Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
COUNTDOWN TO THE HOLIDAYS
IT’S THAT time of year when we start the countdown to the annual builders’ holidays.
When you read this article, there will be only six weeks to shutdown, and during that time I will start easing you into what can and can’t be done between now and December 14.
This is Cape Town, so as everyone begins drifting into holiday mode, do not expect miracles from your contractor.
If you are starting a four-week contract now, you may just get it finished.
For my up-country readers, Durbanites I am told you are like Capetonians but worse, so you are probably at the beach already.
If you are in Joburg, the city that rocks 24/7, you can probably start an eight-week contract now and get it finished.
Although I am not a great lover of the heat, the warmer weather has made me again enthusiastic about water savings. I have always been an early riser, I try to get on the treadmill or exercise bike by 4am, but hitting the shower after that during winter has not been pleasant and has meant a few seconds longer in the shower. Now it is lighter and warmer so back to a cold shower which, of course, means less water. No waiting for it to get warm and obviously an electricity saving as well, so please let us all try it and refocus on saving water.
Last week I was invited to the opening of a proposed engineering and design faculty at Wynberg Boys High
School. Unfortunately I could not attend the event, but I am thrilled by the concept. Jan de Waal (headmaster) and the school deserve full marks for coming up with this innovative concept.
They will introduce specialised technical subjects – learnt in an academic environment in conjunction with mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering graphics and design – and “will, we believe, be the catalyst in reinvigorating technical training in South Africa”.
To my mind this is definitely the way forward. If our youth can see the benefits of gaining technical knowledge from an early age, the country can only benefit.