NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING:

  • THE DATE: TUESDAY 14th OCTOBER 2014
  • VENUE: KwaMUHLE MUSEUM Bram Fischer Road [Ordnance Road] Durban.
  • TIME: Meeting commences at 17h30; Refreshments will be served from 16h45.
  • PARKING: Off Bram Fischer/Ordnance road [next to the Museum]; security person is present
  • FEATURE: The speaker will be our fellow SANS member, Franco Frescuro, who will speak about his new book about Keiskammahoek

LAST MONTH:

Our Speaker last month was NANDA SOOBEN, internationally acclaimed cartoonist who has been plying his trade for the past 25 years; fortunately for us he shared some of his cartoons – some raised laughter and some were clever comments on circumstances; in his own words “I am a social realist painter and a cartoonist, as a painter I reflect life as I see it……as a cartoonist I challenge the status quo…… I don’t reflect it”. He received an Honorary Doctorate from DUT and also founded the Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design (CFAD) in 1994,where he teaches

A.G.M.:

  • DATE: 15 November 2014
  • VENUE: Royal Natal Yacht Club
  • TIME: 12.30
  • SPEAKER: The speaker will be PROFESSOR MICHAEL WATKEYS and his intriguing talk is titled “WHAT LIES BENEATH” which will be about the nature of the ocean floor beneath the SW Indian Ocean and the currents circulating in the region. Prof. Watkeys is the Academic leader of Geological Sciences at UKN.
  • COST: R130 per person which will include wine at the table; the menu will be the same as last year’s.
  • MATTERS: There will also be proposals for changes to the Constitution. Robin Ralfe, a practising lawyer, is a SANS member and a member of the committee; of the Constitution he says “basically it’s a document that has been well crafted in my view”. The changes are aimed at bringing the constitution in line with the electronic age of communications – previously dependent on the postal services – points 9:2 & 10:1; point 7:2 the books will be reviewed by a person appointed by the committee; point 6:11 to limit the powers of the Chairman.

INVITATIONS:

One is from Simon Haw of the Pietermaritzburg Heritage Society, whose e-mail address is simonhaw@telkomsa.net or contact him on cell phone: 082 824 8326.
It is to a talk by Professor Elwyn Jenkins.

  • Topic: The names of local authorities in KwaZulu-Natal When the local authorities were established in 2000, they took their names from many sources, including historic names. This illustrated talk looks at the origins and meanings of some of the names and the visual iconography that accompanies them.
  • Venue: Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School library. Please enter by the main gate of the school. Parking will be available immediately in front of the school and when this is full on the side of the school. Use the main entrance. The library is across the quadrangle from the main entrance.
  • Date and Time: Saturday, September 27 at 10 am.
  • Please indicate whether you will be attending or not for catering purposes.

The other invitation is to the exhibition & book launch at Bergtheil Museum on the 30th September at 5:30 for 6. For more information click here.

ODDS and ENDS:

Nowadays we hear the cry “Pay back the money!” but in 1752 in Britain there were protests in the streets and the cry was “Give us back our 11 days!” That was because, in Britain, it was decided to abandon the Julian calendar in favour of the Gregorian thus the 3rd of September instantly became the 14th September. Up until 1753, the Julian calendar was used in Britain. It was 365.25 days long, which was fractionally too long, and the calendar, over time, fell out of line with the seasons and thus was less accurate than the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the one most used nowadays. It is named after Pope Gregory Xlll who introduced it in 1582.

See you on the 14th!

Naureen Craig
24th September 2014
President

Newsletter October 2014