Harperley Prisoner of War Camp in County Durham, England, which was used during the Second World War to house Italian and German POWs has been placed for sale on Ebay under a classified listing. The asking price is £900,000. The present owners acquired the camp 10 years ago with the intention of turning it into a [more...]
On the Channel Island of Jersey, just off the coast of France, is a unique church: St Matthew’s Church. Known as the ‘Glass Church’, its uninspiring outside architecture hides the beauty inside, for a walk through its glass doors draws gasps of amazement from visitors when they see the interior which contains an amazing display [more...]
Amongst mobile phones, the king of the displays is currently (as at September 2009) Toshiba’s TG01 with its 4.1 inch screen (cellphone screens are measured diagonally). Waiting in the wings are phones with even larger displays from HTC and Archos. The Nokia E90’s display is only slightly smaller at 4.0 inches, but this phone is a [more...]
When a dentist removes a tooth, he or she generally administers a local anaesthetic then pulls the tooth out mechanically. Some practices may offer a general anaesthetic so that the whole procedure can be carried out while you are “asleep”, but in most countries this is uncommon because of the possible side-effects of the anaesthesia [more...]
Sometimes you need to search the internet, but you don’t know how to spell the word you’re looking for. You only know how to say it. Most modern search engines are pretty good at spelling correction. For example, if you search for elvis preslie, you will be offered the search results for elvis presley. But sometimes that’s [more...]
The beautiful Maligne Lake is to be found in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and contains the iconic landmark of ‘Spirit Island’. The lake should certainly be on any visitors’ itinerary when touring the area. Maligne Lake is situated in Japser National Park, Alberta, and lies 48km from Jasper. The drive to the lake itself offers [more...]
If you visit South Africa, you’ll find that English is now the main language for signage, education and tourism. But South African English, as well as being spoken with a distinctive accent, has adopted many words from the Afrikaans language, and from various African languages including Zulu and Xhosa. Here are some of the words that [more...]
Are you thinking of being out in the cold looking at bare trees and wishing you could have a more tropical landscape? Well, maybe you can. There are palm trees that can take 20 degrees fahrenheit below zero temperatures and survive. There are palm trees that will grow as far north as Canada and some [more...]
In 1898 one of the most famous science fiction books was published: War of the Worlds. Written by the English author Herbert George Wells (1866 – 1946), better known as H.G. Wells, the book has never been out of print and has spawned with numerous copy-cats in literature, films, and even music. The book tells the [more...]
International travellers are sometimes hesitant to drive in another country, but self-drive is a great way to see the highlights of South Africa. Driving is on the left, as in 30% of the world including Japan, Australasia, and the British Isles. Distances are in kilometers, and speeds in kilometers per hour. Your drivers license is valid [more...]
A game reserve combines nature conservation with travel and adventure. Some game reserves also incorporate animal tracking and hunting, but those are not the kind of game reserves we’re discussing here. We’ll take as our example the game parks run by SANParks, the South African National Parks authority. The game reserves are huge tracts of land, [more...]
Vitroceramic cooktops are flat and sleek, but they also look fragile. How robust are they? A vitroceramic stove top is a sheet of glassified ceramic which has been heated in such a way as to remove internal discontinuities where cracks would develop. A cooker made from this glass-ceramic substance is surprisingly strong. The instruction manual for the [more...]
The South African townships originated when rural South Africans left their tribal areas and migrated to the cities, setting up squatter camps on the periphery. These areas later became the locations where the policy of Apartheid was enforced—with black South Africans being restricted to living in the townships while white South Africans lived in the [more...]
The Garden Route isn’t about gardens. The name alludes to its lush and verdant coast, mountains and forests, which contrast with the arid nature of much of the rest of South Africa, and it makes for a great driving holiday. The Garden Route is that part of the N2 highway which follows the coast between Mossel [more...]
By some statistical measures (but not others), South Africa has the highest crime rate in the world. Robbery, murder and rape are astonishingly high. How can people live in a place like that? First, it should be said that the statistics, horrendous though they are, are somewhat misleading. South Africa is unusual in that it has [more...]