Life Trove

"I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle." James Weldon Johnson

Moving to London

In April 2000, Ally and I moved to London. We found a cosy one bedroom apartment in Hammersmith above a restaurant called "The Grove" that specialised in delicious rib eye steaks.

Working for Siegelgale

The Internet boom was in full swing and I found a job quickly and easily, working as a consultant for a branding company called Siegelgale. It was a young, vibrant company that was growing fast. I was new to branding so it was a fast learning curve as I learned the art of creating "brand souls" for companies and helping them to reflect it in everything they did. It was a client facing and fast paced job after the snail pace of Old Mutual so I found it quite difficult and had to put in long hours. The people were great though including Peter Gibson, the CEO, who was extremely fun, creative and zany.

Some of my highlights at Siegelgale were personally coming up with the name of a Polish Bank (Intelligo), creating a brand strategy for Safe Host (an Internet hosting company based in Switzerland), and working with Peter Gibson and Anita on a huge project to rebrand a leading Israeli bank called Bank Hapoalim. The last project necessitated weekly trips to Tel Aviv which I loved. The project took well over 6 months and and our project team and clients became a very close knit group.

Life in London

In our spare time, Ally and I made the most of living in London. I bought rollerblades and every Sunday, rollerbladed from Hammersmith to Hyde Park to play touch rugby with a group of friends that included Mike, a good friend from South Africa days. Both Ally and I also had bikes and that is how we mostly got around. We lived very close to the Thames and on weekends, we would cycle along the river to Putney and watch the rowing competitions on the river.

We had several friends living in London including Colleen and Jo and Steve and we often visited them and went on outings. Later on, Ally's sister Kerri started working for a company that did marketing for theatres and she had access to lots of free tickets so I got to watch many free shows such as Vagina Monologues, All Off, Lady Windermere's Fan and Shock Headed Peter.

Other highlights were Jo and Anthony, mum and Mike and Rosemarie and Nick coming to stay with us. We also got to visit Cape Town on a couple of occasions where I was reunited with my best friend, Russel and we attended the weddings of Dirk and Bronwyn, Fraser and Jo and Steve . Mum's and Mike also got married and their wedding was very special indeed, especially as Gran and Gramps were able to be there and see mum so happy. Another major highlight was when Sammy was born in 2000 (we were in Cape Town at the time) and when Matthew was born in 2003.

Travel and tour leading

In September 2001, as the Internet bubble burst, Siegelgale started laying off its staff and it closed its London office not long after. I found myself unemployed and with so many Internet specialists retrenched, it was impossible to find a job.

I used the opportunity to do some travel. I spent 6 weeks in Africa doing a trip from Cape Town to Nairobi (in Kenya) with an overland company. Right after that, I spent an unforgettable month in Nepal hiking the Annapurna Circuit (a three week hike through the Himalayas) and visiting the Chitwan National Park. I fell totally in love with Nepal - both the scenery and the people. I experienced true peace while hiking in the mountains and it was a spiritual renaissance for me. I met a wonderful guy called Sanjay who I'm still in touch with to this day.

I returned to London but the job situation was still very bad. My trip through Africa had made me really keen to try out tourleading, so with Ally's blessing (she was so supportive), I phoned up all the tourleading companies in the UK. I did not have experience as a tourleader so mostly hit brickwalls at first but then I lucked out when I phoned Oasis Overland who urgently needed a tourleader in the Middle East (an area I knew thanks to my trip in 2007).

I spent the next 5 months leading overland trips from Istanbul in Turkey to Cairo in Egypt with stops in Syria and Jordan. I was responsible for 30 young people (mostly Aussies and Kiwis) in the back of a big yellow truck. It was quite stressful at first but I soon relaxed into it and I experienced the 5 most exciting and fulfilling months of my life. I learned to cook Spaghetti Bolonaise for 30 people, learned how to bribe Syrian border officials. I organised the travel itinerary and booked accomodation and local guides. I coped with all sorts of crises and problems. And loved every minute of it. My confidence flourished.

After 5 months, I returned to London to be reunited with Ally. Adam, Ally's 18 year old cousin, came to stay with us for a while and we all had lots of fun times together. Ally and I also spent an idyllic week in Barbados. Later on, we also had a holiday in Croatia

Working for Volvo

Then I received a call from Volvo from a guy called Mats who said they had seen my CV and had a challenging role for me. The role was based in Cambridge at the European headquarters and involved taking all of Volvo's fragmented hotchpotch of Internet sites and consolidating it into a seamless experience on one system. See more about the project.

It was a wonderful job. The people were great and I got to do lots of travelling, especially to Sweden, but also to the US and Brazil where I got to see the Iguazu Falls. My favourite part of the job was training staff on the new system which allowed me to meet people from all over the world. Our project team consisted of just 3 people (Mats, a dynamic and friendly guy, Caroline who I became very good friends with and myself.) But together we were a great team and we made a very substantial difference to Volvo's global Internet presence.

The only drawback to the job was the fact I needed to commute from London to Cambridge. I solved this by staying in a Bed and Breakfast for several nights of the week. But it was expensive and not ideal. So after a year at Volvo, Ally and I decided to relocate to Cambridge. And a new chapter in our lives began.

List of memories of our time in London

Arriving

Staying with Ally´s friend, Vicky
Easy Internet on Tottenham Court road

Leisure activities

Touch rugby at Hyde Park & the pub afterwards for shandy and roast beef
Gareth, Wheels, Tanya, Mike (touch rugby)
Rollerblading to Hyde Park every Sunday to play touch rugby
Plays courtesy of Kerry (Vagina Monologues, All Off, Lady Windermere's Fan, Shock Headed Peter)
Biking round London
Cycling along the Thames
Cycling round London (Queens Way, Leicester Square)
Tennis with Mike

Family and friends