Friends, it has been some months since my last update, and it feels
like there has been a whirlwind of activity in the time that has passed.
In November last year I left my job as a project manager in the international
finance department at ActionAid, and moved to working for a small property
company in Johannesburg. I did this for a number of reasons: firstly, to put
myself in a more entrepreneurial environment, secondly to learn about sales and
marketing (I worked as a commercial and office property broker – earning commission
only) and thirdly because it is clear that there is a still a lot that is
likely to happen in the development of property in Johannesburg, a city that remains
very horizontal, and is only now seeing increasing densification, mixed zoning,
and intensification of land use in order to reduce distances and transport
pressures for residents and businesses.
My work for the property company was quite a steep learning curve in
terms of understanding the commercial property market, how property leasing
works, getting to know the big landlords, and familiarising myself with vacant
office spaces in my area. I very much enjoyed meeting with different potential
clients, finding out about their businesses, and helping them to narrow down
their choices and view potential spaces for their businesses. However, as is
probably the case in many areas of the world, the global economic downturn has
not had a positive effect on the local property market, which remains quite
stagnant, with many businesses not expecting to grow substantially, and
therefore not requiring much change in their property needs. In addition, I
found that I was teaching myself everything, as the opportunities to learn from
others within the small company I worked for were very limited (many colleagues
were friendly, but very busy, while management took a sink-or-swim approach to
matters, offering limited insight). While I had many good meetings and worked
very hard, I found that the competition in the industry was intense, and that
there are simply too many property brokers out there chasing too few deals, and
the deals that got done were frequently made on a basis of personal connections
to decision makers in the commercial world – which I, after many years abroad,
was somewhat lacking.
Helen was amazingly supportive of my bold new adventure, despite the
fact that it meant a fairly significant change in lifestyle as I moved from a
comfortable professional salary to living on my savings (I couldn’t take her
out for dinner as often, and we cancelled our satellite television contract – a
real hardship when the important rugby games simply passed by! :o) What was
liberating about the job was that I was totally responsible for my own business
decisions and success. And it allowed me to really begin to explore what makes
me happy about a job, and what is simply a means to an end. And having this
space and opportunity for self-reflection, allowed me to fundamentally
re-assess where I see myself going in life, and how I can get there. Many of
you will know that I have never felt that my career has ‘clicked’ – I’ve often
enjoyed little parts of what I’ve been doing, and I have often wanted to find
ways to expand into making more opportunities for myself, but lamented that I
don’t seem to have a base as a truly capable or perhaps even excellent
practitioner of my field (as those who saw me pass several accounting exams by
the slightest of margins, would no doubt attest).
Having realised that I simply do not know enough about property, nor
would I be able to learn fast enough to be in any position to be a real force
in the industry when the market next turns (which I suspect it will within the next
2-3 years), I was then left to ponder alternatives, bearing in mind the
thinking I’d put into what makes me happy and what drives and stimulates me.
And I kept coming back to something that many friends may have heard me mention
at times, that some day I’ve considered becoming a teacher. I always felt that
it wasn’t something one should do without the benefit of some life experience,
but also something I felt that I could perhaps be good at. And the more I
thought about this notion, and how much I’ve enjoyed interacting with young
people when I’ve been refereeing at schools on Saturday mornings, the more I
began to wonder why, despite several times previously having begun to or even
completed submitting applications to study a postgraduate certificate in
teaching (PGCE), I’d always ended up deferring my placement or withdrawing. I
spoke with family and friends about this idea. Many were initially quite
shocked – we all know teaching can be incredibly demanding on one’s time and
emotional commitment, as well as not being a likely path to millionaire’s row.
But as I thought things over, I realised that creating a sense of self-worth
through engaging in a career with meaning for me, and feeling able to foster a
spirit of learning and knowledge in others, as well as being a role model and a
person worth respecting – are things that matter to me. As are the possible
opportunities that teaching could offer not only to mix my desire for
intellectual stimulation, with my passion for sports, but also perhaps to create
chances to live and work overseas at some point, and to be able to be a
family-oriented person while sustaining a successful career.
