and asked if I could pay for her gas. No, she told me she saw me walking along and decided that one woman to another, she wanted to help me out. Then she told me that she knew I would accept her offer of a ride because of the little man beside her. She said there was one thing I could do for her - that I could pray for her little man. Every so often I think of her and say a little prayer for her little man.

The recipe for Jose Cuervo Christmas cookies reminds me of another odd recipe:

My husband likes to cook beer-can chicken on his outdoor grill. Step one involves opening a can of beer and drinking half of it. The chicken is then placed atop the beer can with the remaining beer in it (there is a special holder to do this). The beer makes the chicken nice and moist. When the chicken is done, the recipe says to remove the chicken from the beer can. The last words in the recipe are: DON´T DRINK THE BEER. It just blows my mind that such a warning is needed - that somebody would actually want to drink beer that was full of chicken drippings!

The story about the Irish hotel serving cheap beer sounds similar to what the airlines are doing to people. I heard recently that they had even discussed the possibility of charging to use the restroom. Can you imagine having to "go" and your credit card being rejected?

Betty Audet remembers

CHRISTMAS TOBOGGANING

The toboggan must have arrived Christmas 1935. It must have been a major purchase at the height of the depression, but there it was on the living-room floor, further from the tree than the row of ten socks, which included one for the dog.

The toboggan was a shiny new five-seater with a green canvas cover over a thick pad. The curve was fastened in place with two sturdy chains, that gave it greater flexibility than those with posts. With five seats it was obviously meant for joint ownership.

It must have been used every white Christmas for a long time, at least until 1948.

When five were riding, we piled on with the smallest at the front and the biggest at the back. Just a little further than the back of a city lot was our "hill". We were not technical about it in those days, but it must have been a much earlier creation of Chedoke Creek´s flood plain, even though the creek no longer came near it. It was probably a bit more than thirty feet in depth and, in the area where we tobogganed behind the house, fairly steep. That is where much of the tobogganing in early years was done.

Occasionally Father would be leader, for a change of venue on the far side of Chedoke Creek, where the bank was little higher and had much more slope. This was the area where he had tobogganed as a boy. This slope was as free of obstacles as our own. Nevertheless, we were taught how to control it for some steering, and this was useful when we went to toboggan parties with less open slopes.

But the ultimate form of tobogganing for big teenagers were the slides the city had built on the edge of Westdale Woods, with the very long and well-iced slope ending on the frozen marsh. On a tremendous day one could almost reach the markers for the Desjardin Canal.

The toboggan was also useful after a major storm to pull groceries from the parking at the road to the farm house. I think it may also have taken one or two passengers to the car for a visit to a doctor.

When it was stored in the woodshed, it rose over the heads of even the adults. It stayed there for a long time and some of the early grandchildren had rides on it. But eventually the city of Hamilton had grown over the farm and it was no longer useful. I am unaware of its final fate, living as I did, many hours drive away, but I may ask my younger brothers if they know.

Joy Coetzee describes

CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Christmas is a summer holiday in South Africa. It is a day of contradictions: the windows are draped with sparkling cotton wool and tinsel, yet it is an out-of-door day when people go to the beaches, the rivers, and shaded mountain slopes. Food will vary from a traditional English or German hot dinner of turkey through to Christmas pudding and brandy butter, to "braais" or barbecues held out of doors.

For Africans, Christmas Day is a day of good eating and a lively exchange and enjoyment of gifts, especially clothing, known as Christmas clothes. The festival is a carnival-like time of singing, dancing and feasting.

Santa Claus is known as Father Christmas. The English started the tradition of hanging stockings because Father Christmas once dropped coins while coming down the chimney. From then on, children began hanging stockings in hopes that they would catch the coins. Children mail their Christmas lists to Father Christmas. They believe that Father Christmas reads their letters and then delivers them their presents on Christmas.

English-speaking South African children hang up their stockings, feeling certain Father Christmas will fill them with gifts and goodies to be opened under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Carol singers make their rounds on Christmas Eve to celebrate "Carols by Candlelight." The Christian community attend church services and masses to celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday. Children are fond of the age-old custom of producing pantomimes, and the theatres will have this type of entertainment for them, e.g. "Babes in the Wood," founded on one of the oldest ballads in the English language.

