Roots… where to start?  It will start with an amazing mum and dad… that much I do know…

So that is where it all started… I was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa at 16:40 on the 9th of September 1972 making me a Virgo Rat… So what am I doing at the moment and how did I end up living in London?

Telling a bit about yourself is difficult. What to say. What not to say. As I state on the opening page of this website this entire webspace is as much a discovery for me of me, as I guess it is a view for you into my mind. So what is said does give you an insight as much as what is not said I guess… But then there is so much that formed me before I started the website at the end of 2004 that could be told here surely? Looking at all the pictures shows you what I have been up to for the past few years but not why I did these things or really who I was doing them with.

Perhaps this section is to be a CV of my life? But how boring will that be?!! Well you can see the start at the top in 1972. First four years of my life was spent in Brandfort a small town to the north-east of Bloemfontein. Here my dad was the woodwork teacher at the local Secondary School. When my brother was born in 1976 we moved to Bloemfontein when my dad started a job at the University of the Orange Free State. They still live in that very house they bought in 1976 I and grew up in! Perhaps that house is a part of why I wanted to become an architect as it is an architect designed modern affair with big glazed windows, internal courtyards and lots of light. Nothing fancy really, just well planned.

Mum was home with us until I guess 1977 or so when I started to go to Kiddies Castle Creché for the 2 years before I went to proper School. 1978 was the year I went to "big" school. Sub-A and Sub-B was what the first two years were called back then. I went to Fichardt Park Primary School. It was on the way to the University where by this stage both mum and dad worked. I did well at school. Can’t say I remember hating it or exactly loving it. Just one of those things one has to do. I did piano lessons for many years – but never really made a success of it as I think I felt forced into doing it. Something I regret now. But I never had the same musical ear as my mum and brother. Both of them can play things on the piano by just hearing a piece of music.

My uncles (on my dad’s side) were always in plaster of Paris with broken ribs and arms and stuff from playing rugby. So from an early age mum said we will never be allowed to play rugby! Did not bother me really as I never had any ball sense whatsoever! Or maybe I never nurtured it? To this day my dad plays tennis every Saturday and every day he can find in-between work. I started tennis too when I was 9 but never got into it as the coordination between centre of racket and hitting a tiny ball just did not come naturally. So was not the sportiest kid on the block ever. I did cycle a lot though. Went everywhere on my bike as there were lots of fields and places to explore close by.

In 1984 I was in standard 4 (as the school years were called then) and I joined the Voortrekkers. This is the same as the Boy Scouts. Really enjoyed that. Not the marching and stuff but the camping, fishing and building things and all that. In my last year in Primary School (standard 5) I was made a prefect. Though not Mr. Sporty I was popular I guess and was friends with everyone from the nerds to the jocks. I also started to sing in the School Choir. Loved it but it was a bad time to start as a 13 year old voice breaks around this time!

But all that goes back to square one when you finally go to Secondary School. Standard 6 was started at (the then only 4 years old) Fichardt Park Secondary School just around the corner from our house. No major hang ups or disasters came my way. Continued singing in the choir as my voice had by now settled. Did well in all my subjects as this came easy to me. In 1988 my mum started to work at the school too. This was very nice. Dad would drop is in the mornings and collect us again at 13:15. (In South Africa we only go to school in the morning from 7:30 and have optional sport and other things in the afternoons). Thus for my whole life living at home I have had lunch with my whole family. And because both mum and dad worked for educational facilities they both had four long holidays a year. So we saw a lot of our parents and went on plenty of vacations over the years within South Africa. Because South Africa is so far from the rest of the world and the exchange rate made it prohibitively expensive we only ever went on holiday within South Africa. Thus we know our own country well and love it very much as a result.

 

The day I got my driving licence in 1990.

I was a Prefect again in Matric (Or standard 10, your final year in School) 1990. I enjoyed the final year and did very well in my final exams. The South African system is more akin to the US in the final stages of school in that we have a Matric Farewell Dance and all that! I think it a good way to end 12 years in school!

