I am very caring and sensitive. I think this is in part down to my tough upbringing. I worked on a cabbage farm since I was eight years old. My father was a dour and God fearing Evangalist who married a one armed Yugoslavian peasant from Skopje. She never spoke a word of English and still doesn't. My father moved on in
late 1980's having eloped with a Tibetan Monk. I never heard from them again but I escaped from
cabbages. I was an only child until my mother re married again and I now have 4 step sisters and 3 step brothers.
I washed cars in
biting winds of
North East coast to earn money for
family and despite looking after my mother and her young siblings I was thrown out of house and home at
age of 18.
I moved to London and was going to sleep rough. Since then I have encountered nothing but kindness. I remember my first day in
capital. It was just after Halloween in 1987 and I found this old pumpkin which I wanted to slice up into pieces so I borrowed a meat cleaver I found at
back of
Chinese Restaurant and as I was returning to
rubbish skip for
pumpkin I bumped into a man who looked at me without saying a word and handed me
total contents of his wallet. Can you believe it. I am sure that meat cleaver was lucky.
With this kind donation I checked into a hotel. What luxury. I had never been in a hotel before. They had this thing called a bidet with fresh water pouring out of it that you could drink from.
On
second night I was in
lobby trying on some sun glasses that I never intended to buy and doing my best James Bond impression and watching my reflection off
shop window. I wondered if I could become an actor. Out of
blue a total stranger walks up to me and in perfect Slav he hands me a suitcase, shakes my hand and thanks me for all my work for
motherland. I thanked him also and praised
motherland profusely. I felt so good and warm that someone appreciated me and I never had
heart to tell this person that I didn't know what he meant. So uncanny that he should speak in a language I understood so well. It was almost as if he had singled me out from amongst
crowd.