There’s more to life than work, but work, whatever you choose to do, is a vital part of what it takes to make life work. It’s not just that we need to make a living, for practical purposes; more than that, the work we do is a pathway to finding fulfilment and realising our brightest ambitions.
But the pathway itself can lead us on long, winding, and unexpected routes, as Tracey Lange discovered for herself when she took on an unpaid job as a receptionist at a law firm in her hometown of Somerset West.
She was studying law, working her way up from basic office duties to the more advanced paperwork of bonds and title deeds, but it was her naturally chatty demeanour, and her habit of singing as she worked, that would lead her in an entirely different direction.
She never did complete her LLB, because her sideline hobby turned into a news reading gig at a community radio station, and then into a demo for a commercial station, and then into the very model of a modern multimedia career.
Today, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what Tracey does for a living, since she does so much: hosting a radio show, hosting a TV show on kykNET, co-hosting the TV reality show, Dancing with the Stars, anchoring an all-women talkshow, running a travel blog…and all the while, charming her listeners, viewers, and readers alike, with that same bubbly personality and warmth that led her along the pathway in the first place.
On the cusp of exciting new opportunities and new challenges, Tracey sat down with Ruda for a chat about work, change, independence, and the fine art of seizing the moment and making life work.
Transcript:
Ruda: Hello and a very warm welcome to another session of the Change Exchange. My guest today, Tracey Lange, TV, radio producer herself. She’s in front and behind the camera and the microphone and then you’re an inveterate traveller. Semi-professional, it sounds like.
Tracey: I like the sound of that! Thank you for having me.
Ruda: So, what did you want to be when you were growing up?
Tracey: I wanted to be everything. First, I wanted to be the eldest because my sister always got away with murder. I felt, because I was the youngest, and your parents always walk in on you hitting back. They always walk in on the youngest one just retaliating, because I always wanted to be the eldest but then always wanted to be a teacher, interestingly. And then I wanted to be an air hostess, and just about everything, but interestingly if I look at everything I always wanted to be, it had to do with people. I wanted to engage with people, so I ended up wanting to study tourism, but our family, we didn’t have money and then I ended up working first after school and just working there at this law firm, they offered to pay for my studies at the time. I didn’t do tourism, but slowly but surely it opened up so many different doors and it’s interesting how life happens. If I look back on it now, everyone came into my life at the right moment to open up so many different doors and now I have ended up here and it’s 11 years later.
Ruda: Ja, Tracey, that ‘my family did not have money and therefore I didn’t, I could not do the thing that was the, would have been the kind of logical next step’. What is your advice? What do you say to other young people in a similar situation? Because there are so many young South Africans who are in that situation.
Tracey: You have to go out there and make it happen for yourself. I also come from a home where my mother and my father, my father is very much a, you know … He just does what needs to be done. My mom is the one that opens her eyes, see what other opportunities there are and then she’s always been the one that’s always seemed to me as well, that everyone you meet, they are possibly someone else you could be working with eventually. So you need to be kind to everyone. It doesn’t matter who you engage with. They could possibly open up a door for you many years from now. So her advice to me actually after school was, and when I’m saying after school, after matric, was to go and work somewhere free of charge. That was what she said. She said, because if you like it enough without being paid and you still don’t mind doing it after six months, you will know it’s a passion and someone will end up paying for your studies. And it did happen that way. So I got the job at the law firm because she was standing in a queue talking to everyone the way she normally does, at a bank, believe it or not, at the ATM and then she spoke to someone. She’d say to someone, my daughter just finished matric and I think she needs to go work everywhere and she mustn’t be paid. It’s very simple. And the lady said to her, oh we need a receptionist at the law firm …
Ruda: For free!
Tracey: For free! Come, let her pop in, and then I walked in there and the owner at the time, he was 83 and still a practicing attorney and he said to me, Tracey, I cannot let you work for free. And I say to him, Sir, but you must understand my mother’s said, it must be free. I don’t go against my mother. And I worked there for three months and he said to me, so I know you wanted to study tourism, but how about you take a look at something else? Anything in the legal fraternity, anything, some, something else there, I can make a plan for you. And they did.
Ruda: What did you study?
