Articles published in this Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor. Nothing may be copied unless the Editor grants permission. 

Dates & News:

ZimDog News, can be accessed from: www.vanerp.net.

Zimbabwe Kennel Club:

The Zimbabwe Kennel Club office will now only be open on a Friday each week, 14.00-16.00 CAT.

Local Shows and Fairs

Bulawayo Combine Shows:
Have postponed till later this year.

MLKA & HKC Shows:
They have booked their dates for 28 & 29 June 2008, with imported Judges. Put this in your diaries.

Mukuvisi Shows:
All sponsored by PEDIGREE and proceeds to help the S P C A in the wonderful work they do for all animals 

News:

From Liz Stewart:

Cheryl lives in Devon, as far to the west of the country as I am to the east! But might go and have a holiday with her this year. I have spoken to both Sue and Norah on the phone recently. I doubt you know Penny and Jim (Cockburn), ex-Harare, or Jenny and Phil (Palmer), ex-Mutare, but they are my closest friends here. I have known Penny for the best part of 50 years - she used to ride one of my ponies. Olympia was fantastic just before Christmas (World Cup show jumping), Christmas and New Year were OK. I started a part-time temp job yesterday, so have less time now. Will try to get my own computer organised by the end of the month and I will then be able to correspond regularly.

Tell me, if the shops are empty, as we are told, where do ordinary people get food? Not those who can cross the border, or who have friends to send them things. But everybody else. I would really like to know.

Love, Liz

Well folks, keep up the news and write to Liz! 

From Virginia:

All's well here and I had a great Christmas and New Year. Indy is growing up (just 1 year old now) and can now cope with long walks so doesn't have to stay in the kitchen any more! However, the weather is not really good for walking at this time of year though we did manage a good long one on Boxing Day.

Memories of The German Shepherd League of mashonland

Can you see and remember all names on those pictures? What a time we had at Vainona Junior school with a whole class room for catering. 

"Zimbabwe's Traveling Man"

4^th saga:

Mistakes can be blamed on me [Editor]

My flying visit of a few days up to Lymm in Cheshire was to see my long time friends, Mary and Peter, with whom I was going to meet up for Christmas in New Zealand at their house in Nelson - if it seems strange to go half way round the world to see the same people for Christmas - then so be it!!! But we always have a wonderful time shopping - I got a very good bargain in an All Black rugby shirt in Lymm Market for half the price they are in NZ!! Genuine too!!  Because the All Blacks were beaten I guess in Rugby World Cup last September in France - mark you, I belong to the school of thought that thinks - unjustly beaten!!!  I also got a couple of England cricket shirts at double the price - though with the state of English cricket I can't think why!!!

But back to the traveling and at some stage I really have to contact the Catering Manager of BA and point out the shortcomings of their Vegetarian menu worldwide. The 777 had beds again, so congrats to BA on that subject, but they then subjected my taste buds, yet again, to an almost inedible curry-type sandwich for tea!!!  My next carriers are American Airlines, American Eagles and Qantas, so we wait with bated breath for the next caterers offerings; has anybody thought of eggs perhaps, they come in a multitude of varieties, ditto for fish, pizzas, bean salad - the list is endless to an inventive caterer.

However, on Friday, 16th November, we landed in that lovely city, Toronto - sans snow which was a big disappointment to me as it's one of my main reasons for visiting Canada - never have I seen a nation cope so competently with the white stuff. You should see the planes there land in blizzards in the winter - Canada’s a real winter wonderland. Snow is forecast for next week so my mood lightens and after changing some money at Pearson Airport, I go for coffee and a Dagwood of scrambled egg sandwich all of 2" thick - and you know what BA, it tasted terrific - and settled down to wait for my friend, Joan, to collect me. After leaving Africa some 20 years ago she and her family moved to Mississauga in Canada, but she has now moved out to Port Ryerson on Lake Erie which turns out to be some 2 hours drive from Toronto in Norfolk County, a real haven of rural Canada with all the peace, serenity and beauty one could wish for, yet still has all modern conveniences - and some, like a bank of letter boxes and two boxes of free newspapers way up on the turn-off road down to Port Ryerson; I can see that this is going to be good for me!!

