Expedition 6-0

Greetings from Singapore! Besides being the auspicious Year of the Monkey - (I am a Monkey!) - 2016 is also the year I will turn 60. Yikes!

So in honor of this milestone birthday, I have decided to challenge myself. Before I turn the BIG SIX O in May, I will take part in an international expedition  to Antarctica, my sixth and last continent on Planet Earth to explore. (If you're keeping score, that will make it six-continents-visited to zero-left-to-visit ... or 6-0. )

I have chosen to travel to Antarctica with the 2041 Foundation's International Antarctic Expedition (IAE) 2016. IAE 2016 is a leadership expedition specifically focused on climate change and environmental sustainability. We have been challenged to create a call to action for future leaders to do everything they can to help maintain the pristine environment of Antarctica. I have partnered with Elite Academics Inc. (EAI) in Denver, Colorado and have created a new blog where I intend to post responses to questions created in advance by mostly high school students and compiled by EAI's Executive Tutor Jill Talley. My new blog name? Expedition 6-0.

And during the expedition, you can also follow IAE 2016 via our official expedition blog. It will be updated throughout the expedition along with an active map that shows our exact location. The blog and map will be live by 13 March 2016 and is available on the 2041 Foundation website. Don’t forget to use our hashtag, #icyclassroom on all social media outlets!

Au revoir South Africa!

It's been grand!

I will miss the weather (along with the good hair days it allows!); the parking guards; the wine; the divine butternut squash; the best calamari, mussels, and giant prawns I have ever tasted; the bush at your door; Amarula sundowners to go with magnificent African sunsets; meeting people with names like Beauty, Blessing and Lovemore; and of course, I will miss seeing my rhinos on safari.

But most of all I will miss these faces! Thank you for making our stay in South Africa so delightful.

Did not get to say goodbye in person to everyone I wanted to during our last few weeks. Thank you for all the calls and messages. Adieu et au revoir!

Christmastime is here!

Literally stuffed like one of the three turkeys we served at last night's Friendsgiving feast, I am jetting off to the USA tonight until early January.

Looking forward to my first white Christmas in years with both our sons and lots and lots of family and friends; decorating real pine and spruce Christmas trees; skiing on real snow in Colorado; ice-skating outdoors (!); drinking hot gluhwein and cocoa because Jack Frost is nipping at your nose; being dazzled by the Christmas decorations in New York, Philadelphia, Denver, KC and San Fran (Nobody does Christmas like NYC though. No. Bo. Dy.); and reuniting with my jewelry in storage!

Visions of rutabaga, jicama, & Cheese Danish dancing in my head. Tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. It is going to be the best Christmas ever!

God bless us, everyone.

ice sculptures in the windows at Barney's

gingerbread at Lord & Taylor's

The Met’s Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche

Breck

KC's Crown Center Plaza

Next stop ... Singapore

Dubai layover on the way to JFK

With a month+ stopover in the USA first ...

packing and moving day @ Valley Lodge; stuff to go to our apartment in Singapore & storage in the USA

safe flight to Singapore, Lou & Serge!

Four Years in Paradise

It's been four years since we started the process of moving to South Africa. Almost Four Years in Paradise. And now our Great Migration to Africa is coming to an end.

But we're not returning to the USA quite yet. We are off to our next adventure in ...

Singapore!

Yep, we are on the move again. A new city and a new continent! I have mixed feelings about it actually. I have really enjoyed our time here in Africa. As a matter of fact I've loved it! And I haven't seen or done nearly everything I wanted to do while we were living here. There are still some 550 wine estates alone that we haven't visited! And I never made it to Ethiopia or Madagascar as I'd hoped. (But guess what? They will still be here for a return visit.)

But we have had some incredible experiences and exciting adventures. We have seen many natural wonders and marvelous forces of nature and we've had up-close and personal moments with rhinos, penguins, meerkats, nesting turtles, gorillas and sharks. We have explored the heavens above and crawled deep below the earth. We have challenged ourselves in the sky, on the land and in the sea. We have scaled a few hills and high mountains, but we still know our limits!

