November 7, 2006

By Jacqueline Mackenzie

Johannesburg - The rand was firmed sharply in early trade on Tuesday, boosted by a slightly firmer euro, a recovery in emerging market currencies generally and comments by the IMF that were considered positive for the local currency.

At 10.00am, the rand was bid at R7.2950 to the US dollar from Monday's close of R7.3810. It was bid at R9.3125 to the euro from a previous R9.3514 and at R13.8950 against sterling from Monday's R13.9620.

The euro was bid at $1.2755 from $1.2731 late Monday, while gold was quoted at $625.14 an ounce from $623.29 overnight.

"It's basically moved on the euro. We briefly broke below 7.27 earlier, which caused a bit of chaos, but essentially we have moved into a 7.25 to 7.35 range for now," said a local currency trader.

ETM analysts said in their morning commentary that the US dollar versus rand has now cracked some key technical resistance at R7.27 which if sustained would open the door for a larger and more significant reversal. The move appears to be in line with what has been seen across other emerging markets and commodity currencies.

"A move back below 7.20 would even confirm a test of levels back to 7.00 in due course, however a close below 7.26 would be required before we would feel comfortable targeting lower," they noted.

Two Irish engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.

A blonde walked by and asks what they are doing.

Paddy said: "We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole, but we don't have a ladder"

The blonde took a spanner from her purse, loosened a few bolts and laid the flagpole down.

She then pulled a tape measure from her pocket, took a few measurements and announced that it was eighteen feet and six inches.

She then walked off.

Mick said: "isnÂ’t that just like a blonde! We need the height and she gives us the length"

Welcome to Africa! South Africa are more and more becomming a real African Country. :luck:

It is my turn in a few weeks to cater for the office lot, normally each year we go to a different person's house and have a good time, eating, socialising etc..

Now please give me ideas on what to serve - for canapes, i don't want to serve a starter, as this is a social party not a sit-down dinner.

I am thinking of maybe lasagne, with lots of crusty bread and green salad - definitely not bobotie or anything with a risotto (i for one cannot stand both those dishes).

Or maybe a huge pot of beef stroganoff or a guiness stew...(or maybe not - one of the guys made three different types of curry last yr)

Help, i am not sure what to do...and there is one vegetarian...eish!! ad:

Some ideas please...thanks in advance... :read:

I thought I would put up the list of the nation's favourite reads. This was a programme made by the BBC to find the top most popular 100 books voted by viewers, way back in 2003. How many have you read and would like to read?


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Are you back at our side of the world again?

:daisy:

Finally, I have an answer as to how the table transported over in July was damaged and its a corker:

'We cannot answer why as it was not insured' :yikes:

Not the point. Basically I want an answer as to how this happened and they are not forthcoming. I went as far as contacting the removal assosciation here that this Saffer comapny is registered with and they got no further. Infact I have been advised, by the assosication, to contact my lawyers in SA if I want an answer.

Help, what do i do. Is it worth going the long, expensive route of lawyers or do i go to the media? Silly really as this could have been solved with an answer. If I treated my customers with the same contempt as I have been, I would have been fired months ago.

I am getting the table restored at a cost to myself - but I am not expecting compensation. JUST AN ANSWER, but it seems, along with everything else, common courtesey has left the country. My restorer reckons the table was driven over or dropped from a height.

This company has not stuck by its terms and conditions, has failed in its record keeping, and thinks because I am here that I will give up. Nope, not gonna happen. I guess that they think that I do not deserve an answer.

Will post piccie of table as it arrived when I have figured out how to.

In what language was the Communist Manifesto originally written?

may you have a grand day

:bday3:

:am:

Good... good morning! May you all enjoy a good start of a new week!

Blessings!

:daisy: