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My younger brother moved to Australia with his family in the 80’s living in Adelaide until recently, he now lives in Darwin. My family’s own diaspora begun with my elder brother emigrating to South Africa in the 60’s. Times were, when the whole family lived within walking distance of each other, and, apart from my elder brother, that was true of both of our families. Lovely though that was, it did have the effect of limiting your horizons. Now, thanks to the nomadic exploits of our children and my younger brother we have enjoyed quite a few years of travelling, seeing places I for one never thought I would see.
There also appears to be a subtle change in relationships. Whereas years ago your friends were nearby and had intimate knowledge of your life and its ups and downs. Today, those friends seem rather dispersed and contact is mainly via the internet and people seem to compensate for that by placing the most mundane happenings of their life on the network sites like Facebook. It leaves me wondering about the two very distinct periods of my life. What was the better? The relative easy, uncomplicated life in the East End with everything within easy reach and simple pleasures like Snooker, Football and the almost mandatory Saturday night ‘knees up’ providing a stable if somewhat repetitive lifestyle; or today’s adventures, where I am not really sure what the next year will bring or where I will be? I suppose in truth they are as pleasant as each other and proves that variety is indeed the spice of life.