This has been a unique time to be living in South Africa too. In Johannesburg, we have seen first-hand the amazing renaissance happening right now in the Joburg CBD and while living in Cape Town, we have seen it bloom as a world class design and tourist destination. We have been here for so many important historical events like the passing of Nelson Mandela and the discovery of Homo naledi as well as historic cultural events such as Trevor Noah taking over the Daily Show in the USA and the first ever performances in South Africa by Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews.

We have really tried to "dig" into the diverse cultural landscape here, whether it be Ndebele, Zulu, Akrikaner, Cape Malay, Indian, English, Khomani San, or even the lost culture of Mapungubwe. We have met so many inspirational, amazing and  lovely people along the way and even made dear friends. It will be sad to say goodbye but saying au revoir is still better than if we hadn't made their acquaintances altogether, n'est-ce pas?  (I think so.) We have expanded our pan-African palate and shown some South Africans how it's done where we hail from. We have tried to fit in ... but we know who we are! And there was just enough art, music, theatre and dance to keep this self-professed culture whore relatively satisfied.

kangaroos!

wombat!

I will especially miss having the African bush at our doorstop. We will be trading in our beloved safaris to see the African Big Five - Rhinos, Lions, Cape Buffalo, Elephants and Leopards - for new safaris to see what I am calling the Asian Big Five plus Orangutans - Sumatran Rhinos, Tigers, Water Buffalo, Asian Elephants, Snow Leopards plus Orangutans. Living in Africa has certainly changed me and I hope I've changed Africa a little for the better with my conservation volunteering.

Vince in Phuket

But the good news is there is still much of Asia left for us to explore. Vince's beat will stretch from India in the west to Japan in the east, China in the north to New Zealand in the south. We will get a deeper understanding of the cultures in the parts of Asia we have already visited and there are plenty of new destinations to explore. (For instance, I have always wanted to go to Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Borneo - all a stone's throw from Singapore.)

Not to mention some of the best scuba diving in the world! (Good thing Vince got all his paperwork in order for the Sardine Run in June and Zanzibar in September.) For me, Asia has whales! And Singapore is only a Pacific Ocean away from our sons on the west coast of the United States with plenty of islands in between for us to meet up for holidays. Christmas in Hawaii next year?


Blogging has been a great experience and the results will serve as a comprehensive journal of our time here in Africa. But I will definitely not be blogging from my new digs in Singapore. For one thing, just about the time I am settled in Singapore I am committed to embark on a new blog where I will chronicle my Antarctica adventure as part of the 2041 Foundation's International Antarctic Expedition in March.

And secondly, I won't need it. I started The Great Wildebeest Migration blog to help me manage my own feelings about pulling up stakes and moving to the other side of the world far away from family, friends and the familiar. I am not in the same place moving from South Africa to Singapore, both literally and figuratively. So I will wind this blog down over the next couple of months and say good-bye to blogging about my expat adventures as well as living in South Africa!

We're off on our next adventure on the "Road to Singapore."

Titanic lands in Joburg

It may not have been the cleverest idea to visit a Titanic exhibition a mere five months before my Antarctic expedition sets sail in March. We will be crossing the icy Drake Passage by ship after all.

But I am a sucker for anything Titanic so I left my apprehensions behind and joined a fleet of my friends in Rosebank to see artifacts from the legendary ocean liner once more. Presented in South Africa for the very first time, I saw the same exhibition in New York several years ago and ...  

My commemorative  Centenary scarf

 
... my sister, my niece and I happened to be in Belfast for the Titanic Centenary in 2012 ...

King Queen of the World!

 ... when we visited the brand new Titanic Exhibition space in the city where the Titanic was built. See? Sucker!

















