Talk 10 December 2020

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8 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 10 December 2020 TALK OF THE TOW NPortA l f re d BUSINESS FORUM Keeping you up to date on the local business frontgraphic © vadym yesaulov / 123RF.comCheers all aroundas pub to reopenALL NATURALWharf Street spot to celebrate the season with good vibesThe Wharf Street Brew Pub is set tore-open with the commencementof the holiday season, andpromises to be a popular spot withlocals and holidaymakers alike.Besides its legendary burgers, it offersfour local craft beers, all on tap, a rangeof craft gin & tonics, some very specialcocktails, and the largest wine cellar inthe area, and beyond.This unique underground cellar – atourist attraction all on its own – isstocked with unique estate wines andcraft liqueurs such as rum, gin, andb ra n dy.Priced affordably, they are ideal tobuy for home-consumption, or for thatspecial Christmas gift.There will be live music onweekends and selected weekdays, whilethe Silver Creek Mountain Band willstage one of their Better Than Everperformances on December 12.So named because it celebrates theband’s founder members, Rod Dry andDennis Schultz, playing together againafter so many years, this very specialevening will require advance booking.Call 061-037-6077 to reserve yourspot – entrance will include a meal anda drink.The Wharf Street Brew Pub is setto once again take its rightful place onHistoric Wharf Street, the town’s premiertourist attraction with its restaurants,antique shops, art gallery, and cruiseboats.The sign at the door says it is “Kow i e ’sOriginal Good Time Emporium”, andthat is exactly what it promises to be.TOURISM EXCELLENCENEW ADDITION: Cary Davis, owner of new business, Black RoseApothecary, opposite The Postmaster’s Village and next to C’est laVie, is excited to welcome clients to her shop. The business stocks avariety of natural products for humans and petsSIGN OFAPPRECIATION: Aftermany years of service,Mike Beaumont,centre, has retired astreasurer of SunshineCoast Tourism and waspresented with thefloating trophy fortourism excellence bySunshine CoastTourism chairman RickPryce, left, and deputychairman WouterHensensLet The Tax Housetake care of yourfinancial successThe Tax House is genuinelyinvested in its clients’ success andoffers personal services and adviceon a range of financial matters tohelp their businesses grow andt h r ive .Its expert advisors andconsultants are there to openclients’ eyes to opportunities, guidethem to unlock untapped value andnurture their businesses to enduringfinancial independence.The goal is for clients’ to be asignificant participants in the futureeconomic prosperity of SA, for abrighter tomorrow for all citizensand future generations.The Tax House’s core valuesinclude investing in relationships,and aiming to be approachable,team players, loyal, authentic,helpful, collaborative, friendly,trustworthy, dependable, familyorientatedand invested.The Tax House team is alsopassionate, always positive,dynamic, energetic and fun.The Tax House also alwaysstrives for excellence.Staff are professional and payattention to detail, are skilled,efficient and quality-driven.The Tax House confidentlyembraces innovation andtechnology for growth and successand employs strategic, forwardthinking,while embracing changeand being adaptable, relevant,technologically aware, innovative,solution-oriented and insightful.Services include enrichedcompliance services, accountingand VAT, payroll, tax and statutoryand company secretarial services.The Tax House also offersadvisory services such as enhancedreporting, KPIs and dashboards,Cloud applications, strategicplanning, forecasting and scenarioplanning, cashflow managementand business optimisation, businessstructuring, tax advisory, estateplanning and fiduciary and estateplanning.
TALK OF THE TOWN 10 December 2020 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 9HERE FOR YOUDon't miss possible Starof Bethlehem in our skyTolkien: Lest we forgetour sons and heroesCelebrated author JRR Tolkienwas firstly a South African,secondly a soldier.His formative yearsdeveloped his creative mind:“In a hole in the ground,there lived a Hobbit.”Seldom isacknowledgement given in theland of this famous author’sbirth.Tolkien was born inBloemfontein on January 31892, and named John RonelReuel.His father, Arthur, was abank manager involved indiamonds and gold.His mother, however, hatedBloemfontein.The harsh African climatedid not sit well with Mabel andshe took her sons, John andHilary, to the Cape, where thelandscape vividly impressed thefuture writer.The family later relocated toEngland and this greatly affectedthe young Tolkien, especially ashis father had died before hecould join the family.The young family finallysettled in Birmingham.While in South Africa,numerous incidents had had aprofound effect on the youngTo l k i e n .As a baby, he was kidnappedand later returned unharmed.He was also bitten by as p i d e r.These experiences promptedTo l k i e n ’s spirits.In The Hobbit and Lord ofthe Rings, we read of horrifyingspiders Shelob and Ungouant.The most significantinfluence that he developed wasa love for languages, a love thatled him to imagine newlyinvented languages.One of these was the Elvishlanguages and, surprisingly, itcannot be denied from whichlanguage they are partly derivedMILITARY HISTORYU N PA C K E DAnn Atteridge-Tyrrell— Afrikaans.In England, tragedy struckwhen their mother died in1904.Tolkein joined the army in1915 and joined the LancashireFusiliers, studying signalling andemerging as a secondlieutenant.Being a soldier was a biginfluence on Tolkien’s life andawoke in him a taste for “fairytales” reflecting the good andevil, the light and darknesswhich was all around him,considering the battles heparticipated in andwitnessed.In June 1916 he wasordered to France to take part inthe Battle of the Somme.His description was: “It wasa living death ...