Sunday lunch with the Townsend’s

Our old friends Ian and Pat Townsend called in for lunch at the Vineyard today, en route to the UK. They were accompanied by their friends Hennie Jonker and his partner Margi. Hennie was formerly underground manager at West Driefontein Gold Mine, Carltonville, South Africa.

Ian is business manager (mining and metallurgy) with Larox Oyj, and recently took over as President of MinSouth, the London and Southern Counties Branch of the IOM3.

Photo from left (clockwise): Jon, Ian, me, Amanda, Barbara, Pat and Hennie.

A wet day in Cape Town

16.00

The weather is foul today- gale-force winds, cool and torrential rain. Despite the weather I would like to have had a swim in the hotel pool, but it was shut down yesterday after developing a leak. The maintenance men were working on it yesterday, but not today, presumably as it is the weekend! The sign says ‘sorry for the inconvenience and thankyou for your understanding’.

Not good enough though. We arrived yesterday to find that internet access in the bedrooms is unavailable at the moment; vouchers are provided for wireless access in the lounge area but this is not a convenient place to work for any reasonable period. From tomorrow, we have around 50% of the conference delegates staying at the hotel, and they are paying for, and expecting, 4-star facilities. With no internet in their rooms, and no pool to relax in after the sessions, this is something they will not be getting, and they would have every right to seek compensation from the hotel if nothing is resolved.

18.15

Amanda and Jon finally arrived- late as plane from Dubai delayed due to fog! They weren’t exactly singing the praises of Emirates’ customer services! After a quick shower they joined us in the bar, then for an excellent meal in the hotel’s The Square Restaurant with Martyn and Christine Hay, and Dean Eastbury. Martyn’s company is Eurus Mineral Consultants, South Africa, and Dean is the Elsevier publishing manager for Minerals Engineering.

In the photo from bottom, clockwise, Barbara, Amanda, Christine, me, Dean, Jon, Martyn.

Arrived in Cape Town!

We arrived at Cape Town International Airport at 11.00 and after the 20 minute taxi drive arrived at the beautiful Vineyard Hotel.

Received a text from Jon to advise that he and Amanda are stuck in Dubai! They were trying out the Emirates route to Cape Town via Dubai, and missed their connecting flight. Hopefully they will be here tomorrow.

Our flight was full of Irishmen, volunteers building new homes for Africans in Cape Town, which has evolved beyond all recognition over the 5 decades in which we have regularly been visiting.

Cape Town is now like our second home, and is very different from the city that Barbara and I first saw when we arrived by boat in October 1969 en route to the Zambian Copperbelt.

The Cape Town that greeted us then was cold, grey and unfriendly. Everywhere were taxis displaying signs ‘whites only’; park benches, beaches, all with the same ubiquitous sign. The local people, mainly coloured, were (not surprisingly) sullen and an air of hostility was all pervasive.

South Africa was in the depths of its era of apartheid, designed to keep the races apart, but heavily biased in terms of land and privileges to the whites. We were eager to leave as soon as possible, but had to spend a night in a small hotel by the docks (now the sophisticated and vibrant Waterfront area). Once our car had been unloaded, and cleared customs, we set off on the Great North Road (now the N1), the start of our 3700km journey to Chingola.


6th November 20.00 Vineyard Hotel

The weather has suddenly turned very nasty- high winds, cloudy and cool (reminiscent of Cornwall).

Jon has texted to say that he and Amanda will be on tomorrow’s flight from Dubai, but they are less than impressed by the service with Emirates- had to queue for 5 hours to confirm change of flight!

Had a quick meeting at 1400 with our excellent Cape Town agent Rene Simpson and hotel staff, and met up for a quick drink and chat with Martyn and Christine Hay, the only delegates booked in today.

17.00 November 5th: London Heathrow

In limbo at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Only 5 hours to go before our BA flight leaves for Cape Town!
The car journey from Falmouth was 4 and a half hours, and the reason for our early arrival (apart from fairly clear M5 and M4) is that Amanda and Jon have an earlier flight than Barbara and me. They are now in Terminal 3 and are trying out the route to Cape Town via Dubai, with Emirates. Cheaper but 7 hours longer! Another advantage of BA is that it departs from Terminal 5, which is very impressive after its horrendous opening day. So we will drop off the bags, then have a leisurely meal before flying.

Checked email, and good to see that abstracts coming in now for Comminution ’10.

On our way!

11.oo 5th November
We are all packed and ready for our long journey from Falmouth to Cape Town.
We now have over 180 delegates for Flotation '09, so if you are thinking of doing some serious networking it is definitely not too late to register.
I will be "blogging" every day while in South Africa, with news and photos of faces and places.

Comminution '10- final call for papers

Cape Town's beautiful Vineyard Hotel is the venue for next April's Comminution '10.

This, the 7th International Comminution Symposium is organised by Minerals Engineering International in consultation with Prof Malcolm Powell of Australia's JKTech, and is currently sponsored by Sigmund Lindner, JKTech & Magotteaux. Media sponsors are The Gold & Minerals Gazette & Industrial Minerals.

If you would like to present a paper at the event, short abstracts should be submitted no later than the end of this month.