Upon entering the exhibit in Rosebank, you are given a boarding pass. And an identity. On the back is a description of who you are, your cabin assignment and what brought you onto the Titanic in the first place. My identity was Mrs. Frank John Goldsmith, née Emily A. Brown. From Stroud, England in Kent, I was traveling with my husband and 9 year old son to Detroit, Michigan where we hoped Frank will find work as a toolmaker. Unfortunately for us, we were traveling in steerage. Bummer.

About halfway through the exhibit, I found out the eventual fate of Frank and Emily. On a wall was listed the ship manifest divided by class. It was also divided by those who died and those who lived. More than twice the amount of passengers that survived were sadly lost at sea. (I won't give it away in case you assume Emily's identity when you go!) 

We weren't allowed to take photographs inside the exhibition space so I can't give you any photographic evidence, but it was well worth the price of admission. There were recreated cabin accommodations, continuous showings of a History Channel documentary about the latest expeditions to Titanic, as well as actual artifacts exhumed from the ocean floor. There were also sample menus served to First, Second and Third Class guests.

It reminded me of the special menus that were recreated in several of the best restaurants in Belfast in honor of the Centenary in 2012.

inside Deanes Restaurant in Belfast

We ate our ten course menu at Deanes.

Unfortunately, we were not offered a First Class menu for luncheon after we toured the Titanic Exhibition in Rosebank but I did have some awesome pizza at Doppio Zero instead.

Th exhibition runs until November 8; see it before it sets sail for its next location, Cape Town.

2041 IAE 2016

2041 IAE 2016

I have been accepted to the 2041 Foundation's International Antarctic Expedition (2041 IAE 2016) led by polar explorer, environmental leader, 2041 founder, public speaker and Explorers Club member Robert Swan, OBE, the first person in history to walk to both the North and South Poles. Swan has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by the promotion of recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change.

 

The purpose for this Antarctic Expedition is to engage and inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility to build resilient communities and in doing so, preserve Antarctica. 

I will be starting a new blog in which I will chronicle my experience on the expedition and will use to convey what I have learned and seen while exploring this fascinating continent. Now I just need to come up with a cool blog name!

Nikkei in CT

another two dessert night!

The combination of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine, Nikkei has become the latest gastronomic sensation to hit Europe’s culinary capitals. And now Charango (114 Bree Street) has brought Nikkei to Cape Town! (A charango by the way is a stringed instrument traditionally made from the shell of an armadillo.)

The most notable proponent of Nikkei is perhaps Nobu Matsuhisa, who has been using elements of this fusion cuisine since the late 1980s in his various Nobu restaurants throughout the world. Nobu in Tribeca was one of our favorite restaurants! Nobu's signature dish was his black cod in miso and we sampled Charango's version, the "Black Kob" langostine, with quinoa, pak choi and soy. I swear it was just as good!

Although Nobu was an early exponent of Nikkei, it has only recently been picked up by several high profile chefs in Europe, thanks partly to the success of Peruvian food throughout the continent. The most famous of these chefs is Ferran Adrià, the former El Bulli chef whose "molecular gastronomy" revolutionized the culinary scene in the 90s and frequently included elements of Nikkei. El Bulli is closed now but Ferran's younger brother, and former El Bulli chef, Albert Adrià has opened a new restaurant, Platka in Barcelona, with a menu built entirely on Nikkei cuisine. I do remember a particularly good "tuna belly" sushi dish with black currant jelly that was part of the extensive tasting menu at El Bulli and Vince had a Pork Belly dish at Charango made with pineapple jelly which reminded me just a little of it.

Charango has a great vibe too. Along with some beautiful frescoes, there were murals decorating the walls with definitions and fun facts about some of the different food elements. For instance, did you know that Leche de Tigre, a citrus-based ingredient used as a marinade for the Nikkei Ceviche, is both a hangover cure as well as an aphrodisiac? Hell yeah!

