Viva, South Africa, Viva. Viva the World Cup 2010, Viva!

Photo in Hermanus, South Africa. Francis and Jethro in the run-up to the World Cup 2010

Tonight I am truly proud to be South African. Almost as proud as I was the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison, or the day he was sworn in as the first President of the new Democratic South Africa. Or the day I got to meet him.

Tonight I am truly proud to be South African because all the things I value in South Africa are on show to the world. The innovation, the resourcefulness, the Can-Do attitude, the music and dance and the exuberance. Tonight I, like millions of others around the world, will be watching the opening of the Fifa World Cup 2010 in Johannesburg. I expect huge excitement in the crowd. I expect huge nervousness about possible criminal moments. I expect a huge police presence. I expect absolute elation from the people who are actually there at this historic moment. But most of all I expect South Africa to pull it off. South Africans have a way of just doing that.

No thanks, I might add, to the current President who was a disastrous choice, in my opinion, and who continues to fluff it at every opportunity. But, true to reputation, South African has managed the enormous task of preparation for the World Cup "in spite of". In spite of huge challenges, and in spite of a dearth of strong leadership.

When we were in South Africa a few weeks ago we were astounded by the construction taking place - not only the incredible six stadiums that had been built, but the huge changes to roads and infrastructure. Some of the key roads in Cape Town were having a complete revamp, and yet the planners had managed to keep traffic flowing throughout the course of the changes.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I miss Cape Town in the same way as I would miss a very dear ex-lover. It has been said that "we never stop silently loving those we once loved out loud" (Oriah Mountain Dreamer). How true for me of Cape Town. That mountain, those seas, those people, that energy. But I am here, now, in Sydney and not far from obtaining my Aussie Citizenship. And so a new chapter is starting for me - being proud to be a Sydneysider - almost as proud as I was to be a South African. And to represent that I will hold dual citizenship. With pride, and with deep gratefulness.

And in all that, I will continue to love my three cities at 34 degress south: Buenos Aires (City of Tango and the Paris of the South), my adopted city of Sydney (the Serotonin city) and my city of origin, Cape Town (the Mother City). How better  to celebrate my love of all three cities than to be in Sydney this night and share an extraordinary Utube clip a woman I have been lucky to spend time with some years ago, dancing Tango, with a Soccer Ball.

Viva Buenos Aires! Viva Sydney! And specially tonight, Viva Cape Town and South Africa. Long Live!




[Mother City photo taken by Rosemary Shapiro-Liu in 2003. But it could have been taken on my 2010 visit to Cape Town. While much has changed, there is much that has stayed the same. Photos on this blog are copyright.]

17 Degrees South

Picture at Sonasaili resort, Fiji, 2007 Honeymoon.

I passed my Citizenship test. First time. 100%. Boy, do I feel proud of that. One thing to remember is that the head of government is the Prime Minister and the head of State, yes it's true, is the Queen. Queen Elizabeth, that is. Luckily the guy who escorted me up in the lift at the Department of Immigration quizzed me on that one, just to play with my pre-test nerves. It paid off.

Something else to remember if one is not keen to give up Citizenship of your country of birth is to let them know BEFORE you apply for Citizenshipship in the New Country that you want dual citizenship. Otherwise they swiftly remove your original citizenship. Well South Africa does, anyway.

With the Citizenship test under my belt and a new-found sense of strayanism (that's "Australianism" to those not in the know) I embarked on a piece of detailed research about a one-week break (at five months pregnant it's apparently called a Babymoon!) on the Great Barrier Reef. After all, I now live in Australia and I can't be satisfied with just knowing Sydney and surrounds. There's 4,000km in width to play with and 3,700km north to South to explore (aren't I fabulous that I know the stats from my test - although I had to rely on an even newer arrival than me, Anita, to tell me that there are 37,000km of coastline - hah - add THAT to the study book, I say). So the Barrier Reef it was.

I learnt that there are three major sections I was interested in - the Southernmost islands - they have less mountains, and even have some backpacking options. Lady Elliot Island, Lady Musgrave Island, Great Keppel Island. With some snorkeling straight off the islands. Accessible from Rockhampton and Brisbane and the like. But those airports are not that well connected.

Then there are the middle islands - around Hamilton Island including the Whitsundays. The land resort area is Airlee Beach, and all are connected through Shute Harbour. One can fly straight onto Hamilton Island, but that means that everyone does. So it's very touristy, over-priced and crowded. Or so I hear. Daydream Island nearby has mixed reviews, but is another option. It's the one place one can fly straight onto an island, and that is tempting.

