2005 – 2006: Morden
A shock to the system
When we moved from London to Morden it was with a promise that this is where our life in the UK would truly begin. The London stay with our bike rides, and roller skating basically an interlude to be treated as an extended holiday.
Looking back, I think the biggest shock to my system was that we found ourselves in a bizarre riches-to-rags situation when it was meant to be, from the movies I'd seen at least, the other way around.
I'll explain, from about the age of 7 right up until our move to the UK aged 11, this had been my typical routine in a day in Brazil:
- Wake up have breakfast, made for me by my mom who'd also help me to get ready if I needed it. Being driven to school by mom or dad.
- School 7:30am-12:30pm
- Come home to freshly made food that our babysitter had prepared, mum would also come to lunch and then go back to work. Dad would sometimes do the same.
- Homework
- Babysitter would then take us to our respective classes (I changed mine yearly, so far I'd done swimming, dance, taekwondo, and volleyball. At the time of our move I had gone back to swimming)
- She'd then give us afternoon tea and I'd go play with friends or watch tv
- We would then go play while she made dinner
- Parents would come home for dinner and we'd play back our days and eat with the whole family around the table
More widely, this is what our year roughly looked like in Brazil...
- Summer break is all of December and January, so I started my year travelling. At least 2 weeks at one of my grandma's who lived 5 hours away, being spoiled rotten by all my great aunts and older cousins and spending time with my uncle
- Weekday daily routines above for about another few months
- Weekends spent with mum and dad taking us to barbeques, shopping, going to see cousins, godparents, our grandma or spending the day at a water park
- At some point another we'd have some in-country impromptu mini-breaks – trekking, camping, waterfalls you name it during the many long weekend bank holidays which we have along the year so, at least 2 or 3 mini trips a year
- July 1 month school break = either more of the above or a packed week at summer camp followed by carefree playing with friends and cousins and being bored at home
Obviously, as a child, I had no conscience that if we'd stayed, with mum having been made redundant, we would have had to stop all that anyway and probably have sold the house – the country's economy and job markets obviously not being as elastic as it is here.
Still to my eyes, that year just kept on getting worst – we'd moved home, I didn't have any friends, mum was in Italy, and my baby sister (Maria) had started going to school but my application hadn't been processed yet meaning I couldn't. Between getting up and ready with her and taking her to school and the changeovers of my dad and uncle coming from and going to work my new routine meant that until she came back from school I was home alone for hours in the day.
In the end, this continued for months. So to me, at least, this felt like a bleak move indeed. I had very odd flashbacks of this time when lockdown began. Not that anyone would truly know it, I doubled down on trying to be positive and would be defensive ifanyoneenquired if I needed help - 'what am I not doing super well?!'. Looking back this was my first fake it till you feel it experience.
YOU ARE READING
Dear Future Child
Non-FictionEveryone has a story about where they come from. If you knew you could die tomorrow what stories, messages and learnings would you want to leave for your loved ones? This book is an unapologetically honest and raw account of a working-class first...
