Bouchard Finlayson Awarded Wine Cellar Of The Year. Peter Finlayson Is Viticulturist Of The Year

Boutique winery Bouchard Finlayson in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley has triumphed at the second South African Wine Index awards held in Stellenbosch yesterday, winning one trophy and with three wines rated above 96 points.

For the second time, the SAWI Grand trophy for the Top 2010 Wine Cellar went to Bouchard Finlayson, which was also included in the SAWI Top 10 Winery Awards.

Winemaker Peter Finlayson was once again named Viticulturist of the Year.

“I am shaken but delighted by these fantastic results,” Finlayson said. “It is a tribute to our dedicated team at the farm who work tirelessly in search of perfection. We have the Hemel-en-Aarde’s uniquely gentle climate and the cold ocean to thank for our quality grapes which make Burgundian-styled wines of excellence.”

Gender Bill To Put Women In The Driving Seat

THE government is moving ahead with its efforts to pass the Gender Equality Bill, which would see companies given strict targets to employ more women in positions of power.

The Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, said yesterday that the bill could see non-complying firms being penalised. She was speaking at the Women Economic Empowerment Conference at Durban’s International Convention Centre. “The Gender Equality Bill that we are developing is to gain legislative authority to enforce this principle of 50-50 gender parity,” Lulu said.

She said the target was to have the bill put to the cabinet by March next year. Consultations were under way with stakeholders on the scope, enforcement measures and various elements that needed to be included in the bill. Lulu said she was appalled that only 21 percent of women occupied leadership positions in the private sector. This was against the 35 percent in the public sector. “Our target is to reach 50 percent by 2014,” she said.

While the minister said that some people saw the Gender Equality Bill as a pipe dream, she was confident that it was feasible. It had been achieved successfully in Norway. “In 2002, barely 6 percent of Norway’s corporate directors were female, and about 70 percent of the top companies in the country did not have a single woman on their executive boards... The Norwegian parliament passed a law in 2003 giving companies five years to have 40 percent women in their boards. The law affected about 460 listed companies and none of them have been penalised because they all complied,” she said.

Lulu said gender equality was an issue that countries across the world were grappling with because of a lack of understanding. “It does not make business sense as it limits the overall potential for economic growth,” she said. Lulu also warned women against being used as a front in male-dominated companies.

Our Very Own Asteroid Called Hermanus

In a function hosted by Overstrand Mayor Councillor Nicolette Botha-Guthrie on 10th August 2011, a ceremony was held to announce the re-naming of the recently discovered asteroid 260824. In the words of John Saunders, Chairman of the Hermanus Astronomy Centre, this is the story of how Hermanus got its own asteroid:

“At one of the early MONET sessions, Rick Hessman via SKYPE from Gottingen and whose “baby” the MONET telescopes are, made a quick comment that now we have mastered MONET maybe we should have an Asteroid named after Hermanus.

That set me thinking and the idea grew within my thoughts over several weeks.

With the idea now gathering some momentum, I e-mailed Dr. Amanda Gulbis in Cape Town, who I knew had been able to name an asteroid as a naming competition as a project with Pinelands school in Capetown, for advice on if and how we could go about it.

Her advice was as follows:-

First, contact someone who has discovered an asteroid and studied its orbit for a few years and then ask for his or her permission to rename it.

In our case one of Amanda contacted one of her close friends David Trilling; a professional astronomer based in Tucson, Arizona, to see if he could help. Sure enough David was willing to have Asteroid 260824 he had found in 2005 renamed.

With that in mind, I found that you have to draft a citation to go with the renaming of your asteroid.

In our case my wife Irene and I drafted a four sentence citation and submitted it to Amanda for consideration.

Amanda through her experience explained that it should be just one sentence and so she shortened it as follows:-

The village Hermanuspietersfontein, later shortened to Hermanus, was founded in honour of a man who taught Dutch to farmers’ children. This minor planet is named in recognition of the Hermanus Astronomy Centre’s enthusiasm for astronomy and their dedication to educational outreach in South Africa.

Once this had been agreed, the citation was sent to David Trilling who in turn submitted on our behalf to the Minor Planet Committee in the USA.

The next step was to wait patiently….for approximately three months.

Just over three months later, after a few e-mails, we found that Asteroid 260824 had indeed been renamed “Asteroid Hermanus”. The asteroid is 2.79 Astronomical Units from the Sun and that is equal to 417.3 million kilometres.

Its orbit is close to circular with an eccentricity of only 0.095.

Its orbit has an inclination 5.13 deg from the lateral ecliptic.

It has a diameter of approximately 1–2 km.

It has a magnitude of 16.6 which means it is very, very faint.

It must be noted that there is only one other Asteroid in South Africa named after a town or city and that is Asteroid Pretoria.

So, What's Your Next Move?

Whale watching is best along the Cape Whale Coast from Pringle Bay to Pearly Beach during the months of June to December, with notable mentions of the towns of Hermanus, which boasts the only whale crier in the world, and Walker Bay, the whale nursery of South Africa.

Remember:

• You can spot whales by looking for white patches in the ocean where the waves break on their bodies. When they breach they also cause a huge white splash.

• Whales are along our coastline during the months of May to December. Contact the local tourism bureau to enquire whether they have arrived. They are more prolific between August and November.

• Be patient – seeing your first whale is an experience you will never forget.

• Whales can be seen from land, but there are also many boat-based tours available.

• The migratory Humpback Whale, which has the longest flippers of any whale species, can be seen briefly from May to June and again on their return journey between November and January. Brydes Whales and Orcas (Killer Whales) are seen only occasionally. Dolphins are in residence throughout the year.

