1

March 2018

Dear Residents

Greetings to one and all in this our first Sea Views of the year, already one quarter ‘down’ in our calendars. How quickly the world changes! Between December’s and this edition, the country has experienced a ‘changing of the guard’. We have a new president in Cyril Ramaphosa and we fervently hope that he will restore our country in the wake of the maladministration that characterised the presidency of Jacob Zuma.

“Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” – Walter

Hagen. Early morning light bathes a serene corner of The St James.

Budget news We’re probably all a little gloomy about the 1% hike in VAT from 1 April, announced during the Minister of Finance’s Budget Speech. The increase is, however, expected to bring an additional R23 billion to the ailing fiscus. Those of us who enjoy luxury or imported goods (clothing, cosmetics, electronics and even golf balls!) will be paying an additional 2% on the ad-valorem excise duty rate (up from 7% to 9%). And estate duty, for those fortunate to have estates of R30 million or more, has risen from 20% to 25%.

2

Smokers and drinkers will pay more as excise duties on tobacco products will increase by 8.5%, and those on alcohol between 6% and 10%. (Perhaps we should take up worry beads as a stress relief aid!) But some good news followed more recently: Moody's has left South Africa's credit rating unchanged, citing the appointment of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene as a reason for optimism. Let’s hope we can build on that.

“Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s home from work we go”

As a retirement hotel, most of our residents’ careers are a thing of the past. But it’s interesting to note how shifts in society will affect the span of careers and working lives as populations are becoming older – and remaining in the workplace longer.

A recent essay in Trend magazine by Sarah Harper, a professor of gerontology and director of the Oxford Institute of Population Aging at the University of Oxford, foresees a time when healthy, active individuals are still in full employment in their nineties. (Yes, in their nineties!)

Harper says that a great challenge in the coming decades will be the aging of the population. Most high-income countries have aged continuously over the past century. Driven by low childbirth and improved mortality rates, the average age of these countries has risen steadily. In Europe and North America, there are already more people older than 60 than youngsters under the age of 15. And by 2030, nearly half of Western Europe’s population will be over 50, 25% over 65, and 13% over 75.

Harper believes that with good governance, regulation, health care, and education countries can convert the “youth bulge” into a demographic for promoting growth. She writes, “This change is illustrated geographically: A century ago, 25% of the world’s workers lived in Europe. That has now fallen to below 10%, and by the middle of the century half of the global workforce will be based in Asia—around 2.5 billion workers.

3

“Yet by 2040 there will also be more elders than young in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean … Most regions during this century thus will face the aging of their populations and a shift from young dependents to a majority of elderly dependents. Indeed, as longevity has increased, it is now forecast that the life expectancy of today’s European babies will be well over 100 years old with over five million centenarians alive in Europe by the end of the 21st century.

“This will clearly have significant implications for labour, family and household structure, health and welfare service demand, patterns of saving and consumption, provision of housing and transport, leisure and community behaviour, and social interaction.”

The two main challenges for high-income countries, says Harper, are how to ensure an income for these older people, whether from work, pensions, assets, or savings, and how to provide appropriate and sustainable health care. “Both depend on two concepts found in most societies—the acceptance of the generational contract and of generational succession.”

Harper adds that in most societies it’s recognised that adults look after their dependent children and that when they grow up these adult children care for their dependent parents. In traditional societies, this is done within families and households, in modern societies via public welfare systems.

“Given their aging populations, many countries are now debating whether this contract should be adapted so that older adults bear more direct responsibility for their own late life care and support. This is particularly the case in those societies where modern medicine is enabling not only increased life expectancy but also increasing years of frailty and dependency.”

Harper believes it is possible to accommodate this change, “but it requires individuals and institutions to rethink the life course and a move away from seeing a clear progression along a linear line of work and income, to a more fluid life course”.

Birthday wishes While on the topic of longevity, let us congratulate residents who celebrated their birthdays during the past quarter.

January February March

8th Ursulene Dunckley 25th Erica Duncan 26th Maurina Zuccarini

10th Hazel Collins 12th Doreen Ovendale 26th Lucelle Elcock

1st Anne Apps 3rd Olive Gavrondsky 5th Judith Moult 13th David Catlin 23rd Joan Hart 30th Avril Bergen

4

Catering manager Johan le Roux presents Lucelle Elcock with a delectable birthday cake

at a tea in her honour, attended by family and friends.

Visits, concerts, talk and slide shows

The library was the setting for a busy season of concerts, talks and slide shows. First up

in January was Brenda van Straten who shared heart-warming stories of life aboard the

Africa Mercy, where life-changing surgeries are performed on patients who otherwise

could not afford these. Brenda has served with Mercy Ships for 21 years, 18 of those as

a volunteer on board the Anastasis and Africa Mercy. Since 2015 she has been national

director for Mercy Ships, “transforming the lives of the poorest of the poor”.

Wouter van Warmelow gave a talk and slideshow on crop circles, those mysterious and

curiously beautiful patterns in fields where standing crops have been flattened in the

forms of circles or more complex patterns. Little wonder elders called them “faerie

rings”!

Fish Hoek Historical Society’s Alan Lindner called to give a talk on the history of

Noordhoek region through to Imhoff’s Gift, followed in February by historian Helen

Robinson’s talk, “The Changing Face of Sea Point”.

In March Kay Price-Lindsay shared some of the benefits of belonging to the global

Toastmasters organisation as well as her personal journey to compete against some of

the best orators in the world. “It’s never too late to be great!” she told her audience,

sharing the humbling life lessons she learnt on her way to the world championships of

public speaking in 2012.

5

Armchair Travel One of the great benefits of enjoying armchair travel is that we get to enjoy others’

experiences vicariously. Our thanks go to all those who visit us to share their sojourns

and journeys, photographs and DVDs.

In January Peter Coates’ daughter, Brenda, talked about her travels to Mexico. (Did you

know that the Mexico/US border is the second longest in the world, after the US and

Canada? And because it is built on a lake, Mexico City is apparently sinking at a rate of

six to eight inches a year as pumps draw out water for the city’s growing population.

(Sobering news when one considers Cape Town is having to tap into its large aquifers to

counter the ongoing drought!)

In February we enjoyed two DVDs about China, titled “North China” and “Wild China”

(the latter on loan from Janice Maguire). “Wild China” lifts the veil on one of the world’s

most mysterious and advanced civilisations. Napoleon Bonaparte once pointed to a map

of China and said (and there are many versions of this) "Ici repose un géant endormi,

laissez le dormir, car quand il s'éveillera, il étonnera le monde", or "Here lies a sleeping

giant”. We have seen evidence of this roused giant in recent decades as China flexes her

industrial muscles, both within and beyond her borders.

Who doesn’t dream of cruising in the Mediterranean? Jamie and Biddy Miller visited The St James to share their further adventures aboard the yacht Emalanga. The couple collected the craft from a boatyard in Northern Italy and sailed all the way down the coast and across the Ionian Sea to Greece, enjoying tranquil islands and ports along the way.

Jamie Miller checks a map on board the yacht Emalanga. (Photo from Biddy’s blog.)

6

Themed lunches and dinners Residents enjoyed more fun and games at our Wild West, Valentine’s Day and Down Memory Lane themed dinners, prepared by Johan and his ever-creative catering team.

Saloon slingers (from left) Boet Katzeff, Joan Hart, David Allaway (with a mean bit of weaponry!), Hazel Shaul and Helen Moebius prior to the Wild West-themed dinner.

Our dining room team ready to spread some love at the Valentine’s Day lunch, (from left)

Nicky, Brenda, Zelna and Estelle.

7

The Down Memory Lane-themed dinner saw residents donning hats for the occasion.

They included (from left, back) Glynnis Rodwel, Vera Kidd, David Allaway, Dorci Carpenter-Frank, Diana Oosthuizen, Yvonne Ellisson, and Cmdr Pieter Breedt. (Front)

Janice Maguire, Margaret McAlister, Valerie Prout and Hazel Shaul

Events, outings and aboutings In January the Lions Club of Fish Hoek treated residents to a trip to Kirstenbosch. In a much-enjoyed session later that month the Singing Companions entertained us royally with songs of yesteryear. Our music lovers continued the popular Music in the Library series. In January Babs and Kim presented “The Hits of Johnny Mathis”, the original recording by the original artist. In February Cynthia Cooper shared “Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits”, and the Classical Music Circle guest presenter David Allaway presented “Classical Sibelius”. Di Oosthuizen presented Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy’s “Sweet Hearts – 20 Favourites”. Valerie Prout presented “An Afternoon with Mozart” and “Some Instruments of the Orchestra”. Margaret McAllister introduced something a little different with “Italian Street Songs” followed by a programme of Beethoven, Camille Saint-Saëns and Franz Liszt. In March Babs Weaving presented the “Very Best of Nana Mouskouri”. Movie evenings brought some block busters to our screen in the library. Among the films we enjoyed were “The Bridges of Madison County”, with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, “It’s Complicated”, with Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep, as well as episodes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Kenneth Clark’s “Civilisation”.

8

Our ‘Guess Who is Who’ photo competition proved extremely popular. Thirty-four residents submitted their ‘young’ photos (birth to 20 years) and their fellows were invited to guess their identities. The winners, Jeanette Hamber and David Allaway (pictured below), were announced at an event in the library.

The St James staff with gifts and sweet treats to be delivered to

our sister home in Lavender Hill for their celebration of the centenary year of Madiba’s birthday (from left) Agatha, Harmony, Estelle, and David Hartnick. (Front)

Innocence.

9

Poetry corner

In this issue we feature the work of Robin Malan, a runner up in last year’s Three-Score-

and-Ten poetry competition, open to the over-70 community of Cape Town.

(Muizenberg resident John Cartwright’s poem, “I have destroyed”, took the laurels.)

VERIFYING GOD OR WHATEVER MEANS THE GOOD

Robin Malan (Acknowledging Louis MacNeice’s use of the phrase in his poem “Meeting Point”)

The Man in the bed next to mine was 97, he stayed put in that bed all seven days,

He couldn’t hear, he snored, he coughed his lungs out, he hawked, he spat, he grouched a lot,

he shouted the physio right out of the room He confided loudly to his daughter,

‘They’re all black, the staff, you know.’

I didn’t think I was going to like it there. Then on duty came a male nurse, shiny, young and strong

Not a ‘kasi boy, he told me, but a village boy, from near Idutywa, whose name meant The Men.

‘No. I don’t want to wash today.’ ‘No, it’s all right, I will help you Tata.’ ‘I have to use a potty.’ ‘Wait, let me fetch it, Tata. I will help you, Tata.’

‘I can’t eat this Maltabella lying down.’ ‘Come, I will help you, Tata.’ And with tongue-tip to lips he scooped the spoon to the old man’s mouth.

‘So what’s your name?’ ‘Madoda, Tata.’

‘What, Matonto?’ ‘No, Madoda, Tata.’ ‘Oh.’

Just a day later, I heard the ward sister behind the curtain. ‘Why did you ring your bell? What do you want, my old sweetheart?’

‘I want Madoda. To come and help me.’ (The winning entries of 2017, as well as those from previous years, can be viewed on The St James website: www.stjameshotel.co.za)

Sea Views contributions welcome Residents are most welcome to contribute anecdotes, poems, pictures and even short essays or stories to Sea Views. If you have anything you’d like to put forward for consideration, please let Debbie at the reception desk have your item/s. (Please note that given space constraints, the editor reserves the right to choose what to feature.)

10

Last words

“Time is of the essence”, we’re told when tasks or deadlines are urgent. Resident Margaret McAllister penned this reminder of just how important time can be, depending on who you are – and what’s at stake.

To realise the value of 1 year, Ask the student who failed a grade

To realise the value of 1 month, Ask the Mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

1 week, Ask the editor of a weekly Newspaper. 1 hour, the lovers who are waiting to wed 1 minute, the person who missed the train

1 second, who just avoided an accident 1 millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

That’s all until the next edition of Sea Views at the end of June. Take care during this autumn season – and keep praying for rain!

With love

The Sea Views Editor