You will realize I am flying backward in time, so after a hectic arrival of shopping, mainly done in the evenings, and some visits to the local eateries where Salmon glazed with Jack Daniels/Sole with jumbo shrimps/Breaded Pickerel/Lemon Pepper Halibut/Basted Perch and the like abound (I can recommend D & Ds in Jarvis for vegetarian food and inventive ideas BA if you need any help, and it looked a picture with a gentle coating of snow on their Conifers outside), Monday passed as sleep time. There was also a huge bonfire and fireworks on the beach one night to celebrate the start of Christmas for the local community of Port Ryerson; all their houses and gardens are individually decorated for the festive season. Their shopping hours are very wide so it is easy to become a shopaholic, especially as Canada is very cheap for most items. Never before have I seen Self Check-Out!! Their COL is really good. My friend's house is built into the side of a hill, overlooking a small valley, with isolated houses built here and there which can be seen through the Maple trees attired in their winter garb - snow is forecast for Thursday now. As in most Canadian houses, there is a huge basement area comprising a guest bedroom, shower etc., laundry and a huge lounge with TV, computer nook and panoramic window looking into the valley (I'm down in the basement). Squirrels of many colours abound in the Maples, along with Blue Cardinals/Chickadees/Grosbeaks, all of whom feed from the running line she has through the trees. This is like a different world.

On the drive to Hamilton, their local airport, we passed a series of Red Indian wigwams/tee pees selling cigarettes, but whether they were there as a tourist attraction or not, I have no knowledge - quite unusual to see though. We were then off to Line Dancing in the local Church Hall and I watched my friend whirl like a dervish for the rest of the evening. I have also been initiated into the wonderful world of doughnuts - and I was naive enough to think they were mounds of dough with jam or maybe a blob of cream dropped in the middle!! I swear I'll never be able to eat my way through the whole range of the ones on offer here!!!

Thursday, 22nd November saw us on the road bright and early to Toronto, some 200 km away; unfortunately, we were on the roads at the same time as the yellow school buses - looking like something out of the 1940's, but kept that way deliberately so that when the driver stops at the various pick-up points, his top back lights start flashing and one is clearly aware that it is a school bus and is not allowed to pass at any time, obviously for the safety of the children. It took us a little time, therefore, to drive the 110 km to Clarkson Station to find a park for the car (which we never did manage to find) and board their triple decker GO (for the uninitiated this stands for Government of Ontario) train to the "Harley Street" of Toronto, University Avenue, where +/- 5 major, and massive hospitals are situated, where my friend was due to have her next chemo session; this hospital is a "city within a city", as they all are, and everything any patient would want is readily and easily available on its floors, consequently I was given a sketchy idea of the whereabouts of Tim Horton's Coffee Shop and dispatched to get 2 coffees; enroute I bought a raffle ticket for cancer funds and ended up destitute, i.e. with no Canadian money in my pocket!!! 

We later went in search of an ATM that dispensed HSBC money, only to be told by the machine, in no uncertain terms, what I could do with my HSBC card!!! When a second, and then a third machine said the same thing, I began to formulate plans for the HSBC similar to BA!!! Self-destruct type of plans!!! Since this card had already dispensed money in two previous countries I began looking for a plot to foil my holiday!!! We then made tracks for the train wonderfully named "Ride The Rocket" back to Port Credit and the car, but not before I had become inexplicably entangled in the automatic ticketing barrier and d......... nearly brought the whole mechanism to a juddering halt.  Nuff said, I think, as only my friends will be able to imagine the horrific shambles that ensued!!