Then there's the famous north. Cairns, Townesville, Port Douglas. Port Douglas is very popular with people whose opinions I respect. But the reef is very far away and my dream of being able to walk out onto the reef is just a dream. It's a long time in a boat, and with my pregnancy heading up for month five and a half, I can just imagine getting really sick and that would be awful. The Southern Islands have some snorkeling right off the islands, but that is less likely in the north.

I stand to be corrected on all of this, having never been to anywhere that I am writing about, but hours (literally hours) of internet reading with Francis resulted in a general feeling of nuh-uh about our long awaited trip. The reviews, if one reads the detailed reviews, were filled with disappointment about the amount one pays for the amount you get. It's REALLY expensive. And we just could not find enough positive stuff to make us take the bull by the horns and book Queensland.

So at 1am we decided to give up on the complicated itineraries we had been constructing for an Australian break and choose either to go back to the Yasawa Islands in Fiji (where we honeymooned in 2007 and which we highly recommend - we'd assist anyone with ideas about those) or to take the plunge and go 17 degrees South. To Vanuatu.

And that is what we are going to do. We'll spend a week in Vanuatu - half of it at the Hideaway Island resort (what a picture!) where, yes, you can snorkel right off the sand I am told. And the other half wherever our noses take us. Or your recommendations lead us.

So while I love 34 degrees South (Sydney, Cape Town, Buenos Aires - and maybe one day Santiago in Chile... Francis and I have started lessons in their national dance, the Cueca, so we might land up there one day) this time I have to halve my usual favourite number and choose 17 degrees south. Let's see how it pans out!


Ps - I recommend www.travelonline.com for accommodation deals. Their deal was SO much cheaper than the one we used, but hey, I'd already booked. Nothing to be done about that. Just don't get caught out too.

Ten Years of Tango

Midnight at a Tango Salon in Buenos Aires, March 2004

It's ten years, to the week, since I took part in my first intensive Tango experience. There is nothing quite like the International Week held at Tango El Corte, in Nijmegen, Holland. Some weeks before, in May, I had attended a few tango lessons by the incredible tango maestro, Eric Jorissen, in Cape Town which had been arranged by Rodney, Sally and Mark. I had been dragged there, kicking and screaming, by my friend Neil. At the time I had said "I think tango is ugly, and the music is funny". Seriously. I said that.

Neil's then partner had been unavailable for three out of a four-session course. At the time I was Neil's dance teacher in other forms of dance, and a good friend. So I went along.

I loved it. I was hooked. I was going to be in Holland that August to fundraise for NICRO, so I arranged with Eric to attend his International Week. He was "pretty sure" I'd be fine.

Yeah, right!

In July I made my way to Nijmegen, found his out of the way studio under a railway bridge, and had my first of many, many experiences around the world of opening an arbitrary door and hearing the strains of tango welcoming me in. There, at the very back of El Corte were couples seamlessly moving around the room, legs wrapped in legs, bodies wrapped in close embrace. A room of lovers, I thought. How was I ever to be part of it. Then the music stopped, and these tight couples drifted apart, re-formed with other people, and started again, weaving webs of tango magic around the room. I backed off. I would never make it. A wonderful woman told me everyone felt that the first time, and I should stick with it.

I did. It was one of the hardest weeks of my life. I spent a lot of up a ladder at near the roof of the studio where there was a tiny one-person balcony where I could observe the dance from above. As I learn well by watching, this was a great strategy, especially after one chap was particularly irritated in a class that I didn't know how to turn, or what a giro was. I was new. He was not. I have since learnt that rudeness is not essential in those kinds of settings, but that it is slightly irritating being partnered with an absolute beginner when you have traveled far and paid lots to learn advanced stuff.

It was good that Eric had such trust in me - that I could survive International Week. But also a huge leap of faith, and one I just HAD to live up to. Many people there had been dancing up to 11 years, and some were dancing six nights a week.

Interestingly, when we got back to Cape Town in July 1999, Mark Hoeben and I had been exposed to more tango than our Cape Town tango friends, so it was fitting that he continue to teach and that I start to teach tango. And what a fabulous few years that was - teaching and facilitating tango, running la Vie en Rosebud (a free milonga in Green Point) and arranging mad places to dance inside and outside along with others. A fantastic group of friends, and the licence to dance in other places, including the five continents I tangoed on in 2004 on my tango trip around the world. It was on that trip that I met Francis in Spain.

