No! Even though it’s Ashes time this isn’t a cricket reference! The headline refers to the three Australian ladies pictured above left to right – Judy Smetherham, Kerry Hegney and Di Rapson, appearing (with furry friends) for the second time on our weekly Sunday night radio show, The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild, which goes out live at 20.30 hours for an hour on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm. The ladies’ first appearance was back in April 2009 on their last visit to Zambia. What brought them back? Well, when they were asked this on air, their smart reply was “we heard rumours Richard was looking much younger”! “Quite right too!” I said, while others just sniggered…

In fact the ‘girls’ were back in Livingstone for two weeks to do some of the things they hadn’t done on their last visit, including a microlight flight over the Falls, a swim in Devil’s Pool on Livingstone Island and a two night, three day visit to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, leaving from Kasane Airport the next day. They also planned to do the cheetah encounter and as usual visit Maramba Market and Zambian friends they’d made during their last stay. In a way more importantly, the ladies had come from Australia via the Copperbelt in Zambia where they’d delivered 400 school bags, and over 200 soft toys to children at Chiwawatala, Chankuta and Mishikishi Primary Schools. They had to get special permission from the airlines they used to carry all that excess luggage in such a good cause. Oh! and they brought some beanies too. “Beanies”? I hear you ask. Don’t know your Aussie slang do ya? Woollen hats in real English. I only knew the slang as the ladies kindly brought me the ‘Australian Slang Dictionary’! Allows me to be rude to the Aussie cricketers on TV in their own language.

The only tinge of sadness was the news that Mr Billy Mulonda, head of one of the families the ladies had been helping in Ndola had been struck by lightning and killed the day they were leaving the Copperbelt. We sent our deepest condolences. After the Copperbelt the ladies had spent time at Mfue Lodge in South Luangwa National Park and had had a great time, seeing loads and loads of different animals.

The music on the show was awesome and featured numbers from Aggro Santos, Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green to get the party started. George chose Cray J with ‘Chipe’ for the first of his local tracks, and then Brothahood Crew with ‘If It’s Loving’. George himself featured on this track – as I mentioned last week he’s a locally famous singer by the name of Kafuela as well as a great DJ and technician. George was hot from a live rock show at a venue in Livingstone on Saturday afternoon organized by 107.7 fm. ‘Were you mobbed by young girls’? I wanted to know. ‘Of course’! Was the short answer. Milli Jam chose 112 with ‘Only You’ and Aliyah with ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number’ for his tracks, after which we moved on to ‘Bottoms Up’ by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj, ‘Love All Over Me’ by Monica and Jay Sean’s great ‘Break Ya Back’!

“What have you ladies been up to since the last time we saw you” Milli Jam wanted to know. Well, plenty was the answer. Judy had travelled to the UK and Paris, Kerry to Egypt, Turkey and Holland and Di to Bali. Di, who’d sadly lost her dad during this period, had also been to shows by Pink and Nickelback in Perth where these ladies live. “Noticed any changes in Livingstone and at Chanters”? The DJ’s wanted to know. “Plenty”! The girls replied – mentioning new rooms and the suite at Chanters, as well as Richard and Annastasia’s new offices. They’d seen that Livingstone boasted a new shopping mall.

As usual we gave away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks to the first person this week who could tell us where these lively and funny ladies came from. Australia was the first answer we received by text from Karen. Result!