LA DOLCE VITA – Italians in Orange Grove
I heard about a delicious little Italian deli in Louis Botha avenue the other day that supplies the surrounding Italian community in Orange Grove – Italian community in Orange Grove??? When I thought about it I did remember spotting some genuine Italian old stallions at the Cosa Nostra restaurant in Norwood tuned into RAI TV and drinking grappa all day… I realised they weren’t …tourists here to check out the rampant city regeneration and decided to do some investigating into how the SA-Italian people came to live in Orange Grove… My cruising on the net provided some really interesting titbits – Here are some of the theories… A dynamite factory was built in Modderfontein in the 1880’s and skilled men and women from Italy were brought out by the Nobel-dynamite trust to run the place – they came from Avigliana in Italy where a famous Dynamite factory existed already. “The strong Italian community in Orange Grove traces its origin to those men and women who came out to help run the factory more than a century ago.” For more on this story read here. Another theory – a sad one – Apparently 10 000 Italian prisoners of war were shipped out here in 1941 during World War two – they were highly emotive and in a terrible state in the camps so the then government made up some activities for them to do – one of them was to build the very steep SYLVIA PASS that crosses over from Orange Grove/Louis Botha into Linksfield – they also built Chapman’s Peak in Cape Town and apparently the Hartebeespoort dam – poor buggers. Apparently after their release some of them set up camp in Orange Grove. Whether this is 100% true I am not sure – if there are any Italians in the house do let us know. – here is the take from the SA Military History Society “In April, 1941, the first foreign prisoners-of-war ever to set foot on South African soil landed at Durban. They were Italians, captured in Libya and Abyssinia. This contingent turned out to be merely the fore-runner of tens of thousands more. South Africa had never previously been in the position of having to accommodate prisoners of war. Hysteria is a common occurrence in all prisons and prison camps, and as the Italians are an emotional people, the incidence of hysteria amongst them was relatively high. The manifestations ranged from hysterical blindness and aphonia (loss of speech) to complete paralysis. In order to combat this hysteria and depression amongst the P.O.W. the Welfare Section of the camp, in close co-operation with the medical side,...
The PEZ Phenomenon unpacked
If you’ve got an old PEZ sweety plastic thing lying around read this article – it could pay for that dream holiday! One of REPRESENTS biggest fans Noxyrsox is fascinated by the PEZ Phenomenon and tells us all about this POP CULTURE: “I was looking up PEZ dispensers on the net, and being an avid fan (I have… them all over the top of my computer), I was fascinated to read about the history of this classic gizmo and see photos of old PEZ dispensers. People are crazy about them and will pay up to $300 for a real collectible. I have a feeling it’s a collection that will get me hooked! ” People have been collecting PEZ candy dispensers almost as long as they’ve been collecting stamps. It was one of the first pop culture products to become a contemporary collectible. It was created in Austria in the 1920’s, and was originally marketed as a compressed peppermint candy – “The mint for the refined world” according to creator, Eduard Haas, as an alternative to smoking. The name PEZ was derived from the German word for peppermint – PfeffErminZ – and is correctly written in all capital letters. In the 1950’s, the company began to release PEZ dispensers with character heads, such as a Nurse, a Doctor, and zoo animals. It is unknown which dispenser was first but it was either the Full Body Robot or Full Body Santa. Not surprisingly, kids began to buy the product for the dispenser (the candy was secondary) and a phenomenon was born. To date, about 300 PEZ dispensers have been designed and marketed. All are in high demand with collectors throughout the world trying to obtain a complete set. PEZ dispensers are difficult to date because of the numerous releases and variations. Generally those made before 1989 can be identified because they have no “feet”. The feet on the current models allow the dispenser to stand upright. Some of the very early versions actually came in a box, and those in mint condition can fetch several hundred dollars on the secondary market. Some of the rarer dispensers include Baseball Glove (no feet), Batman with black hood and cape, and Captain America. The company has produced many dispenser lines of comic book and cartoon characters, such as Disney, Looney Tunes, Spiderman, and Star Wars. Through the company website, PEZ sells variations called “Misfits”, which are batches of dispensers that didn’t quite work out right. Since these are only available through the website, they are bound to gain value on the secondary market. Over 3 billion PEZ candies are consumed annually in the U.S....
Bollyental Plaza
Need a pair of gold sparkling stilettos with white ribbon and an illuminous green flashing alice band for that showgirl look? There’s only one place in JHB where you can find that combination in one shop at an unbelievable bargain price. Any well versed Jozi bargain hunter and shopper will tell you that the Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg, near N…ewtown, is on the top of their list – it’s the place that never lets u down. Catch a flippin hot curry, oily samoosas, the far-away song of a lunchtime prayer, real-looking VON DUTCH caps, wads of luscious fabric, cheap Chinese imports, kitch Indian crockery, wedding confetti and plastic flowers… it’s got it all. Why not share this fabulous secret? Head down to Fordsburg and ask any local for directions… and...