Boxing Day, on December 26th, when boxes of food and clothing are given to the poor, is observed as a holiday known as the Day of Goodwill. It is a day to give money to the less fortunate. The alms box in the church is opened up and distributed to the needy. This is also the traditional day that domestic staff gets off from work and open up their boxes. This tradition began in the 19th century and has developed into a very charitable day. This tradition is mostly observed in the very rural areas and on farms where the poor will go door to door asking for Christmas boxes.

Pat Moore sends this contribution from an unknown author:

SANTA CLAUS IS A WOMAN

I hate to be the one to defy sacred myth, but I believe he´s a she. Think about it. Christmas is a big, organized, warm, fuzzy, nurturing social deal, and I have a tough time believing a guy could possibly pull it all off!

For starters, the vast majority of men don´t even think about selecting gifts until Christmas Eve. It´s as if they are all frozen in some kind of Ebenezerian Time Warp until 3:00 p.m. on Dec. 24th, when they - with amazing calm - call other errant men and plan for a last-minute shopping spree.

Once at the mall, they always seem surprised to find only Ronco products, socket wrench sets, and mood rings left on the shelves. (You might think this would send them into a fit of panic and guilt, but my husband tells me it´s an enormous relief because it lessens the 11th hour decision-making burden.) On this count alone, I´m convinced Santa is a woman. Surely, if he were a man, everyone in the universe would wake up Christmas morning to find a rotating musical Chia Pet under the tree, still in the bag.

Another problem for a he-Santa would be getting there. First of all, there would be no reindeer because they would all be dead, gutted and strapped on to the rear bumper of the sleigh amid wide-eyed, desperate claims that buck season had been extended. Blitzen´s rack would already be on the way to the taxidermist.

Even if the male Santa DID have reindeer, he´d still have transportation problems because he would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions. Add to this the fact that there would be unavoidable delays in the chimney, where the Bob Vila-like Santa would stop to inspect and repoint bricks in the flue. He would also need to check for carbon monoxide fumes in every gas fireplace, and get under every Christmas tree that is crooked to straighten it to a perfectly upright 90-degree angle.

Other reasons why Santa can´t possibly be a man:o Men can´t pack a bag.o Men would rather be dead than caught wearing red velvet.o Men would feel their masculinity is threatened, having to be seen with all those elves.o Men don´t answer their mail.* Men would refuse to allow their physique to be described even in jest as anything remotely resembling a "bowlful of jelly."o Men aren´t interested in stockings unless somebody´s wearing them.o Having to do the Ho Ho Ho thing would seriously inhibit their ability to pick up women.o Finally, being responsible for Christmas would require a commitment.

I can buy the fact that other mythical holiday characters are men...o Father Time shows up once a year unshaven and looking ominous. Definite guy.o Cupid flies around carrying weapons.o Uncle Sam is a politician who likes to point fingers.

Any one of these individuals could pass the testosterone screening test. But not St. Nick. Not a chance.

As long as we have each other, good will, peace on earth, faith, and Nat King Cole´s version of "The Christmas Song," it probably makes little difference what gender Santa is.

I just wish she´d quit dressing like a guy!

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Bruce Galway forwards this link to a fascinating video of various pollinators gathering honey while incidentally doing the vital work of scattering pollen:

Carol Dilworth sends this link to an Alaskan version of the Hallelujah Chorus:

Carol Hansen and Kate Brookfield suggest this video of a flash mob of nearly 300 students from the University of Minnesota´s School of Music paying a surprise visit to the Carlson School of Management, where they sang and danced to seasonal songs:

Kate also sends this link to one of the greatest posts on YouTube so far, a clip of Charlie Chaplin giving a speech in the movie "The Great Dictator":

Pat Moore forwards the URL for a time-lapse video of earth seen from the International Space Station. Read the explanation under the video of what you are seeing:

Stan French sends this link for all who love dogs and nature:

For a video of a cat on a boat playing with dolphins, click on

To check out the features of the "freedictionary", which changes daily, go to