During my years as an apprentice mechanic, I lived in Coogee in Sydney, and then moved to Manly Beach with my first serious girlfriend. She was a worldly person, but had no intensions of seeing the world. It couldn't last.
During my time with her, we attended an Estonian social event held at the old Estonian hall in Thirlmere where my vanaema lives. It was at this function I ran into Dean who I used to knock around with as a kid, but hadn’t seen in years. We had a great night and started seeing more of each other, in fact too much. What started out as Dean spending a fun weekend in Manly with my girlfriend and I turned into a welcome well over-stayed. Dean was living with his mother at the time, and appeared to relish the opportunity to get away every weekend.
After Dean finally found a place to live back in Wollongong, his appearances thinned out. By this stage however, my relationship was on the rocks. After three years of living together, my girlfriend and I decided to go our separate ways. Well, she stayed in the flat and I split for Bondi. In retrospect, this would set a trend for my relationships in the future...
Bondi didn’t last long. After three months, I had a job in a surf shop back in Wollongong. I was heading south again. From here, my own true "awakening" towards Estonia would begin in earnest. In 1997, aged 24, I moved in with Dean.
The house I moved into was old and had one other room-mate in it. As Dean and I were the two Estonians in the house, it didn't take long before he and I got it into our heads that we wanted to fulfil our own kind of sabbatical and head to Estonia together. I wanted to go to see...whatever...it was I had to see. Dean wanted to go...to go...and then go to Norway to fulfil his dream of seeing Death metal in its purest form. Super.
We got pumped up about saving money to go and laid out our grand plans and paid our deposits on air tickets. Then I met my next serious girlfriend and Dean’s life had spiralled a bit out of control. I was unhappy in Wollongong, the household wasn’t getting on and a mutiny against Dean spelt the end of what had come to be a great harmony. The lure of bigger and better things back in Sydney was taking my mind off getting out the country.
Three years past, with no trip to Estonia. I was girlfriendless and living back in Coogee. By this time I was working for my isa as one of his backpacker hostel managers. The 2000 Sydney Olympics were in full swing and so was my sense of being Estonian. By now I had two Estonians mees (men) living with me in Coogee; one a Canadian by birth who suffers to this day from severe patriotism where Estonia is concerned...and rightly so...; the other a farm-boy from Põltsamaa in central Estonia. Both were filling me with what it meant to be Estonian. Dean was still around, but in an altered state by this time.
During the Olympics, boozy nights were spent at Kings Tavern in King Street in Sydney’s CBD with the Estonian Olympic team and its followers which lead to meeting countless countrymen and women. I even managed to meet a few celebrities and spill a beer all over the bronze medal winning wrestler. He was very unhappy about it, but nothing could dampen the pulse of the blue black and white coursing through my veins. It was a special time. 