New Dimensions

 An idea is just an idea if that is all we do when thinking about things. Once upon a time man looked at birds and the idea came up that it would be great to fly like a bird. Then, we could rise above the ground and move through the air to cover great distances and be able to see more and further, almost like being on a high mountain. At various stages in history “inventors” puzzled over the complexity of flight with no success at all. Some even died trying out their ideas. This went on for some time until someone cleverer came along. He applied more imagination and testing to the idea of flight and decided to be more practical and change the shape of the wing to a curved surface. More testing took place, and some laws of aerodynamics were formulated and tested or put into practice. The results were better. The idea was developed further with more testing (action). Success didn’t come overnight. No, the “inventors” bravely and patiently continued with their efforts. Now, man can fly wi

  I once worked for a company called Frasers Ltd in Johannesburg. My director nominated me for an educational trip to the USA. That was back in the 1980’s. I was surprised to have received such an honour because it was company policy to send staff on those tours after long service. I had only been working for Frasers for just over a year. We were a group of people from different companies taking the guided tour and departed from Jan Smuts International Airport in Kempton Park for the long flight across the Atlantic to Madeira where our jet refuelled. From there it was still a quite a distance to La Guardia Airport in New York. Whilst on the flight I wondered what lay in store for me since I had never travelled so far from South Africa. America was huge compared to my small country but in those days our currency exchange rate was almost 1:1. I knew that technologically they were far ahead of my country and that it would be a big adjustment in terms of size as well. The tour operat