Joburg Baby!

My parents were living in Klerksdorp, on a plot on the Vaal River, when I had gone back home for my ‘rehab’. It was a small Afrikaans town and it was the last place on earth I wanted to be. As much as I loved my family, I had to go to Joburg if I wanted to get a job earning good money and have a life. So, after my two weeks of recovery, when I felt strong enough to start over and take on the world again, I made my plans and moved to Joburg.

I soon found a nice flat, sharing with a great girl who I found on a website. I was also lucky enough to land another good job in a call centre. I was all set!

The first few weeks were harder than I’d anticipated though. I discovered that all my old friends had moved on in life and they were too busy to see me. So I became quite lonely. And I had an itch to go out and party, which I couldn’t ignore…

One Saturday night I decided to be brave and go out all by myself. I’d been to a certain club in Randburg a few years before. I love dancing and I thought it would be a good place to go to. So I got all dressed up and went to *Nirvana. It was a rave club similar to the one I’d been to in Durban all those years before. Within five minutes of arriving in the gloomily-lit club I had a few friends and a few pills.

Deep down inside I knew I should not be using any drugs of any sort. I felt utterly stupid for even being in a place like Nirvana – but in another way, I felt like I was ‘home’. The rush of the ecstasy and the strobe lights moving to the beat of the hard house music captured me completely. I kept convincing myself that pills and ‘club drugs’ were not the same as crack and heroin. I mean, I had used all those drugs in the past without getting hooked, so surely there was no harm in taking a pill or two?

I didn’t get addicted to the drugs. Not at first anyway. What I did get addicted to was ‘The Scene’. I loved the club scene so much! All the people were like a big family. We would all gather every Saturday night and dance and chat and share grams of kat (a synthetic powder you sniff up), cocaine and ecstasy pills until late every Sunday afternoon. I suddenly found myself having a better social life than I had ever had, and more friends than I had ever had!

Deep down in my spirit, I knew it was all a lie…

As much as I knew it was wrong, it was just impossible for me to stop going clubbing. I feared that the only alternative would be to stay at home, on my own, every weekend. I couldn’t see another way of making such good friends and having such a full social life.

I managed to stay single for quite a few months, until one night at Nirvana I spotted the tallest, most beautiful man with electric blue eyes, and that is when my life took another new turn.

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