Tracey: I said to him like, like my mother, just say yes. We’ll figure it out as you go along, say yes and then go, okay, cool. Later on, I’m gonna go fine. And I got home and my mom said to me, see, I told you. It was very much like that and up until today it’s still that way. It’s still like that.
Ruda: What course did you choose? What did you study?
Tracey: At the time, I started with my LLB. I never completed it … It shifted by, as I was working at this law firm … It was a smaller law firm and then I worked my way up from receptionist to starting to do bond cancellations to doing bonds, to doing title deeds, so anything in property and then while I did one of the bond cancellations, I was linked to the lady that my mom actually spoke to in the bank and she was at another law firm by then, so she spoke to me on the phone and then said to me, Tracey, I really like working with you. You’re very kind. Your mails are lovely. You’re very professional. I need an assistant and she worked at a much bigger law firm and I went for the interview. My boss at the time say to me, he said to me Tracey, you’re young. Go and do it. And they also said they will continue paying for my studies, but then while working for them, it’s very interesting. I did work for a property developer, he said he wants me to do everything that I do at his office and with his properties and he was the person that kept saying to me, why are you wasting your personality? He kept saying to me, I think your personality is wasted in an office behind closed doors. He says you’re driving me up the wall by talking too much, and singing every day, please can you just go do something else?
Ruda: Look for a different platform!
Tracey: And he led me. He led me.
Ruda: So, you started reading news on Good Hope?
Tracey: Yes, yes.
Ruda: How did that come about?
Tracey: I started at a community radio station in Somerset West, for fun. And Jerome Topley at RSG at the time. He listened to the radio while driving over the mountain and he called into studio and he said to me, Tracey, I just heard you on air. I’m at RSG, please can you come and visit me in studio this week? I’ll be on air on Thursday evening. If you don’t trust me and you’re worried, bring your parents along. I’m at the SABC in Sea Point. I told my folks and I got there and he looked at me, and he said to me, how old are you? And at the time I was 23 and he said to me, I thought you were much older because when you speak Afrikaans you sound much older. He said you sound a bit more assertive as well, and he said, I don’t think you will work for RSG, which is where I wanted you initially. He said, but I’m going to send your demo to Good Hope FM, and we recorded a demo, I did a bit of trading with Jerome Topley. Recorded the demo and in September that year, I think that was in April, May. That was in June of that year. In September of that same year, I started on Good Hope FM and by the following April I was on air daily on the Afternoon Drive, doing news.
Ruda: Could you feel, well, soon after that you had your own programs? What was it? First on KFM and then …
Tracey: Believe it or not, I’ve actually done my rounds on all the radio stations in Cape Town. I actually, during that time, that was when Bravo started and when the new radio station started in Cape Town, Smile FM, they contacted me and said they know I’m bilingual and Smile will be English and Afrikaans. They want to offer me my own show. By then I was doing the news on the Breakfast Show and Good Hope FM and the only other thing to do would either be eventually they, you know, they kind of move you back to other shows. That’s the peak. I can’t get better than being the newsreader on the Breakfast Show, it’s a fact, and I thought, well either they give me my own show or I jump ship and start elsewhere. And I did. And I went to Smile. Then from Smile …
Ruda: What was it like having your own show? Because news reading per definition is you have a script and that’s what you do. Now suddenly you have a platform and you can fill it in whatever way, and these are different bond with your audience. Tell me about that.
Tracey: It is very different, and it was tough for me at first because I can’t understand why you would want to listen to me. Listen to me doing news, I get that. Because you want the facts. I can give you that, but you can listen to anyone doing that. I didn’t think you’d. I still don’t get it sometimes. I look at myself and I think I don’t understand why you would want to listen to me, so I would fill the show with as many guests as possible and I know it’s my strength. Engaging with people is a strength of mine and I found that that was my platform to give to you to share your story and then I realised that that is what people like. They love the fact that I do that, and people relate to that. They love … They know that they can come to me and share their stories. Anybody, anyone who listens, they know they can, so it is quite a nice thing. You walk outside and I walk everywhere in town so I’m make a plan to just walk everywhere and people will stop. Just to share the story and tell you they heard you on air this morning and they did that and a Whatsapp will be sent through because I also laugh at myself very easily. I mispronounced something the other day and I burst out laughing. I think it was. I said Craig, Craig Lucas. He won The Voice. And I spoke to fast and said, Craig Lupus and I stopped, and I burst out laughing and I went, you see, it’s just I made fun of myself and the amount of messages that comes through just for something silly, admitting that I made a mistake. People go, oh my word, you are on a roll today and I went, I was not because I messed up. But if you like that, that’s fine. I think it’s also just that. That’s nice,
Ruda: But, but also the, the relationship you build up with an audience you don’t feel as if you’re talking to no one sitting in the studio. On the contrary.