Whales have a variety of ‘moves’ recognisable from shore:

• Breaching is when a whale leaps out of the water, sometimes twirling around. This action may be done purely for play, or may be used to loosen skin parasites and other irritations the whale might have. Breaching is also believed to be a means of communication with other whales and is usually done in sets of between four and six.

• Fluking is when a whale raises its tail out of the water as it begins a dive.

• Lobtailing is an activity in which the whale sticks its tail out of the water, swings it around and then slaps it onto the water's surface. This produces a loud sound which is believed to be a means of communication between whales.

• Logging is when the whale is merely lying in the water, with its tail hanging down. Part of the head and back are exposed.

• Spouting is when whales blow water out of the blowholes located near the top of the head. Southern Right Whales have two blowholes which act as nostrils. When they blow water out of their blowholes a distinctive V-shaped cloud of vapour is produced largely by condensation when warm breath comes into contact with cooler air.

• Spyhopping is an activity in which the whale pokes its head out of the water, possibly to take a look around.

'Hundreds Of Thousands’ Will Be Enticed

SA Tourism says its latest destination campaign will entice hundreds of thousands of overseas tourists to visit SA over the next few years.

The new campaign, which it says is a natural extension of the first phase ’20 Experiences in 10 days’ campaign that ran last year, is being flighted on BBC World and CNN International. It will launch soon on National Geographic. “When all these elements are in place, the larger campaign will reach more than a billion people a month,” says SA Tourism in a media statement.

The campaign features four couples, one each from China, Germany, Angola and Brazil, travelling through South Africa. “This campaign speaks to target consumers in their own languages, in Mandarin, Portuguese and German in the instance of this, the second phase, of the campaign. Strong online content creates talkability about South Africa,” says Roshene Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at SA Tourism.

“Our ambition with the campaign is quite simple. We wanted to use ordinary people to show how accessible our destination is; to show how much they enjoy the experiences South Africa offers. In using regular members of the public, we successfully position South Africa as accessible to billions of travel consumers the world over. Nothing is scripted and nothing is acted. It’s all real, spontaneous and authentic. We’re very proud of this campaign, and we are satisfied that BBC World and CNN International will take our message to the widest, and most appropriate global audiences,” says Singh.

The larger campaign will include special deals that will be accessible from SA Tourism’s website and in partnership with the travel trade in each of South Africa’s key markets.

The campaign can be seen on the South African Tourism homepage (www.southafrica.net).

Source: SA Tourism Update

Meet Our Very Own Oryx Top Guns

Yesterday, three women of the South African Air Force made history when they became the first women-only crew of a helicopter flight.

The flight by pilot Captain Tarryn Bind, co-pilot Captain Laura Ilunga and flight engineer Lieutenant Olwethu Soga, of 15 Squadron, was a first in the 91-year history of the second-oldest air force in the world.

The trio were proud and particularly pleased the event had taken place in time for Women’s Day and in Women’s Month.  The Oryx flight took off from Durban’s air force base, near the old Durban International airport, and made a 30-minute circuit of Durban. The air force’s theme for yesterday was: “Strong women building a strong SAAF in defence and service of the nation”.

Bind, 27, originally from Joburg, is the first woman to qualify as an Oryx commander at 15 Squadron; she is only the second woman to achieve this in SAAF history.“We are all professionals and we were excited. It was really quite nice having ladies only in the helicopter,” she said of yesterday’s flight. It’s a far cry from her childhood dream of being a flight attendant and another step towards her dream of becoming an astronaut.

Ilunga, 26, described being part of history as “overdue but great”. She joined the SAAF in 2004 as a pupil pilot and completed the gruelling basic training and officer courses. She then studied at the military academy and got her BMil: Defence and Technology Management through Stellenbosch University, majoring in aeronautical science. She got her wings at the central flying school, Langebaanweg, in 2007. She said: “We need more women in the air force,” adding that she was part of an NGO, Southern Africa Women in Aviation and Aerospace Industry, which aimed to get bursaries for young women who wanted to be in the force.

Soga, 28, of Butterworth, in the Eastern Cape, qualified in 2008 as the first and only woman flight engineer in the SAAF. Last year she qualified to take leadership as 16 Squadron technical officer – the person in charge of all technical aspects of running the squadron. Her flying tasks have included night flying, mountain flying, formation flying, night specialist operations, sea rescues, mountain rescues, casualty evacuation, gunnery war simulation exercises, and firefighting and cargo-slinging.

4th Annual Mr & Miss Village Square Pageant

This year will see the 4th annual Mr & Miss Village Square Pageant for children 3 - 10yrs.

Venue:

The Piazza area at Village Square Centre on Saturday 1 October will be the fantastic backdrop for this fun event.  The competition will run from 11h00 - 12h30 during the Whale Festival.

This year, creator of the event, Lezanne van Zyl has created even more categories which will be hotly contested and each entrant will receive a gift for participating. The entry fee is R30 per child.

The categories this year are:

Boys-

Mr. Village Square

Mr. Personality

Mr. X-factor

Mr. Photogenic

Girls-

Will be in junior (3-6yr) and senior (7-10yr) categories

Miss Village Square (jnr & snr)

1st princesses (jnr & snr)

2nd princesses (jnr & snr)

Miss Personality (jnr & snr)

Miss Photogenic (jnr & snr)

Your contact person for this fun event which should not to be missed is Lezanne van Zyl.

Lezanne can be found at:

Shop 18 GRAFFITI, Village Square (across from Mugg & Bean)

Lezanne's mobile number is 084 208 9018 or e-mail her at lezannevz@yahoo.com or Facebook - Lezanne Van Zyl and Graffiti Shop Hermanus.