After a superb dinner at The Pickle Barrel with two of my friend's colleagues at Mississauga, we set off shopping (at 9.00 p.m.) to Wall Mart for some Canadian snow boots, which were fast becoming a necessity in the deepening wonderland of snow in Toronto. By this time, though, the snow ploughs of Ontario were out and about keeping the roads clear, the turning corners clear, and the owners of businesses on the roadsides had their own little snowploughs clearing parking spaces and the like for their customers.  Efficiency personified. After 19 hours of fun-filled activity, so ended another wonderful - if somewhat chaotic - day in this saga.  The next day passed in a haze of sleep as the snow continued to fall gently in h u g e quantities over Ontario Province.  A true winter wonderland.

On Saturday, 24 November, we set off on a 300 kilometer drive to Acton north of Lake Ontario where my friend was holding a promotional party at Pam's home – she is a Cat aficionado and has Mains. In due course we drove out of the falling snow and into clear country. Enroute we passed some fascinating "upside down beehives", enormous edifices, which I understand are used for storing the mix of sand and salt that is used for clearing the roads etc. during the snowy winter months. Driving away from Lake Erie towards Lake Ontario we were in real rural, outback Canada - gorgeous.  There were depots all over the place for the ubiquitous yellow school bus and they really do look like the 1940 one's on TV!!!  The hunting season for deer has opened in the various forested areas we passed by, although personally I am not a lover of this sport. The promotional party was a great success and we set off on the return journey, stopping off in Jarvis for a fish dinner - this time the fish was pickerel. The main activity on Sunday was climbing on the telephone to HSBC in Britain to have many mutters about the "unreliability" of their "monee" card and my precarious financial position, bearing in mind the plus/minus 20 000 miles, and 5 countries, that I still have to travel. True to their word, when I later went to an ATM at Simcoe on Sunday night, it dispensed the very necessary loot!!! Monday the 26th sees us driving some 200 miles to Pearson Airport where I shall have to spend the night at an hotel, as my American Airlines' flight to Miami in the States on the 27th has a very early check-in (I wait with bated breath to see what is on their breakfast menu!!!) and I’m then heading for Swannanoa to spend a week with a long time Basset friend from Britain who now lives in the States. I only wish I had more time to thoroughly explore the American dog scene, particularly Bassets of course.

Well, now - wota deezasta!! The Quality Inn near Pearson Airport was very good value indeed for money, satellite TV, the lot, with a somewhat off-beat restaurant which nevertheless managed to serve my friend and I with a beautiful salmon dinner and the next morning their minibus delivered me to the airport on time - only to be told that the Miami flight was muchly delayed and it was recommended that I went to Charlotte via Chicago which I duly did, arriving there earlier than I had expected to be there! So, having waited there until it was pitch black, it dawned on my addled Breetish brain that they weren't coming to meet me and, consequently, I took the next flight back to Toronto that same night!! Anyone thinking of going to the Dehra kennels should think again as they are obviously unreliable - to put it mildly!!!!! Back to the Quality Inn, who kindly sent their minibus out for me at 1 o'clock in the morning and I finally returned to Port Ryerson the next afternoon. Swannanoa in North Carolina, you are not the flavour of the month - you can get lost. About the only interesting point of the abortive trip to Swannanoa was the fact - and it's the first time I've struck it anywhere - that one went through US Customs and Immigration at Toronto Airport before boarding the flight for the States; one had to have ALL one's luggage with one at the same time, i.e. if your face doesn't fit, they donna even let u neer their airspace!!!!!

Another problem arose on this abortive journey in that having left the hotel too early for breakfast, I had expected to get brekker on the flight which was at 0935 - brekker time after all!!  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh - no scoff on American Airlines to Chicago - I then flew through the lunch hour, on American again, to Charlotte - no scoff again, and by now they had one very starving pax on board, so a packet of nuts was produced - for which I had to pay one US$1!  On the unexpected return to Toronto, I was on US Air, but no supper was served!! Our Yankee cousins are different!!!  But they probably think the same of us!!! However, British Airways, you have shot to the top of the pile again!!!

Our next trip saw us driving like hell through a blinding snowstorm enroute to catch a GO Train to the other end of Lake Ontario to Pickering, some 100 miles. After drowning our sorrows in aTim Horton's coffee shop, where we gossiped so much we missed the train, we caught the next train and, consequently, it was near midnight when we started to retrace our steps and discovered we couldn’t remember where the car was parked!!!!!  This took a little while to sort out and we finally drove back to Port Ryerson in a beautiful, gentle snowfall such as only Canada can produce - another truly Winter Wonderland. Akshun with Akesta would be my description. Even their 52" TV had me gasping. My friend, who is a true Canadian by now, then took herself off at 1.00 a.m. to a Port Ryerson Christmas party which was in full swing in the community. And so ended my first month on this Round the Worlde trip with the Travellin' Man.

5^th saga:

Tuesday 04 December saw us going once again by car - there is no other form of transport from this small, isolated community where my friend lives on Lake Erie - to the GO Train at Hamilton from whence we went to Downtown Toronto. Now, this City is M A S S I V E in every sense of the word, i.e. the width of the streets, the height and breadth of the buildings, the absolutely V A S T array of goods the shops sell, the number of shops, P H E W it takes your breath away. and on top of all this she is so economically priced; one hesitates to say "cheap" - she just has everything at any price you want, including transport and accommodation if you need it.  Kum to Kanada for Kristmas is all I can say.

My friend had her heart check-up, everything ok, so we set off shopping - again! This time she found one of the most treasured items on my list - microwave egg boilers - I bought 4! Incidentally, Canada has also produced something else I have been unable to find elsewhere in the world I've visited up-to-date - Books 2 and 3 of Jeffrey Archer's Prison Diaries, Purgatory and Heaven; well worth searching for too they are. After a splendid dinner in one of Mississauga's superb restaurants, which I'm prepared to bet couldn't be bought anywhere else in the world for the price (I've lived on Atlantic Salmon Steaks for the 4 weeks I've been in Canada - it truly is a country for Vegetarians), we retraced our steps to the peace and serenity of Port Ryerson and watched the snow fall gently over the Canadian countryside, well knowing that even in this small community their snow ploughs would be out and about well before the crack of dawn (I saw the first one at 05.30) clearing the few roads in their area ready for the few early morning travelers to Simcoe.

As I've said earlier, Canada is H U G E stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean - and then some, with a few Islands like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia reaching way into the Atlantic, but more of Nova Scotia later. So there are thousands upon thousands of miles to cover and, consequently, Canadians don't think twice about driving hundreds of miles to dinner/a party/a get together, call it what you will, and in this case it was the Christmas Dinner of a group of friends who all met up many years ago at Princess House - they do this every year I gather. For the first time I drank Pina Colada all evening. There were 14 of us, Benda/Audrey/Trudy/Shelley/Kristy/Joan/Maricela/Adilsen/Tammy/Rima/Dorothy/ and, needless to say, we rabbitted on well into the moonlight hours!

Saturday 08 December saw us doing a round trip of 100 miles for tea and dinner with Joan's brother, Ivan, at the lovely settlement of Beverley Hills near Flamborough, Ontario. After milk tart, pizzas and gallons and gallons (hiccup - 'scuse) of South African wine (drunk out of "nicked" SAA glasses!!), I discovered that there is a South African butcher at Oakville by the name of Florence, who appears to be the purveyor of all things South African from Maltabella to Boerewors, with Koeksusters/Gem Squash/Ouma's Rusks/Pro Nutro and Mrs Ball's Chutney et al in between!! I was startled to see in the corner of the lounge what I thought was a Jetmaster log fire, but turned out to be another model of the most realistic gas fires I've ever seen anywhere - Canada being knee deep in natural gas of course, as well as snow!!

Sunday the 9th we put up the Christmas decorations round the outside of the house. This is a long standing custom in Canada and most house owners light up their trees/front doors/fascia boards/driveways/windows/whole gardens in some cases/ with the most amazing display of coloured lights/snowmen/Father Christmas's/reindeers/skiers/you name it, to celebrate the Christmas season; it all adds to that wonderful White Christmas feeling.