Mile 9 - My practical dad

My dad was a very simple man who enforced strict discipline on me. He was a storeman in a fishing factory. His influence, along with going to boarding school, the army and then into the kitchen had a massive impact on my life and the way I am as a person. I don’t take shit from anyone and I don’t like long stories. It started with him and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

He was very good with his hands. He built cars and boat trailers – today, 40 years later, some of them are still in Walvis Bay. He was rebuilding a Datsun and spraying it gold. We all knew he wasn’t well, but he blamed the slight yellow tinge of his skin on the spray paint he was using. Eventually, he was forced to go to the hospital for jaundice and was diagnosed with cancer. It was January of 1979.