ONLINE SHOPPING @ Woolies and PicknPay
The other day I saw the huge PicknPay Home shopping truck delivering a whole lot of groceries to an old lady in my street that can’t get around anymore… What with winter round the corner and some of us working so hard we can’t breathe never mind shop – it’s a nice option. So I checked out Woolies, Pick n Pay, href=”http://www.spar.co.za”Spar and Shoprite/Checkers – I couldn’t remember anymore after that! SPAR and SHOPRITE are a little behind and don’t have the facility available yet – WOOLIES amd PICKNPAY did however – we did a comparison shop with R200 worth of groceries to find out who was best! Before we start – what do you need? Online access, a contact number, credit card and a fixed address! So i guess that it is a bit of a larney convenience nice-to-have – but hey – IF NOT WHY NOT? WOOLWORTHS Sign-Up: Very easy and quick Buying: Great selection of foods – easy to understand and navigate. Have SLIMMING and HEALTHY and KOSHER HALAAL etc options Prices: Same as on the shop floor Delivery: The next day delivery guaranteed – you choose your timeslot Cost of delivery – betwen R35 and R45 depending on what time of day What we like: Choose if u want bags or not You can send a GIFT and they wrap it and add a personalised note from you They will call you if they’re out of stock You can name your list – ie weekly list – it remembers u when u come back! What we don’t like: WE LOVE IT! PICKNPAY Sign-Up: Easy – great software that prompts your street address etc Buying: Broad selection of foods – easy to understand and navigate. Prices: Same as on the shop floo Delivery: If you order before 9:30am you can receive your goods after 2pm if there’s a delivery slot available. Cost of delivery – R55 (Steep!) What we like: Same Day delivery possible Shopping list next to you as you choose so you know what’s going on and how much you have spent You can browse the shopping site without registering What we don’t like: Only certain number of delivery slots available – if they are taken you may have to wait a few days to get a free one – what’s the point? I HATE TO SAY IT – but WOOLIES...
FAX MACHINE becomes OUTDATED – great new services
It’s been a technology-full week as opposed to last week which was musical – not sure which one I prefer… I just wanted to share with you the amazing online FAX facilities now available in SA which I am sure will grow and improve. Free online faxing has been available in the rest of the world for a while – we are just starting to catch up – click here for a site that will direct you to the A href=”http://www.anymail.co.za/fax.htm”Global providers. For local free online Fax receiving service in SA go to E2 Solutions – I send them to you as they were very quick to help me out. You receive all your faxes for free as emails in your inbox and pay a small fee for sending faxes locally also via your email. But they only provide a local service for free. I however needed an international online Faxing service – Surprise Surprise – guess who saved the day – TELKOM!!! They have the perfect servie for me. Having a home office becomes easier and easier. And it’s really affordable. Click here for more info and rates from Telkom. Here’s the lowdown: Telkoms Fax product is called MAIL MANAGER PLUS – all you need is a phone line, an Internet connected PC and an e-mail client that supports attachments. You should also have CALL ANSWER (the answering service) which is about R26 to install and R10 a month. They will automatically install the CALL ANSWER service when you apply for MAIL MANAGER PLUS if you don’t have it. Faxes can only be RECEIVED on this service at present, but they are sent through to your email inbox as a mail attachment which is fantastic – no more lost faxes! Then you just print them out if you need to. The cost of MAIL MANAGER PLUS is R26 to install and about R11 a month. My installation took about 5 minutes and i received a fax ten minutes later. I highly recommend it . Now if only they could sort out the sending...
Blackberry – what is this new fangled thang?
Last time i checked Blackberry was a really tasty jam that goes well on toast particularly with Peanut Butter – now all of a sudden it’s being tossed around as the latest must-have phone technology! Well a company called Reasearch in Motion (RIM) in Canada invented and developed a wireless device for the worldwide communications …market called Blackberry. It is basically a revolutionary communication tool that allows cellphone users to stay in touch with their email wherever they go… In an attempt to get this theatrical brain around Blackberry being a phone thingymajig I contacted the man that knows all about anything to do with phones – he’s a high-flying wheeler and dealer in the phone technology market in the East – he’s Stoffle and he explains it nice and clearly: So what is Blackberry? It’s a wireless technology sweeping the world. It’s killer application is that email is PUSHED to you – this is a complete paradigm shift from the pc situation where email is PULLED to you. This makes a huge difference to our lives because email becomes more like SMS and is much more accessible. When people know you have a blackberry, they expect you to be more reachable. Is this a good thing? Having your phone buzz each time you have a new email marks a major difference in the way people deal with business information. It means there is literally no down time. You are always online and you always have the ability to answer emails on the go (the device has a qwerty keyboard which allows you to type like on a normal computer keyboard. Wow! Email on the go! Your phone continuously polls the email server and pulls the email down as soon as it reaches your email server – So you get email in real time to your phone. Of course, Blackberry pushes a copy of the email to your mobile devices. You still get the email on your pc when you get to sit down in front of it. OK… It has become an essential tool for business travellers because these days there are GPRS roaming agreements between most operators. So for example, when a Vodacom customer gets off the plane at Heathrow and switches on his Blackberry, he immediately gets pushed the emails that have been sent to him while on the plane. Of course, he pays a premium for data roaming charges, which are charged by the kilobyte. Is Data Roaming expensive? Data roaming is quite expensive, yes – but time is money. The equation being that while that person spends an hour getting through customs and into...
Proudly brought to you by:
