The M Vibe Experience!

We were delighted to welcome Mambo Mulenga (above) as our Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. Why ‘The M Vibe Experience’ in the title? M Vibe is Mambo’s radio handle. ‘The Experience’ is an hour long live show broadcast every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Mambo told listeners that he had joined Zambezi 107.7 fm in July of this year and currently hosts three shows per week – two on the graveyard shift between midnight and 05.00 hrs. His third show is a combo with one of the other station’s presenters and airs every Wednesday evening, known as ‘The Evening Glide’. He was happy with the attention the programme was receiving both locally and internationally.

Mambo explained that he had been mostly brought up in Botswana where his dad was working as a doctor. On completion of his secondary education he had come back to Zambia and enroled in the University of Zambia completing a first degree in Human Biology. Here he had met his wife, well known Zambian singer Kanji, a lawyer in the military wearing her other hat, with whom he has two children Cassie and Andrew. Sadly the couple are currently apart. Mambo is also marketing manager for a new firm M Vibe Media, which is a publishing and marketing company. The business has just published two books written by Mambo’s dad, Dr Mulenga, ‘The Sceptics’ and ‘Life’s Pitfalls’. Good reads both.

The music on the show was good, opening with latest tracks from Calvin Harris featuring John Newman, and Ne-Yo featuring Juicy J. Jay dropped tracks from Kid Ink and Zambian act JK. He also featured DJ Fresh. Our oldie of the week was by Judy featuring Cactus and the prize we offered of lunch for two with drinks and a swim at the lodge was quickly snapped up. My pick of the week was Fall Out Boy’s super new track ‘Centuries’ and we closed with The Vamps featuring Shawn Mendes and a revamp (!) of the old Simon and Garfunkel track ‘Oh Cecilia’!

As you can see Mambo Mulenga’s supports Man U and he, like the rest of the world, were celebrating that team’s first EPL win of the season on the afternoon of the show. We moved on. M Vibe’s musical taste is Zambian and African, particularly Nigerian music. His favourite artists? Wife Kanji and Exile on the local scene, late Aliya internationally. Mambo is fond of playing chess when his busy schedule affords him the time.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Mambo said that he would like to be firmly established in business, preferable in the real estate market. We wished him the best of luck and thanked him for appearing on our show.

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Inspired By The Zambezi – David Lisle Whitehead

A new book “Inspired by the Zambezi” by David Lisle Whitehead has just been self-published.
It can be purchased for ZKW 150 from The River Club or from Zig Zag in Livingstone. The book costs US$20 from Elephant’s Walk in Victoria Falls.

The book – a “must read” has been very favourably reviewed by Tony Weaver –

“David has written the most delightful memoir about his life in Barotseland, and his lifelong fascination with the Lozi people and the Bulozi kingdom. Titled Inspired by the Zambezi, and sub-titled Memories of Barotseland and a Royal River – the mighty Liambai, it is one of those gems that anyone travelling to the region simply has to beg, borrow, buy or steal – preferably buy, as all proceeds from its sale are going towards building a school near Makusi Village on the Zambezi in Sesheke District.

It was a remarkable upbringing, all the more so given that David went on to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, studying under Nobel laureate, Prof Hans Krebs – even I knew who Krebs was, having learnt about the “Krebs cycle” in high school biology.

As he says in his memoir about growing up in Bulozi, “relating my experiences in Bulozi will, I hope, serve to illustrate how lucky I was to grow up in such a magical, friendly world dominated by the fantastic Zambezi River. We lived amongst an amazing tribe, the Malozi, from whom I learned many lessons while imbibing their colourful language as if it it were my own. I even used to dream in Silozi; and sometimes I still do.”

The book is populated with colourful characters, some of whom went on to become household names in Southern Africa – the Meikles brothers, after whom the famous Meikles Hotel in Harare is named, the Susman brothers, founders of the modern day Woolworths, and the various members of the royal families of both Bulozi and Lesotho (Constantine Seeiso, later to be King Moshoeshoe II, was his Oxford tennis partner).”

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50 Shades Of Grey – A Husband Speaks Out!

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY – (a husband’s point of view) – By Pam Ayres (above) of course..

This made me roar with laughter!

The missus bought a Paperback,
down Shepton Mallet way,
I had a look inside her bag;
… T’was “Fifty Shades of Grey”.

Well I just left her to it,
And at ten I went to bed.
An hour later she appeared;
The sight filled me with dread…

In her left she held a rope;
And in her right a whip!
She threw them down upon the floor,
And then began to strip.

Well fifty years or so ago;
I might have had a peek;
But Mabel hasn’t weathered well;
She’s eighty four next week!!

Watching Mabel bump and grind;
Could not have been much grimmer.
And things then went from bad to worse;
She toppled off her Zimmer!

She struggled back upon her feet;
A couple minutes later;
She put her teeth back in and said
I am a dominater !!

Now if you knew our Mabel,
You’d see just why I spluttered,
I’d spent two months in traction
For the last complaint I’d uttered.

She stood there nude and naked
Bent forward just a bit
I went to hold her, sensual like
and stood on her left tit!

Mabel screamed, her teeth shot out;
My god what had I done!?
She moaned and groaned then shouted out:
“Step on the other one”!!

Well readers, I can’t tell no more;
About what occurred that day.
Suffice to say my jet black hair,
Turned fifty shades of grey

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The Buhlers Experience!

Left to right (above) meet Heidi Buhler, Chris Buhler and Maja Mores-Buhler, Swiss Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela – that’s our weekly Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. You will of course assume that all these Buhlers are related…. Wrong! Heidi and Maja are friends, while Chris and Maja are married and the fact that Heidi has the same surname was, we were assured on the show, pure coincidence! I originally had things so wrong I had to re-write the script for the show a couple of days before we went on air to reflect these relationships!

It was a good show, we air live between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs every Sunday and play latest music interspersed by chat with our Guests. Heidi and Maja explained that they were in Livingstone as volunteers with the Book Bus, based just around the corner from Chanters Lodge at The Grotto. They explained to listeners that they were both librarians by profession back in Bern, Switzerland so when they decided they would like to visit Africa and Zambia for the first time, The Book Bus seemed a natural choice of project. The Book Bus aims to improve child literacy rates in Africa, Asia and South America by providing children with books and the inspiration to read them. In Livingstone the organization has a converted truck packed full of books and volunteers that goes daily from school to school helping the children.

“Are you also a volunteer with The Book Bus?” Milli Jam asked Chris who said “no” and then explained that he had some free time from his job as an English teacher at Fachmittelschule Neufeld in Bern during the summer holidays, so he had come ‘along for the ride’. While Maja and Heidi were camping at The Grotto with the other volunteers Chris was staying at Chanters Lodge. He told us that he and Maja had been married ten years although they had been childhood sweethearts at school, only to meet up again later in life and marry! They have one son and one grand-daughter Emma, half a year old and the apple of their eyes! Heidi said she was married but now had a partner back in Switzerland.

The music on the show was hot! We featured tracks from Avicii, Robin Thicke, Mampi, Dandy Krazy, Mariah Carey and Kelly Rowland. Our oldie of the week was by Nicki Minaj and the prize of a dinner for two with drinks at the lodge which we give to the first person to text us the name of the performing artist was quickly snapped up. My pick was by Lucy Spraggan and we closed with Ellie Goulding’s beautiful ‘You’re My Everything’.

Chris told us that his favourite music is oldies in general and The Beatles in particular. Maja likes Mumford and Sons while Heidi does not like music. This shocked Milli Jam and George! Chris and Maja love swimming while Heidi likes downhill skiing and tennis. Whilst in Livingstone they had seen Victoria Falls, taken a sunset cruise and had been for high tea at the Royal Livingstone. They were very much looking forward to a four day safari in Zimbabwe at the end of the week when the volunteer stint was over, after that they would return to Switzerland with great memories of Zambia in general, and Livingstone in particular.

If you missed the show and would like a listen, here’s a link to the podcast.

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Doug Funk

Remember Doug Funk (pictured above)? You should! He appeared on our radio show and the blog in May this year, and we were delighted to welcome him back again to Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. The show airs on Zambezi 107.7 fm every Sunday night from 20.30 to 21.30 hrs and is a cool mixture of international and Zambian music, chat and news. Doug hails from Canada, telling listeners that “he lives on Vancouver Island, an island in the Pacific Ocean, a fantastic place”.

Doug works for a wealthy philanthropic family involved in more than 100 projects in Africa, centred mostly on Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi but also extending into South Africa. All the projects are linked to education, and indeed at the end of the show when Milli Jam asked Doug if he had any message for the listeners, his reply was “education, education, education” and he certainly walks the talk! He told listeners that he is busy promoting a programme called ‘Happy Books’ which is a reader programme for developing reading skills in African youngsters. 10 schools in Zambia already have these books. Doug makes two trips a year to Africa to assess the progress of his projects, the rest of his time is spent on the massive administration demands of his work.

The music on the show was super, opening with ‘Doom and Gloom’ the latest by The Rolling Stones especially for Arsenal supporters after the team’s dismal performance the previous day. We followed up with tracks from Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch, Winston and Red Linso, CQ featuring Exile, Rihanna, LMFAO, Nas, Rebecca Ferguson and Ne-Yo. The oldie of the week was Nas’s ‘The World Is Yours’ but the prize we offer to the first person to text us the name of the performing artist went unwon! It was a tough one! We give listeners latest chart news each week and on this show for the first time we gave details of an African chart – unsurprisingly topped by three Nigerian acts.

Doug explained that he had only arrived in Zambia from Zimbabwe the previous night and would be leaving for Mazabuka the following morning, where he had a project at the community school. That afternoon he had been out at Mwandi to assess progress on classroom buildings there. He gave us an update on his THRASS programme saying how important it was for rural youngsters in Zambia to have a better grasp of English as that was the language of exams, and lack of English a primary reason for exam failure. Doug felt the programme was progressing very well in Zambia.

Milli Jam asked Doug what was his favourite Zambian food and his reply was “nsima, but not three times a day”! He revealed that his projects are sponsored by an outfit called ‘Solon’ – one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece, he divulged. As usual we greeted Guests at the lodge, family at home and the Chanters Lodge staff.

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Ruth Binney


My sister Ruth (above) has a lovely, sparkling new website put together by the team at Collaborative Connections including my son Ed, Ruth’s nephew. You can read all about Ruth on her site and here’s the link. Ruth Binney. A brief resume of Ruth’s career reads:

Editor at Mitchell Beazley, including the natural history and medicine volumes of The Joy of Knowledge Encyclopedia.

Editor at Marshall Cavendish partworks, including The Book of Life, Nice ‘n’ Easy and Doctor’s Answers.

Editorial Director at Marshall Editions, book packagers – responsible for a wide range of successful titles, ranging from The BUPA Manual of Fitness and Well-Being to Great Battlefields of the World, The Manager’s Handbook, Structures and Strange Worlds, Amazing Places.

Development Editor at Reader’s Digest – responsible for generating ideas and close involvement in the testing and marketing processes. A key member of the senior management team. Involvement with the production and quality of titles, specialising in cookery, gardening, natural history, medicine and health, computer and puzzle titles.

And here are her titles of books she has written herself:

The Gardener’s Wise Words and Country Ways
Wise Words and Country Ways for CooksThe Allotment Experience: Everything You Need to Know About Allotment Gardening – Direct from the Plot
Wise Words and Country Ways for House and Home
Wise Words & Country Ways Weather Lore
The English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
Wise Words & Country Ways Slipcased Set

Go and take a look!

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