There were about six different Ceviches on the menu but since it was our first time, we stuck with the Charango House Ceviche. Fish, butternut, corn, chilli, coriander, aji, limo leche de tigre. Incredible!

excellent Pisco Sour

And Pisco. There were more than a dozen cocktails on the menu that used Pisco as the basis. Originally created in 1641 to dodge the King of Spain's excessive tax on wine, Peruvians call Pisco their native spirit. Meaning "bird" in the indigenous Quechua language, it is a fortified wine that is imbibed at any time of the day, even breakfast! (Hair of the bird?)

There were only three desserts on the menu but I just couldn't decide between the Toasted Quinoa Creme with burnt banana and rum butterscotch sauce, and the Picarones (sweet potatoes with dulce de leche!) So I didn't! I got both. Vince ordered the third dessert, the Blonde Chocolate Pave. Seasonal berries with manjar blanco, a South American blancmange.

We'll be back!

Cemeteries!

the cemetery in Jerusalem

I have a dark confession to make. I love to visit cemeteries!

Not all cemeteries. Just the cool ones. By that I mean cemeteries with history or famous inhabitants, beautiful grounds or remarkable architecture. I always check to see if there is a cool cemetery in any city we visit. Pere-Lachaise in Paris, Highgate in London, La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, the D-Day Landings Memorial cemeteries in Normandy, the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the "new" Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem, the Novodevichy in Moscow and the Alexander Nevsky in St. Petersburg.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston

I am not macabre or anything. It's just that you can tell a lot about a city and the people who lived - and died - there by their cemeteries.

Autumn is the best time to visit NE!

The USA has some great cemeteries too. The simple and somber Colonial and Revolutionary War cemeteries in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, the grandiose cemetery statues and mausoleums in the Southern cities of New Orleans and Savannah. Forest Lawn in LA, Green Wood in Brooklyn and Mt. Auburn in Boston. The military cemeteries like Arlington National Cemetery and Gettysburg. (I especially like to visit cemeteries around Halloween - okay, that's a little macabre!)

Yet I hadn't visited any cemeteries in Africa since moving to Johannesburg ... until now when the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation offered a tour of the Braamfontein Cemetery as part of their program over Heritage Weekend. I had read about Braamfontein Cemetery in Lost and Found in Johannesburg, Mark Gevisser’s wonderfully written memoir about growing up in Joburg during apartheid and was eager to visit it myself.

The Cullinan family plot

Braamfontein is the oldest existing municipal cemetery in Johannesburg. There are many famous family plots there - like the Cullinan family plot  - and there are mass graves from some of Joburg's most notorious disasters - like the Dynamite Explosion of 1896. Most of the cemetery is broken up by religious denomination. Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, and the large Jewish burial ground described in Mark's book. There are even crematoriums and ash burial grounds for the Indian population as well. (I didn't see any Catholic graves but I assume the Catholics are buried in Catholic cemeteries. I must look into that.)









I didn't recognize many of the famous people buried in Braamfontein but famous graves are not the only reason I visit cemeteries. I like to look for symbolic elements on the older grave sites.

the clasping hands indicate a final farewell

flying hourglass = the swiftness of time's passage

the draped urn is a visual of the separation of the living and the dead

the dove indicates peace and purity; usually found on the grave of a woman who died young

angels are guides to heaven

a column represents mortality

a woman carrying a cross = faith

a woman holding an anchor = hope or eternal life

lilies = purity, chastity

lamb symbolizes innocence; they are usually found on the tombs of children

wreaths symbolize victory over death

We were warned not to visit the cemeteries in Gauteng unaccompanied. There was evidence of  squatters and the homeless in Braamfontein and it is dangerous to venture in alone or unguided.


 





 

So I am waiting for an escort to visit the Heroes' Acre Church Cemetery in Pretoria where along with the tomb of Paul Kruger, you will find the graves of Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Hancock,  two of the court-martialed defendants immortalized in Breaker Morant, the 1980 Bruce Beresford film set in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War.

One of the fierce women from the SH2015 Gaza Gray archaeological dig in Kruger happens to be a South African "cemetery expert" and knows exactly where their graves are situated. Maybe we can visit on Halloween, Leonie?