Santa's Story at the Fugard Theater

Our friend Iris works at the Fugard Theater and she told us about this show so we went last night. This is the write-up: Santa's Story returns to the Fugard Studio following a successful run at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Johannesburg. Santa's Story is a moving, one woman show depicting Santa Pelham`s journey of courage and hope through discrimination to heart breaking losses. Her daughter, well known singer Aviva Pelham, performs this meaningful story of hope and inspiration with wonderful Klesmer music in the Fugard Studio. Award winning Aviva Pelham is one of South Africa’s foremost performing artists, having distinguished herself in countless starring roles in opera, operetta, and musicals and concert. Her vibrant personality and outstanding voice have shone on the stages of major theatres locally as well as in London, Paris and Israel. Aviva has a passion for upliftment programmes and mentors fresh talent from all walks of life. She has directed galas, concerts, fundraisers and has a Master’s Degree in Music. Ms Pelham has been nominated in the category of BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN MUSIC THEATRE AND/OR A MUSICAL for her role in Santa’s Story. Santa’s Story returns to the Fugard Studio Theatre due to overwhelming popular demand after an initial sold out season in 2012. The story is much more compelling. Santa and her family were on the run from Nazi Germany and they were forced out of Germany and Spain. Most of her family ended up in Auschwitz. Santa was introduced to a man in Africa who she ended up marrying but she made the trek without having meeting him. At the end, Santa stood up (she's now 95) and while she usually sings the final song - she sang opera - she was too emotional. After the show we were in the lobby when Aviva and Santa appeared and we had the opportunity to meet them. Truly a special evening.

Skiing update

I neglected this blog since last year and I now regret it, as I use this to remember my adventures as much as sharing with family and friends. One thing I want to capture is the amazing ski season that I had. Based on my calculations using EpicMix and my altimeter, I have skied 106 days this past season with over 1,000,000 vertical feet covered. One of the highlights was skiing with my buddy Phil on many of my free days. We were able to go on several trips and I must say that each one was fabulous. Let recap: Not only was I able to take advantage of my pass to ski at Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek and A-Basin but Phil and I were able to take advantage of the free days on a ski trip to California at Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood. Many thanks to Aly and Denise for putting us up and putting up with us ;) While the snow conditions were less than ideal we still had a blast. I love skiing new mountains and having personal tour guides makes it even better. These are a few of the fun pictures. The chute was a hike-to and long story short, I fell out of it and slid a few hundred feet down. I stopped about 35 feet short of a pretty significant feature such that if I would have continued down it would have been ugly. We celebrated with shots. I collected coupons at Shell for buy one get one and Phil, Will and I made the trek to Monarch. We picked one of the best weeks of the season as they just got through a system which dumped over 60" in the previous 6 days. We had freshies all day long! Phil, Mark H and I made a trip to Telluride and met with Frank, who was a most excellent Tour Guide. We were able to score Medallion passes for the first day and got $65 tickets for the 2nd. I can't believe that it took so long to ski that wonderful mountain! What a place. I would compare it to anyplace that I've skied. Highly recommended. For our final trip of the season Phil, Dave and I drove to Utah to ski Little Cottonwood Canyon and we hit Snowbird and Alta. I'm leaving a LOT out as far as details but this is a start. 12 ski resorts in one season is an all time high!

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens - World Heritage Site

Today we drove to the other side of Table Mountain to visit the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, a World Heritage Site. We walked around for hours and didn't see all it had to offer. They have concerts in the summer and, as we found out during breakfast, winter. We'll head back soon for a show. There were sections of plants based on different criteria. One area was for medicinal plants. They had plants that were (and still are) used to cure everything from hangovers to cramps. Headaches to intestinal worms. There was also a section of plants used for love potions. Meandering through the gardens, we ended up on a trail which was headed up Table Mountain. One could hike for miles and hours outside the boundaries of the park. We'll head back when the weather breaks. Speaking of which, when I arrived in Cape Town the weather was spectacular. Several days ago a front moved in and it's rained off and on. Combined with clouds and wind things have taken a turn towards winter but I don't expect big changes. I don't think it even freezes here and there don't appear to be big storms at any time. I do hope to see the sun appear soon though! Pics on the way.

Franschoek - wine country

Ambereen used to tell me about South African wines and every time we went to buy wine in Denver she would suggest one but I always blew it off as I was unimpressed with the offerings. It turns out that the wine industry was hit with sanctions during apartheid and they could not export their products to many countries, including the US. Well, I've discovered that there are literally over 100 wineries in the region and they have been around for a while. On Tuesday we decided to drive to one of the regions about an hour and a half outside of Cape Town. We drove the N1 to Worcester then back though smaller roads to Franschoek. It was a pretty area with dams, rivers, mountains, tunnels, passes and wineries. Check it out on map. It rained but the scenery was still wonderful. It's a mountainous area covered in vegetation. We stopped at Haute Cabriere winery and had a fantastic 4 course lunch with wine pairings. I should have grabbed a menu to describe the food. It was a fabulous meal. I will post some pics soon. I stopped to look at a plaque and it turns out this particular winery dated back to 1694. Impressive. The wine was delicious too, as you can imagine. There are so many wineries around here that it would take decades to explore them all. Seriously. But we'll hit more soon. On a side note, we stopped at a small corner grocery this afternoon and I picked up a bottle of wine for $2.68. And it's not bad! Crazy.

