This is me back in the day, when I lived in South Africa.

My main port of call after that was Vancouver, Canada where I lived for almost 15 years before moving to my current home base in Hamburg Germany.

In between I also took up residence in Victoria and Montreal in Canada, Milan and Rome in Italy, and La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland.

As you can tell by my hand gesture above, I may have been born in South Africa, but the blood coursing through my veins was very much Italian.

Here’s my folks from around the same time. All style. They’re the ones who guided and supported me through everything, all the time. Uprooting their good lives in South Africa to start over and give me a new one in Canada.

Hits me right in the feels every time I think about it.

We moved to Vancouver, Canada in July of 2001.

At first we rented a basement suite in North Vancouver while we looked for something permanent. I don’t actually remember a ton from that first period in Canada. Just that I didn’t know anyone really and it was tough on my parents. Our South African Rand wasn’t worth much in dollars. But my parents are tough and my mom has an uncanny ability to be an eternal optimist. And she was right… I can’t believe I just put that in writing.

We found a place up near Grouse Mountain and we got lucky and a bunch of our neighbours were South African too. Especially the Stewarts, who had also just moved here. They became my parent’s best friends and I like to think they all helped each other get through the difficult stuff.

I went to Handsworth Highschool. It was odd to not wear a uniform like in South Africa.

In a uniform school, sure you can see differences between kids with second hand or slightly tattered clothes and those with always perfectly ironed and fitted clothes. But there was also a lot of sameness. shirts were all white and tucked, and we all wore the same pants, ties and blazers. No jewellery allowed, and hair always cut above the ears. Girls were allowed simple earrings.

In Canada you could walk in a room and tell the jocks from the drama club. Between hair and clothes and makeup, everyone made it clear where they stood. I still don’t remember what I wore back then. I definitely wasn’t cool, but I was also never bullied so I guess it was acceptable.

In SA the school year follows the calendar year, in Canada it starts in September. That means I hadn’t actually finished standard 9 (the equivalent of grade 11) so the Canadians wanted me to start over. My mom would have none of that. I don’t know exactly what went down, but as they say “Boer maak n Plan” and I found myself starting the school year straight into the final year, Grade 12.

That September start is also important for another reason. My first and only school year in Canada was in 2001. My second week at school at it was September 11. We didn’t really know what to think, had we made the right move leaving South Africa, was Canada going to be impacted, did we need to consider moving back? We didn’t know.

Someone I had then recently met, Clara had her birthday that exact day. I’m not sure what that must have been like for her and her twin brother. I can only imagine it was hard. Nonetheless, 8 days later, on my birthday, before I had really made any friends, she showed up at my house with cake. I’ll never forget how much that meant to me, and how it made me feel so much less alone in those early days.

We’re still in touch, not as much I should be, but I’m glad I can still know she’s doing well out there in the world.

Coming soon:
More Vancouver, Denman, Victoria, Montreal, Milan, Switz, Hamburg