Tracey: No, no, you don’t. Because these, especially now with social media, with Whatsapp, there’s a constant engagement, there’s constant response to everything that you do and it. I think it’s just always just. I think in my mind, I’m just always telling myself there’s, my mom and my dad’s listening, as long as I focus on them listening and I can have fun with them and I can talk nonsense, I can also be serious with them. People realise they always feel like I’m speaking just to them.
Ruda: And camera? Did it come easily?
Tracey: I’m not entirely sure. I think it was also a similar thing of I’m not … I battled with it at first and for no other reason, but the fact that they also said to me, but you’re allowing your guest too much space and I said, but I just think …
Ruda: That’s what I do.
Tracey: I feel like that’s my job, but that was for a different production company and then Bravo came my way and they just liked that they didn’t mind it, so again, my interviews and those were so much easier for me and so much better because they enjoy that. They wanted that.
Ruda: But bravo also wants you to be part of the glamour of the show and all of that. Was that different and how did you experience that?
Tracey: That was the fun bit because they brought along the stylist who would do my hair and makeup and bring all these beautiful dresses and make sure that I’m always dressed up to the nines and when I did the first show, my mother called me and said, I’m seeing my mother in you, and then I realised that whenever I now do Bravo, it’s just channelling my grandmother who had passed the away. And she was very glamorous. She was extremely glam … She was always dressed up, her cheeks, were always in makeup and everything was always done. She, her hair was never out of place and then I just started thinking like that. I just always had to remember that. So when Dancing With The Stars game this year, that was also easy because I kept thinking, oh, she used to love dancing, so I’m meant to be here. And my mom would just always say to me, I’m sure she’s just running with you everywhere and seeing everything you are seeing and enjoy because she was a very bubbly and very much a people’s person. So …
Ruda: Did you enjoy Dancing with The Stars?
Tracey: It was crazy. It was intense. Live TV, I wanted to run away two minutes before we went live every single Sunday. And then the moment you step out …
Ruda: Why?
Tracey: It was just nerves. I just wanted to go. I don’t know what to do now. Am I? What if I mess up and, and I think my biggest fear was actually just falling down the stairs when I would walk up.
Ruda: On heels.
Tracey: On heels, ridiculous high heels. And it was this two hour show and then again, they put me with everyone. All the contestants and my job was just constantly to hear from them and that was the fun bit and then I’d forget about everything as long as I could make them feel comfortable, comfortable enough to share whatever it was that they were feeling at that moment. Then I was fine.
Ruda: And plans? What do you want to do? Be? Do you have a five year plan?
Tracey: I … No, I don’t, I’ve never had plans. I keep telling myself I probably should. I, years ago said I wanted to produce my own TV show and I wanted to produce radio and I do that. I produce my radio show every day. I produced Tussen Ons and I host it and Bravo is still happening. I’m doing everything I’ve ever wanted to do, so I suppose I need to start dreaming a little bit further again, a little bit bigger and decide what else there is and what’s next.
Ruda: Life has opened up doors for you. Tell me a little bit about Tussen Ons, because that’s now a completely different, different kind of show.
Tracey: Yes, it’s …
Ruda: It’s kykNET, heh?
Tracey: It’s on kykNET. It’s the first of its kind in South Africa, which is a panel of women, all very diverse, sharing their opinions on certain things that we decide.