MyCiTi

After being cooped up for a few days and driving only to the store I decided to wander up the road to the bus stop and purchase a MyCiTi bus pass. The bus took me to the Civic Center stop downtown then I caught the transfer to the V&A Waterfront to walk around. There are some tourist traps, primarily restaurants but they have a nice food court and a lot to see including an active wharf with a dry dock. There were two ships being repainted and repaired and it was cool to watch the workers. The Information Center had many brochures on area activities as well as several booking agents. The food is reasonable, for the most part and alcohol is cheap (you can buy a decent bottle of wine for $3-4). Cuban cigars are not! $26 a stick for a Montechristo. There are several tours leaving from the wharf including boat trips for sunset cruises, daytime cruises and trips to Robben Island where Mandela spent 27 years. Also many helicopters departing for tours of Cape Town and Cape Point. Apparently the aquarium is world-class so we'll check that out soon. The buses are nice and I guess the entire system was brought on board for the World Cup back in 2010. In fact, much of the town was spruced up for that event and it has made a big difference. I'll make a trek to Cape Town Stadium (55k capacity & new for World Cup as well) but it looks like there aren't any events in the near future, probably as we are headed into winter. I just missed the Justin Bieber concert. Crap. I'm trying to wrap my head around all of the cool things to do here. * Paraglide from the top of Signal Hill down to the beach. * Great white shark cage diving near Seal Island. It's the only place on the planet where great white sharks breach. * Wine country tours - there are many wineries just outside of the city. * Table Mountain Cableway - takes you to the top of Table Mountain. * Many museums and much, much more. I will keep you posted but it's time to go!

Lions Head, Signal Point and Camps Bay

The first weekend was full of adventure as Ambereen refused to allow me to sleep during the day so as to adjust to local time as quickly as possible. On Saturday we had a wonderful breakfast at a seaside restaurant then drove to a winery just outside of town. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed their offerings. She is a great tour guide and I got to see some incredible sights already. Cape Town is such a gorgeous city. We drove up to Signal Point and watched several paragliders take off. It's something we plan on doing while I am here. Breathtaking views! We drove to Lions Head and hiked for a bit. The sun was so warm - and it's almost winter here. Spent several hours wandering around the V & A Waterfront and met her brother for dinner. I will start driving soon so that I can get around during the day. In the meantime we will take plenty of pictures which I will upload to this site soon. I'm off for a long walk on the beach!

Cape Town South Africa

I've finally crossed the pond and instead of going to Europe like many people, I made it to Cape Town, South Africa to spend some quality time with Ambereen. The flight was an adventure as in included three legs over 27 hours. Tampa to JFK was a breeze although I made it to the next gate as they were boarding with time for a bathroom break. JFK - Amsterdam started off well as I had a great seat with plenty of legroom and a cool seatmate. Then the family with two small children sat down across the isle and all hell broke loose. The kids were not pleased, one in particular and he alternated between screaming and crying for much of the trip. My noise canceling headphones paid for themselves on that leg alone. I HIGHLY recommend them for anyone who travels. It turns out the other child was sick and when I exited the bathroom after a much needed break I opened the door and stepped into a pile of puke. Awesome. The poor mother was exasperated and I got some paper towels and found a flight attendant to help clean. I then took my seat and introduced my seatmate to the wonderful world of scotch. 4 episodes of Boardwalk Empire and a few scotches and bourbons later, all was well. With a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam I didn't have time to venture out so I found a place to relax and waited for my gate to open. I hope to spend time in that city another day. Perhaps Octoberfest sometime soon? The flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town was 11 hours and while I had the window seat (good place to rest my head and I didn't have to move for anyone) the aisle seat was soon occupied by a rowdy Kiwi who had apparently spent his layover in the bar. Now I am certainly not one to judge, but holy cow was he wound up! The poor woman next to me bore the brunt of his enthusiasm and after an entertaining hour I put on my headphones and selected Django Unchained for my first movie. I was able to sleep for a few hours as well. In the meantime, the Kiwi plowed through at least 7 bottles of wine and when I woke up he was singing quite loudly and getting a lot of attention. iPod on high thank you very much. He spilled wine all over his leg during landing and proceeded to attempt to sing the South African national anthem but instead sang the French anthem. People were cracking up. Ambereen was waiting for me - it's been 7 long months! I missed you! We drove back to her place and it was time to crash. Good night.