Lynda Heesom

The last 20 years:

After leaving school, where I had been a rather quiet shy girl (or was I?) I went into the res at UCT and was let loose on a whole new side of life! I had and absolute ball, and studied Pharmacy while I was at it. After Uni I decided to grab my bags and travel Europe along with my paraglider and ended up working for a paragliding school and B&B in Chamonix in the Alps in France. I was the cook, believe it or not, and also helped drive the shuttle up and down the mountains, but I got to fly every day with all the clients. It was such a good life that I stayed there for a year and a half, skiing in winter and paragliding at all other times. In 1995 I came back to South Africa and tried to lead a normal working life, but it didn’t really suit me, so I kept sneaking back to my friends in France for some more flying. I decided that seeing as I had so much fun overseas that I would do the same again in Australia, and applied for an immigration visa which I eventually got in 2001. I moved to Brisbane in June 2002. I started doing lots of fantastic trekking, including climbing Kilimanjaro in 2001 and have been to Nepal twice doing high peaks there. I met Dorian (who lived in Sydney) in Alice Springs (central Australia) on a big trek and we commuted between Sydney and Brisbane for a year, before I moved to Sydney at the end of 2005. He is a pom, and has lived in Aus for the past 8 years. We are getting married in July in the Whitsunday Islands, off the Queensland coast – part of the Great Barrier Reef. So I am still working as a pharmacist and Dorian is in computers. Sydney is really the Big Smoke to me. It’s the most beautiful and massive city, but is lined with awesome beaches and mountains. Like Cape Town, only much, much bigger!

Our school years:

Mrs Thorburn’s science classes – I was lucky that she liked me so never really yelled at me. I remember one particular time when Ali was calling PK an ignoramus and was writing it down on a piece of paper, and we were all laughing under our breath’s. Lucky we didn’t get thrown out! I also remember the project for the science expo and UCT which we all prepared in only 2 days flat! In Std 7 when I was a new girl, she asked me if I had trouble holding a pen, because my handwriting looked like a spider crawling across the page! T-J you weren’t the only one!

I remember Mrs Hayden, our English teacher, stressing that something is DIFFERENT FROM and SIMILAR TOO, and not to get these 2 wrong. I feel compelled to correct the rest of the world on this when they get it wrong. By the way, while on this note, can I say that the Aussies seriously need some better English teachers, as their language is shocking!

Vikki, as for the matric dance dresses – what were we all thinking? The only good we all have is that it was, after all, the 80’s!


Did life turn out as I envisioned it 20 years ago?

Absolutely not! I always thought I would be married in my late 20’s, have 2 kids in my early 30’s and be a housewife now drinking tea with other housewives and discussing the kids’ progress at school. But somehow the travel bug got in the way and I have spent many glorious years exploring the world. I wouldn’t change a thing, except for maybe wishing that I had met Dorian earlier and doing more travelling together with him.

I can’t believe we are 37 already. Where have the years gone?

email: lyndaheesom at optusnet dot com dot au