So 1991 was my first year in University. Dad’s office was 200 meters from the Architecture School so I basically swapped mum being close, to dad being close to me! I studied from home as it just made financial sense. Dad gave me a car though so I had my independence. Architecture students are known to be the weirdest bunch on campus next to the drama students. Alas I was more normal! Archi students have a 30/70 split I think, between really flakey arty ones and the majority being mathematical and scientific in outlook. I fell in the latter camp. Did my bit, did well and got through the two degrees over the next 5 years. Moved out of my parents house only in my 4th year. I got my first vacation job as an architecture student over the July holiday of 1993. I worked for Househam Macpherson and Henderson. Then the next holiday started work for De Villiers Brink Architects (Div used to be Mr Househam’s old partner). I continued working for Div from 1994 to 1996 right through my final year at uni and also had my first real salaried job with them. My starting salary was R3000 a month! That is less than £300 at today’s exchange rate! But got you enough for a living in those days in Africa!

In 1996 my boyfriend of three years got a job in Johannesburg and moved up there with him starting work wit Theunissen Jankowitz in Bryanston Johannesburg. Did various things there and really got to love the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg. After breaking up I moved in with Jack. Still have very fond memories of living with Jack in Mellvile. The chats, drinking whiskey, wine, having dinner parties, the wonderful view from my room all the way to nearly Pretoria in the north! After a year in Johannesburg a good career opportunity came up within the company to work on the Durban International Airport. So I moved there in 1997. Durban is in a sub-tropical area of South Africa. Very warm and very humid! Not really me but I made new friends and enjoyed my time there.

It was here that Wayne (one of the guys I worked with) started telling me of all the good opportunities in London where he had worked 10 years previously. I was young enough still to get the Visa, had no partner and only a car to sell so after 7 months in Durban made the brave move to go to London for two years. I had never ever set foot in Europe by this stage so this was a BIG move for me I have to say. But one does these things – and have to I think – when one is young. I did my final Architecture exams (after two years of real work) and three days after this flew to London.  Arrived here the 28th of March 1998.

Arriving in Heathrow I could not even properly pronounce Walthamstow - the station I was going to! Thankfully my English had always been good thanks to a mum that insisted on me and my brother speaking and pronouncing things properly. But Walthamstow and tens of other things were really alien those days! Took me two months to find a job as UK experience was all these people wanted. Two very expensive months on South African money I can tell you! I standard coffee was the equivalent of about £15!!! Not to mention the cost of travel and all that!

But got the job at GMW Partnership due to my airport experience in South Africa and them having just got a 5 year framework agreement to do work for BAA - the UK’s biggest Airport company. (And have been with them nearly 7 years now!)

I lived in a South African commune for the first 9 months I was here as I could not afford anything else. Was awful. All these young-just-out-of-school kids coming over doing menial work and still used to mummy or a maid cleaning after them… It was Hell. But it makes you appreciate what you have after such an experience so much more. Even to just think back of this time gives me shivers sometimes!

Went on holiday a the end of 1999 to South Africa with my then boyfriend Andy and moved out of Hell. On coming back my big boss offered me to live in his wife’s old house they were in the process of selling. So I lived in East London for a few months until I found a place to live again. Looked at sharing with strangers through some agencies but in the end decided to rather pick my own friends and share with them. Thus Lenn, Elke and I ended up together in Bloomsbury right in the centre of town. Was such a great place to get to everywhere in London. It was 15 minutes walk from the Westend, 15 minutes to Angel and 15 minutes to Camden. Perfect. So perfect Lenn still lives there and so does my brother! He lives in my old room!

Lived here for two years until I met Jonathan with whom I was involved with for 3 years. We lived together in Beckton in East London close to City Airport. Was three good years and did loads of travelling here in the UK and abroad.

I could not stay in the UK and work on my first Visa so after 18 months here got a work permit through my company for four years. 12-12-2003 was the end of this and then I got my Indefinite Leave to remain in the UK forever on my South African passport in January 2004.

All things come to an end at some point and after Jonathan and I split up I moved in with Andy in September 2003 where I lived until August of 2005 in Anerley. I could live on my own, but I do like someone to talk to at night and just another soul there to feel alive.

In August 2005 I moved from Anerley to Mile End in East London with my best friend John.  I really love it here.  Much better transport living on THREE London Tube lines and no more struggling with over ground trains as from Anerley. 

I have totally settled here in the UK and with over eight years of meeting people and making friends this is definitely where I call home. I can now apply for my British Passport and will do so soon. Never in a million years would I have thought I was going to do that back in 1991 when I started university in Bloemfontein! How life throws you around! And here I am now. Website in hand continuing to tell my life story…