Now, exactly ten years later to the week, Francis has taken himself off to intensive tango workshops with the lovely Lucia Mazer from Buenos Aires. He did three night sessions and four sessions over the weekend, with a milonga in between. I managed just two sessions on the weekend and the milonga - it was good to be back on the floor, complete with a 21 week preggie belly. I was thrilled to see the level of the participants and the excellent ethos bred by Hosanna and Paul at their exciting warehouse venue in Redfern. and it's a plus that Francis is fast becoming a tanguero. It's time to celebrate ten years of tango for me, and many years ahead for Francis and me.

You can join 810-strong Tango El Corte, Nijmegen group on Facebook which I started to link whose lives El Corte has touched. We're with those at International Week in spirit this week.

Social Media - good or not?

What a strange, strange day the 25 June 2009 was. Michael Jackson (50) died in Los Angeles. Farah Fawcett (50) died in Santa Monica, California. However, Jeff Goldblum did NOT die in New Zealand as some online hoaxes claimed. Twitter, Facebook, blogs and online fora get news out fast, but this is not always an advantage.

Why would anyone put out a hoax that someone is dead when that person certainly is not? The "falls to his death in New Zealand" is apparently not a new story. It has re-emerged after many years. There was one attempt, according to Seven News, to say that Tom Cruise had met his fate this way too. Of course he hadn't.

Personally, I find online tools the most incredible thing since sliced toast. To live in Sydney, so far from my native Cape Town, would be that much harder without daily contact with friends and family from the home country and news from the home world. I would find my distance from Buenos Aires so sad - how I loved my tango days there in 2004. With the help of posts on Facebook, particularly, I can follow tango all around the globe. And be part of it.

With a large belly, and a Spud on the way, I can't do those inter-continental flights that could connect me to the rest of the world. My computer, and skype, will just have to do it. And they do, for me. However, this this fantastic technology goes hand in hand with the risk of false news reports. I find Hoax-Slayer really useful to check these things out.

RIP Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett.

And Jeff Goldblum - you continue to live a long and healthy life despite any online hoaxes.

Buenos Aires, Sydney & Cape Town: all three are winners of the 2008 Conde Naste Best City on their continent award

Well, well, well. It's no wonder that Buenos Aires, Sydney and Cape Town have each been voted Best City on their continent in the 2008 Conde Naste's Best City ratings.

Three of my favourite things about each:

BUENOS AIRES:

1. The tango - specially in the outskirts of the city in small, local salons

2. The tango - OK, OK, it really is the best thing about BA, but my second vote goes to Sunday afternoon tango on the streets of San Telmo

3. The architecture (so there's more to BA than tango) - it's not called Little Paris for nothing.

SYDNEY

1. The Harbour Walks - and there are many. 100's of kilometers of coastline, most of which is public walkway. Mangroves, bobbing boats, blue water (though not all for swimming), ferries, rowers, tinnies, canoes, birds.

2. The Hawkesbury - just one hour north of Ashfield by train. The last Riverboat Postman and the huge jelly-fish.

3. The incredible diversity of people living (mostly) peacefully - and the ability to walk about safely, especially as a woman.

CAPE TOWN:

[It's only right to stick to three reasons why I love Cape Town, but I could wax lyrical on this one for 300, given the chance... ok, I miss Cape Town...]

1. Table Mountain

2. My family roots and my oldest friends (I mean tenure!)

3. The animals: The whales in False Bay, the whales just over an hour away in Hermanus, the penguins at Boulders Beach in Simons Town, my ex-dog in Stanford, and the African wildlife so possible to reach at Addo Elephant Park or further north in the Kruger, Pilanesburg and other places that are not in Cape Town, but that I associate with the most beautiful city on Earth.

These are a few of my favourite things 34 degrees South. Perhaps you could let me know yours.

Tango in Buenos Aires, 2004

3 memorable cities, one address

Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Sydney: three cities, one Southern address. Once visited, they never leave you. I was born in Cape Town, and have lived there 40 years. Both Buenos Aires and Sydney now occupy a special place in my life - they say life begins at 40, and for me it did - all over again. I visited Buenos Aires, at 34 degrees South, soon after my 40th birthday to pursue my passion for tango, and then moved to be with my loved one in Sydney, also 34 degrees South. It was in Spain that we met, while I traveled the world at the start of my new life-begins-at-40. Three cities I love, three places that represent home.

These photos offer a glimpse into the three cities: the Majestic Table Mountain, in the Mother City, Cape Town. Devils Peak at sunset from Woodstock, near my Cape Town home, at the dog-walking field. Bar Chino in Buenos Aires, and the tango salon, at Conf Ideal. And finally Sydney, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the air, from a small plane.

Three cities, all 34 degrees South, all wedged in my soul.

Devils Peak, Cape Town (from Woodstock)












Conf Ideal, Buenos Aires