AndyCapp
The baby in a large family, I grew up first in the dry highveld air of Pretoria and then in the balmy climes of East London on the south-east coast of Africa, where I spent much of my time in and on the sea.
After a few years at college and in the army, I became an ambulanceman in the town of Komga, which has now grown to the extent that it has a four-way stop in the middle and it's rumoured that a traffic light is being
contemplated. |
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Daffodil
Originally from the sleepy town of Port Elizabeth on the south-east coast of Africa, I moved west to Cape Town, the most beautiful of cities, when I left school.
There I entered the interesting and oft-misunderstood world of an insolvency practice. Although I enjoyed the work tremendously, life was something that seemed to largely slip by while I was busy doing something else. |
One of my great loves is folksy music and I've braved many a cold night in a strange place to attend festivals where I could let the music soak through and restore my soul. A dream came true when Jethro Tull toured South Africa and I was able to see them performing live.
My hobby had always been computers (how many have the Sinclair Spectrum to thank for our initial interest?) and after a few years I headed for the bright lights of Johanensburg to make this my career. Like many software developers, I ended up working and sleeping strange hours and found my social life transferred to the cyber world. There, one night I came across a curious little flower. | Two of my greatest blessings are my children, now almost grown up. My son helps run a restaurant. My daughter is in her final year of school and is also interested in a career in the tourism industry.
Between working too much and sleeping too little, a social life became something of a luxury I couldn't afford. This was remedied by having "friends in a box" who could be invited in or chased out of my home at any hour. I made many friends in cyberland and one night I found a shy drawing creeping around the network, exploring the ether which had become my natural habitat. |
Relationships which might otherwise seem strange form in IRC, as the data usually gathered by the eyes and ears are absent, leaving only bits of text fleeting over a screen as one mind communicates with another. What starts out as just another name in a channel gradually gains substance and an awareness grows of a person with real thoughts, feelings and characteristics. IRC is a great equaliser as there's nothing to show your physical attributes, financial position, your level of education or any of the other standards by which humans generally judge one another.
One of the wonders of the Internet is that one can communicate with people anywhere, even beyond the realms of our planet, so it's not surprising that our courtship was conducted whilst we were a thousand miles apart. Being confirmed cyberjunkies, it hadn't occurred to either of us to find out what the other looked or sounded like.
Eventually in May 1995, Andy decided to make a trip to Cape Town to investigate matters. Although he didn't find work at first, after ten days he drove the 1,500 miles round trip in three days to collect the rest of his clothes and take his leave of his mother. Daff knew he was serious about returning because, instead of the usual ring or locket, he had left his PC with her.
The photograph above was taken at our wedding on New Years Day 1997. Later in the year, we moved to Hertfordshire in England, where we lived happily for 16 months. We then spent a few months on the English Riviera in Devon, then moved to Sussex for a year. Our most recent move was to Hampshire, so we have a whole new area to explore. |
Our favourite expression:
Don't
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