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British houses
about three feet high and the village church clock showing the
correct time of day. The grounds and rooftops were covered in
lifelike snow and a more beautiful sight you could never wish to
see. This British heritage spread throughout the old
English-speaking commonwealth is certainly worth hanging on to and I
am so pleased that we, at the Friendship Foundation, do all we can
to keep these strong ties in place.
Dorothy and I will
be taking a group of 30 members around New Zealand in February,
after which we will be spending a couple of weeks in Australia,
continuing to build up connections between our countries. In
the meantime, we spent November and part of December in South Africa
escorting 30 of our members on a rather special coastal tour.
I am very pleased, if not surprised, at the continual improvement of
the hotels in South Africa. If you fancy hiring a car on our
very special rates, or even having a chauffeur-driven car I would
certainly recommend the journey we took.
Our unique Fare
Guarantee Scheme has proved very successful since we introduced it
last January, with a high percentage of our members benefiting
considerably. The Scheme works as follows: Once you have
a date on which you wish to travel contact our office and find out
what special low fares are available (these normally require full
payment on booking). On payment of a deposit, which, in some
cases we have reduced to as little as one hundred and fifty pounds
per person, we book your flights, pay the airline in full and
therefore you are protected against any possible increase in fares,
taxes or fuel surcharges. You are then given a date at which
time the balance must be paid or can even choose to pay in monthly
instalments if this suits your budgeting. I have personally
financed a substantial fund to cover the cashflow until such time as
your balance is paid. We have in most cases halved the deposit
from last year to make this unique scheme available to more of our
members and give the members time to organise the funding of the
balance of their fare.
When we read about
firms like Thomas Cook re-structuring their bank loans and also
airlines going into Receivership, quite rightly their clients must
be concerned about the possibility of losing their hard-earned
money. I am pleased to advise you that neither the Friendship
Associations nor our in-house travel company, Lion World Travel,
have or ever have had bank loans. our fully bonded
organisation is covered against every contingency so your money is
safe with us.
Whilst on my recent
journey I met several Friends of the Lion members (our sister
organisation in South Africa). In one restaurant a lady jumped
up from a table near ours, threw her arms around me and said: "I
recognise you from your picture in the newsletter and I am so
thrilled to meet you in person to thank you for the marvellous
service your organisation provided when our family were struck by a
major tragedy". Apparently our Emergency Accident Benefit
swung into action and we were able to help them in their time of
need. I have passed this message on to the staff concerned as
when a member has a problem we do everything within our power to
help them. That is the beauty of belonging.
A few years ago
South African Airways had a problem as far as their cabin service
was concerned. In recent times we have had nothing but
complimentary feedback. Every single person on the tour said
how much they enjoyed the SAA experience, and since returning I have
had several emails expressing their high satisfaction of the quality
of service on their return journey. It is great when we have
been partners in taking people to South Africa for over forty years
when you have such glowing reports.
We at Friendship
House have special offers which are maybe only available for a short
period. Therefore, once you have decided you would like to
travel to Australia, New Zealand or South Africa please give us a
ring and see what is on offer.
Wherever I am next
month I will drop you a line. In the meantime, look after
yourselves.
Regards.
STUART WEAVING
Founder &
International President
PS
If you have not had a go yet try your luck at the best value lottery
in the UK or better still join the "100 Club".
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Click here to read
extracts of the speech made by Stuart Weaving at the Friendship
Associations fortieth anniversary banquet
Click here for "Ambassador of Friendship" by
Frederick Cleary,
Foreign editor “The Star” Johannesburg
Click here for extracts from a speech made by Stuart Weaving, Office of the Order of Good
Hope, at Sandton Sun, 4 November 2004, to celebrate forty years connection
with South Africa
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