Alex was born in the winter of 1978 in Newlands, Cape Town. Here he grew up until he was 5 years old. Cape Town is a very nice city, with a fantastic coast, and a wonderful view of Robben Island.
Robben Island used to be, before it became a home for some of South Africa's most celebrated criminals (including one Nelson Mandela) a guano farm. Thousands of tonnes of penguin shit could be found there, and indeed many people actually bought penguin eggs from Robben Island. Cape Town is also home to the "Cape Doctor", a wind so strong it blows away the city's ills.
For various reasons his family then moved to Haughton, Johannesburg until 1986. Due to the worsening situation in South Africa, his family decided to hot-foot it to the town of Bristol, in the UK.
At that time, as discussed in the previous chapter, South Africa's condition had been steadily deteriorating for some years; constant army action in Angola had led to a deep mistrust in the idea of National Service. Families saw sometimes all their male children come back from their National Service early, either mutilated or dead, and this made many people extremely eager not to serve, or have their sons serve. Many young men had convenient 'holidays' to other parts of the world for a year when they were eighteen years old. Other families just emigrated. Alex's was one of them.
Upon arriving in the UK, the family decided to live in a terrace house in Westbury Park, Bristol. This is a reasonably pleasant area, with low crime and plenty of trees. Nearby there is a very pleasant park, the essentials within walking distance (off license, chip shop, corner shop, newsagent, supermarket) and a good school close by.