Sheena's Blog

Secretarial Services on Offer

2011-01-19T12:07:00.000+00:00

I am a qualified Secretary/PA and would like to offer my services to you and do any office related jobs that you might have. I can type +- 60wpm, I am proficient in MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, MS Outlook. I am available on-line (email) and on Skype: renandsheena1, and also on Face Book (Sheena van Wyk).

I will type your quotes, your reports, theses for you. I have audio typing facilities as well. No job is too small.

Please contact me for a quote on: 075896 797 818 or on email: sheenav90@gmail.com

Story of Gold

2010-10-26T21:19:00.000+01:00

When buying jewellery, we are offered pieces in 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, white gold, etc. What is the difference? A question I am often asked.
To start off with, the word carat is a measure of purity. Unlike in the case of Diamonds, where the same word, carat, is a measure of weight. Gold in its pure form is 24ct and very soft, so to make the metal harder, various other metals are mixed with gold to produce alloys of 9ct and 18ct for instance.
Therefore 9ct means that 9 parts, of the 24 (pure gold), are gold and 15 parts are made up of Silver, Copper and lead-free Brass.
In the case of 18ct, 18 parts are gold and only 6 parts are alloy metals.
Now in the case of white gold, we have a different mix. To change the colour of a very yellow metal to a predominately silver colour, poses its own problems. In the case of 9ct, it is very easy. 9 parts yellow gold and 15 parts of a number of silver coloured metals such as Nickel, Cadmium, Palladium etc.
But, in 18ct we have a slight problem. Here we have 18 parts yellow gold and only 6 parts of a silver coloured metal to change the colour of the alloy. 18ct white gold is normally mixed with Platinum, Cadmium or Palladium, but because there are only 6 parts of any of these metals to change the colour of the alloy, 18ct is always slightly yellowish. To counter act this, most 18ct jewellery pieces are plated with another very, very expensive precious metal, Rhodium. This gives the jewellery piece a lovely white (silver) colour and lustre.
To summarise, the lower the carat, the lower the gold content of the alloy and therefore, the lower the price of the metal.
Please feel free to ask any jewellery related question you may have. I shall gladly share my years of experience with you all.

Sheena's Blog

2010-10-19T21:39:00.003+01:00

From South Africa to the UK ..

Here we are in a little place called Charminster, a ‘burb’ of Bournemouth. Not a pretty place by any means but thankfully on the bus routes. Bournemouth however, is another ball game altogether. It has the sea, and the awesome views of the coast. Not much wave action, or not what I am used to in South Africa with the waves literally crashing onto the beach, here they do things a lot more gently, but then again, the sea is the sea, not so?

Life has been very hectic up to now, what with having to register for the National Insurance, the NHS, our drivers licences, it’s been crazy. But in all of this, we have travelled and walked and walked everywhere. So, at least I have had more exercise than I could ever have wished for!

Finding work is proving to be a lot more difficult than we thought it would be. There are thousands of jobs out there, paying good money, but nothing seems to be coming our way, as yet. Hopefully this will not prove to be our undoing.

The weather has also changed since we arrived. We were under the impression that we would arrive to a freezing cold country and never see the sun again! But, so typically, England’s weather has been amazing up to now. We could even walk around with short sleeves and open shoes. But the last few days the weather has changed again. The Autumn is setting in, and it’s getting colder and colder. So, I think our first taste of the English winter is fast approaching. Christmas is going to be a treat in some ways, if we have snow. Our first white Christmas. I will keep you posted!

In the meantime, I have just finished watching the X-factor. Nice.

Till we speak again, Ciao for now!