The result is that I was accepted at the very last minute, in early
February, to take up my deferred place on the PGCE course - studying full-time
this year at Witwatersrand University. The course has been intellectually and
emotionally challenging, as well as a social exploration: as I’ve met and got
to know classmates from so many different backgrounds of class, race, religion
and outlook on life. I’m very much enjoying the course, and thoroughly grateful
to Helen, my family, and Helen’s family, as well as so many of my friends who
have supported me and encouraged me as I’ve come to this point where I am
excited and nervous about the challenges and adventures this path is likely to
hold for my future.
It is ironic in many ways that I am studying at Wits, because it was at
this very university that my parents met and fell in love, later getting
married just as my mother finished her final year of studies in 1973. I
meanwhile, am due to be married in early May, right in the middle of this
course. Preparations for the wedding are going well, although at times it has
simply felt like a mad deluge of things for us to do, service providers to
organise, and choices to make – with hardly anything left of our evenings and
weekends for extravagances like actually talking to friends! But Helen and I
have managed to enjoy making those decisions and have worked hard to try to
incorporate and acknowledge our families as part of those processes, while not
losing sight of our own vision of how we want things to happen. No doubt some
minor disaster will occur on the day, but we’re hopeful that by getting our
ducks in a row, we can try to limit the scale and effects of any disaster that
does occur – wishful as that thinking may be.
The Christmas holiday was really the last significant break either of
us has had, and I’m sure that many of you are also wondering how it can
possibly be mid-March already – with the beginning of the year feeling like a
crazy busy time for many of us. It was lovely to spend a few days in St Francis
Bay with my parents, as well as attending a series of weddings before and after
that holiday (by then we were analysing and taking mental notes at every one of
them!) Work for Helen continues to be pressurised and with a seemingly unending
list of things to get done, but she seems to be enjoying interacting with
clients and colleagues, and thriving on the challenges of coping in a small but
rapidly changing business. Unfortunately, because I have to start my first
practical teaching period (3 weeks in a local high school) in May, we will only
be having a very short honeymoon of 2 nights then. But we’re already hugely
looking forward to our trip to Sweden and the UK in August – and in many ways
we see that as our real honeymoon.
In January Helen and I moved in together, and although at first we
figured we’d probably stay at her flat, in the end, we realised that my family
are being generous enough to let us live at Eton Park for a while, and that a
spacious complex with a big swimming pool and green lawns for picnics is hard
to beat. It’s been fabulous to know that whatever the trials of the day, I can
come home to a welcome hug from my fiancée. And we’ve very much enjoyed adding
little touches to the place to make it our own: from getting a few pieces of furniture
inexpensively re-upholstered and moving some of Helen’s furniture into the
place, to re-painting some of the walls (note to self, painting is hard work
and if possible one should always make use of an unequal society to get someone
else to do the work better and cheaper than you can do it yourself!), to getting
some carpets replaced, and adding a few small art works of our own to the walls.
These are still interim measures in some ways, as eventually we have visions of
finding our own home, but we’re both tremendously grateful that we can stay at
Eton Park in the meantime.
It hasn’t all been work and no play, we’ve still managed to have fun: I
made a trip down to Port Elizabeth to catch up with old friends and to see the
first ever Super Rugby game played by the newest franchise – the Southern Kings.
We were all thoroughly delighted to witness an unexpected victory by the Kings
in a game that was hard-fought and filled with excitement – and played in front
of a crowd as tough and uncompromising but also enthusiastic as the industrial
heartbeat of Port Elizabeth. Helen and I also recently had a weekend away down
in the beautiful mountain surroundings of the town of Clarens, with my folks
just before they went back to the UK. And we are looking forward to getting
away on another short weekend break over Easter with Helen’s folks. Just to
keep us young, not long ago we also gathered together a group of friends and
family, and after some belly-warming margarita cocktails made with a vintage
tequila given to Helen by her brother, we made our way to the East Rand to
Johannesburg’s oldest rock and metal club, where we had a thoroughly good party
with several sore heads the result the next day!
Having seen a small taste of being called ‘Sir’ (odd but not a new experience
as it’s what most people address referees as) and wearing a tie every day (the KGB
used people’s ties to strangle them, enough said…) during my first week of the PGCE
course which was spent observing lessons at a well-respected private school, I
am looking forward to getting my first sustained spell of actual teaching
experience in early May, but before that there’s plenty of studying to be done,
rugby games to be refereed, little weekend breaks to be had, and the ‘minor’
matter of a wedding coming up. Life promises to be exciting and challenging,
and I hope that you are all well and enjoying yourselves wherever you read this.