“The Battle of the Somme in1916 was singularly the biggestbloodletting of the War – amillion men killed orwo u n d e d .”This battle was no doubtthe background for Tolkien’sgreat battles in The Lord of theRings.Tolkien was appointedbattalion signalling officer,spending months in thet r e n ch e s .Further inspiration camefrom his respect for ordinaryinfantrymen under intenseSISTER ACT: KarliOwsley and her sister,Zoé, are happy to belooking after eachother and relaxing atthe Bean Tree Café inSuperSpar at RosehillMall on Mondaymorning Picture: ROBKNOWLESadversity, and later became thebedrock for Tolkien’s loyal,brave and resilient Hobbit,Samwise Gamgee.After the war he resumedhis professorship at OxfordUniversity, settling in to writeThe Hobbit and Lord of theRings t r i l o g y.Christopher, Tolkien’s son,who lived in South Africa, wasresponsible for creating themaps for the first edition of Lo r dof the Rings.Tolkien is arguably one ofthe best-selling authors theworld has seen.This son of the soil could bea big tourist opportunity forBloemfontein.But the brass plaquecommemorating his birthplacewas stolen and has notreplaced.The only acknowledgementis a small plaque in the churchwhere he was baptised.General apathy to Tolkienin South Africa was summedup by a UK journalist who wasnot surprised that the averageSouth African did not knowthat Tolkien was a SouthAfrican.Many think Lord of the Ringswas just based on Europeanmy t h o l o g y.The truth is, Tolkien wasindeed a South African.His biggest influence camefrom World War 1.South Africans took part inthe Battle of the Somme.South Africans, black andwhite, defended Delville Wood,shoulder to shoulder and manylie buried there.The lack of appreciation of aSouth African, in the country ofhis birth, is a travesty ofunderstanding historyc o r r e c t l y.South Africa is made up ofmany cultural parts and all needto be preserved.It’s a fact: Our southern sky herein Port Alfred is much morebeautiful than the northern skyseen from Europe, America,Russia, China and Japan.In our winter, the heart ofthe Milky Way Galaxy passes inall its glory right overhead,whereas for all those deprivednortherners, it just dimly skimsthe southern horizon.The heart of the Milky Wayis in the constellationSagittarius, and this year thegiant planets Jupiter and Saturnhave been shining gloriously inour evening sky as they havemoved through Sagittariustowards Capricorn in their sloworbits about the Sun.Jupiter and Saturn areheaded for a “g ra n dconjunction” on the summersolstice, December 21.This happens once every 20years as Jupiter, which takes 12years to orbit the Sun, overtakesthe more slowly trudging Saturn,which takes 30 years.It is a “conjunction” wh e nthey are at their closest as seenin the sky.On December 21 that willbe a mere tenth of a degreeapart, only one fifth theapparent diameter of the moon,so to our eyes they will seem tomerge.The last time they passed thisclose was in 1623, nearly 400years ago!And then they were tooTALK OF THES TA R SProfessor Don Kurtzclose to the Sun in the sky, so noone saw it. So don’t miss yourchance to see this rare event.Where do you look? Theywill be low in the west aftersunset. Look at about 8pm.You can start watching nowand see the gap between themclose over the coming days.Look low in the west onDecember 16 and you will seethe beautiful thin crescent of theyoung moon just to the lowerleft of Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiteris about 10 times brighter thanSaturn and is lower in the sky.It is fitting that thisconjunction comes just beforeChristmas.While no one knows forcertain what the “Star ofBethlehem” actually was, onepossibility is it was a beautiful,rare, triple grand conjunction ofJupiter and Saturn from May toDecember 7 BCE, when Jupiterpassed by Saturn in May, thenappeared to reverse its directionin the sky for a while (when theEarth went whizzing bybetween it and the Sun) so thatthere was another conjunctionin September.Then, as the Earth movedaway, Jupiter resumed its usualstately march to the east andpassed Saturn yet again inDecember. To the Magi, whowould have been astrologers,this unusual event would havebeen highly significant.The year we now know as 7BCE is within the range ofpossible birth years for Jesus, somaybe this grand tripleconjunction was the “Star ofBethlehem”.So as the summer solsticearrives on December 21, as wegather (safely) over this holidayseason with families forChristmas, enjoy the spectacleof a rare grand conjunction ofthe two giant planets of the solarsystem, Jupiter and Saturn.They will give a possiblemodern vision of the actual Starof Bethlehem.Our new columnist, DonaldKurtz, was formerly professor ofastronomy at UCT, and latterlyprofessor of astrophysics at theUniversity of CentralLancashire. He and his wiferecently retired (for most of theyear) to Port Alfred.UNCLAIMED TRAILERS –SMALL BOAT HARBOURPRECINCTSeveral trailers have been left in the smallboat harbour without prior arrangementwith harbour management.I f t h e s e t ra i l e r s a r e n o t c o l l e c t e d b y16 December 2020 they will be impoundedand sold to defray costs incurred as a resulthereof.Harbour ManagementPort Alfred Small Boat Harbour Company
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Talk 10 December 2020

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