A collection of some of our favourite people, past and present, the types who've been a close part of our lives in Africa.

JOANNE EVANS. One of Laetitia's best friends (they were at varsity together in the mid to late 80s) and now even closer to the family after marrying Laetitia's brother Philip in 2001. Jo was born in Wales and had her own law practice in Cape Town until moving to the UK in 2001.  She has a passion for Volkswagen cars and decent wine (not necessarily in that order), an unhealthy attachment to large hairy men called Luciano who sing and to skinny Irish dancers called Michael so anyone wanting to buy her a video can't go wrong with "Pavarotti's Greatest Hits" or anything vaguely resembling "Lord Of The Dance". There is no resemblance between any of these types of man and the one she ended up marrying, despite the evidence to the contrary provided by this photograph.

JOANNE WITH PHIL IN ENGLAND

 

NAVEEN SINGH. Lives and works in the greater Durban area in Kwazulu-Natal Province. He was at Rhodes with me and we have worked together often, first at Rhodes Music Radio (our campus station) and then for the S.A.B.C at Radio Algoa and B.R.F.M in the Eastern Cape province. A qualified pharmacist, he's probably better known on his home turf not as a dispenser of sick-treatments but rather as a dispenser of slick-sounding rubbish as a weekend presenter on the regional radio station EAST COAST RADIO (you can visit his own 'personality' page here). Married recently (to a girl, we believe, but he never keeps in touch so who knows). Might also be a father - if not, knowing 'Navs', he's certainly giving it his best - erm - shot. 

 

NAVEEN TODAY

 

STEVE KRUGER. Perennial muso and fellow Rhodes student who had to do SOMETHING to support his music habit so he ended up as a computer whiz for Sun Microsystems in France. Still single, he whines endlessly about how the Alpine skiing season, fishing trips on the lakes of Kenya, and the responsibilities of a fat salary interfere with his tireless quest for the perfect guitar technique. Our hearts bleed.

 

STEVE KRUGER

KEVIN POTTER. We've known each other since I moved to East London, South Africa, in 1991. Kevin and I were at the SABC for a few years together and worked to set up a new radio station or three. He's a reformed hippie (had to change his ways because he can't grow the long hair anymore) whose favourite word is 'buzz' - and this does NOT refer to his fave style of haircut. He now lives in the UK and is Programme Manager for a radio station in Bournemouth.

KEVIN'S KONFUZING KWAITO KARAKTA!

WILL 'THE GADGET' GRANZIER. Will and I met in East London during the ELFM project in 1991. He used to be a police media guy and then went to work for Radio CKFM in the city of Bisho. He and I also deejayed for years at NUMBERS dance club in East London and were daytime presenters there on BRFM in the mid-90s. Why's he called 'The Gadget'? Well, he's what you'd call an 'early adopter' - the kind of person who just HAS to have the latest example of high tech gadgetry before most of the rest of us plebs are even aware that such a thing exists. He was the first person I knew to get a mobile phone, and was the proud owner of a MiniDisc player way before most other people had even realised that MD was not just the abbreviation for "Medical Doctor". 

 WILL AS 'GADGET' WITH ALBUM

MIKE HOLME. Mike studied English with me at Rhodes in the late '80s and then dropped out of sight until I bumped into him years later at a celebration to mark South Africa's national day at the Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, 1998. He'd spent a few years in Japan and had then gone to Korea where he became an English lecturer at Hong-Ik Catholic University. It was whispered that this was where he also secretly joined the local chapter of the Hell's Angels (this photo was obtained through means various and devious) but was later expelled for refusing to wear the obligatory black leather and studs. I jest. He returned to South Africa in 2000 and is currently studying at the University Of The Witwatersrand and honing his practical Japanese language skills.

MIKE THE MAD BIKER IN KOREA

GRANT CHAPMAN. Quite possibly the person I've been in touch with the longest. He and I first became friends in Bulawayo at Hillside Junior School which I went to after my family moved to what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the mid-70s. We remained friends and have kept connections open since then. This respectable bloke has a better half and runs a computer and publishing business.

GRANT ON THE PHONE

JOHN TAYLOR and I were at Bulawayo's Gifford High School together in the early '80s. After that, he went off to Sandhurst Military Academy in the UK and joined the British Army's elite Special Air Services. I visited him while he was at the Academy in 1989 where we shared a flagon or three in the London pad of his sister Catherine. John's back in civvy street after having finished his thesis in something which will probably mean that we'll all have to call him 'Doctor Taylor' . Hmph. Anyway, he's more focussed on people calling him 'Daddy' since becoming a Dad in 2003. Fine man.

John Taylor, London, 1989

MIKE JAECKEL. Yes, another old Rhodian and former fellow-RMR DJ. Mike and I were in the same digs (at different times) in Bathurst street, Grahamstown.  This pic shows Mike as he is THIS century, now married, living in the U.S.A and still searching for the perfect 'computer whizz meets AC/DC' look - I think the phrase is 'silicon metal'.

 MIKE IN THE USA, NEW MILLENIUM

PAUL HEWITT and I met as neighbours in the same varsity residence when we'd both moved into the just-refurbished-after-the-fire-of-'86 Graham House at Rhodes in 1987. He then vanished into the mysterious recesses of the Computer Science and Maths Departments, emerging blinking into the light on only a few occasions over the next four years. In this picture, we celebrate one of these unusual occurrences by shaving my head and going to a 'dungeons and dragons' thrash in mid-1990 (when we were digsmates in Bathurst Street, Grahamstown). Paul works in finance and spends his off-time playing polo, buying bigger-and-better 4x4s and planning for early retirement. What a shame. He became another addition to the UK's complement of former Rhodians when he moved over to work in London in late 2003.

PAUL WITH ME AT DIGS PARTY, BATHURST ST, 1990 PAUL AS A DADDY!

CELESTE SNYDERS became one of Laetitia's best friends when they met in 1992 while working at insurance giant Sanlam's East London broker services office. By coincidence, they turned out to be related by marriage - her stepdad turned out to be married to Laetitia's mom's cousin. Celeste was transferred to the beautiful old town of Paarl (near Cape Town) in 1996 and has been there ever since. She also recently got married.

CELESTE

ALAN LINDSTROM and I worked as DJs in East London, first at Beach Music Radio, then Border FM and finally on Radio Algoa. He was still occasionally on air in the area but more often IN it because he's a silly person who likes to ride motorbikes where they're not designed to go so he's covered in scars and other results of forceful impacts with the fruits of Mother Nature - rocks, trees, the bottoms of ravines - all the things that champion moto-cross bikers love. He's also a keen amateur muso when he gets around to it. He now lives in London and I've chosen NOT to put up any pics of the club nights we've gone to there. Much better that way...

 ALAN AT NUMBERS, 2000

ALEX MCGOWAN. Since we met as DJs at Rhodes, this former RMR Station Manager and I have been in touch. He's now working in the theatrical industry in London as a marketing/promotions type and does a fair amount of travelling so he obviously spends a lot more time with people in silly tights than I do. In general, that is. The upper, black and white pic was taken of us together in 1989 when we were both at RMR at University in Grahamstown while the one below was snapped about 11 years later in central London. He's not greedy, by the way. The 2nd Guinness in front of his face is being held by someone else. Me.

WITH ME IN 1989Alex in London 2000

MARTIN HAYTER. We became friends in 1984, shortly after my family returned to South Africa after a decade spent living in Zimbabwe. I first met Martin while living in the small, Eastern Cape Province town of Queenstown at a pub where I was barman. We discovered a mutual love of decent music, especially Ska and other hard new wave stuff. At that time, he was a mechanic for the State transport company with a brand new pair of blue overalls every month. Now, he's a Quality Auditor for Daimler Benz head office in Pretoria with a new Merc every year. Despite the evidence provided by his corporate ascendancy, Martin will always be in his 20s...He's an awesomely good writer and would probably make a superb lyricist for Celine Dion. Erk - let me erase that before he gets any ideas.

MARTIN IN HIS 'WHAT DREAMS MAY COME' GUISE

FIONA DEVENNEY is originally from Swaziland and a reformed deejay. In fact, we first met while spinning vinyl at a club in East London back in 1991 and we later worked as presenters on the same SABC radio station in the mid-90s. We also moved to Cape Town at around the same time where she become a midday presenter for a new jazz station there. She kicked in the music side of things a few years ago to move back to her native Swaziland and seems to be coping with life as far as we know. Mother of three, she nurses a passion for Grapefruit Schnapps and late-night braais (barbeques) and will always be one of the most stylish women around - as well as one of the laziest emailers.

FIONA IN CAPE TOWN 1997

This bandana-wrapped person of way-back Native-American ancestry is KEVIN O'NEIL, one of my best friends for years (since meeting as presenters on our 'varsity radio station RMR in 1990). He'd been spending a few years living in South Africa as his business-type parents were enjoying a stint on the dark continent from their native Chicago. He moved back there recently after years in California but occasionally managed to visit SA again. Here, he enjoys the view from the side of the Nahoon River in East London during a return visit to S.A in the early '90s.

 KEVIN, EAST LONDON, 1994

DARON AND SHANNON MANN. We go a long way back to the beginnings of my radio days with the SABC in the early 90s. He's been a fixture of afternoon radio in the Eastern Cape province for most of the last 15 years. Known for lazy afternoons next to the pool and BBQ area, these two are good people to spend great times with.

DARON AND SHANNON

CHANTELLE VERMAAK joined BRFM as a newsreader in the mid '90s. Since then, she and Laetitia have been on very good terms. Still in the Eastern Cape, she's a Mom and a career woman and even remembers to write every now and then too! 

CHANTELLE, MID 90s, WILD COAST

THERESA MEIRING met Laetitia in 1980 when they were at VG (Victoria Girls' High) together and then later they shared many laughs and escapades at Jameson House, Rhodes University. I have a photo of her kicking my skinny butt under a table at a party there. No, don't ask.  She now lives a short drive from us in Wales.

THERESA'S WEDDING PIC

  SPACE FOR MORE>>> Any of you bunch checking out these pages are welcome to send me more updated pics. Anytime. Hint hint

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