Ruda: It’s you and the editor of …
Tracey: Kuier magazine and then we have Success Lekabe who’s a host at another radio station, Bok Radio. Then we have Zelda la Grange who was Madiba’s PA and we also have Ingrid Jones, the MD of Mikateko Media and also editor-in-chief of many magazines, so these women are strong. They’ve proven themselves and they share their opinions and so many different things and it’s got … What you hear … It’s hysterical. It’s a scream and then we can also go quite serious, but suddenly you just sitting there and it’s not me just talking about what I think and feel. I allow all of them to share their thoughts and experiences and just open up because I can’t relate to someone who had … I can’t share any experiences about having a child because I don’t have kids, but then Ingrid can and how tough it was for her when her daughter after matric, now has to go to res, and she says she feels completely empty. It’s those kinds of things, which is lovely.
Ruda: And in your personal life, uh, you and Avukile have been together for how long now?
Tracey: Four and a half years. Just over four and a half years.
Ruda: Where did you meet and how did you know he was the one?
Tracey: I didn’t! I met him at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Tammy-Anne Fortuin. She’s now currently in LA. We met each other … At the time I was still dating someone else. And then about a year later we bumped into each other again at an event and we chatted and he asked how my boyfriend was. I said, well, he’s no longer. And he said cool, so I can take out for coffee and I said, yeah, okay cool. We can do that. But I must tell you what I liked most. What I liked most then and what I still like about him. He’s extremely calm and very quiet when he speaks. You do listen. And he’s very much like my dad in that sense, there’s a great calmness, there’s a way of just, okay, so this is the situation …
Ruda: Solid and grounded.
Tracey: Yes, let’s just deal with it. Let’s sort it out. And the more time I spend with him, the more you see all these different layers to all of that that I could be in very different moods. I can call it that because I can come home from a long shoot and I can be completely drained, and he will just get it. He won’t expect me to, you know, tend to any of his needs, whether that be talking or just asking how his day was when I just don’t feel like that. He also is extremely independent. He lives a life that is totally separate to mine. I can be very busy and with, with his job and then all these side projects, he just makes sure it’s all scheduled in times when I’m either shooting or MC-ing or doing whatever so that when we do have time together, when I am off, then we are together. So there’s this huge whiteboard in our study. I have to write in green, he writes in blue and that’s how we check each other’s schedules.
Ruda: Ja. And you make sure that you have time together, but you’re saying that he also has his own interests, et cetera. That is also important that each one brings something fresh to the interaction.
Tracey: Yes, it is very important and it’s also fun to hear about all his other things. He is very creative. He actually started in film and media but then ended up in marketing, so now he is taking care of a huge hotel chain and he takes care of Africa and so he’s got that. But then because of that and he used to be in liquor industry prior to that, it brings all of that together with all his other things with all his side projects and then he’s building an app and then he’s … I mean, it’s all of those things that he does and he’s got all these meetings with clients and it’s fun to hear about that. It’s fun when he comes over and he can tell me about that and sometimes I really don’t understand what he’s saying but I know he also likes to talk about and it’s also nice for me to hear. And his mind just works very differently. We went on holiday in May to Rio and while I was standing on the train, I kept thinking of how I can get everyone to stand and take a picture with me because I was just so chuffed that all these people on the train and I would get this great picture and I didn’t get the picture. It was 10 minutes while I was trying to think of I could get a selfie. We got off and he had come up with an entire new idea for an app in that 10 minutes for school children and parents in South Africa that he can build because now he’s seen something on the train and then he said to me you know how nice it would be if our public transport system would be like this in South Africa, I would come up with so many new ideas and he and it’s not just him coming up with ideas, he will literally run with the idea, will come home and then you make his notes. He will start with the presentation, he will start building things, he will meet with whoever and within a couple of months it’s a real thing. That’s just how we operate, so it’s nice. It’s nice to see.
Ruda: I also hear a lot of respect, a lot of admiration.
Tracey: There is. There is quite a bit and it’s just a … It’s just one of those. It’s a relationship that I can tell you that yes, we work hard at it, but it’s also quite easy.
Ruda: And your, your traveling? You’ve turned that into a blog and I’m sure that is going to go somewhere in a manner of speaking.
Tracey: That’s him as well. I said, I need to go on holiday. And he said cool, where do you want to go? And I said, well, come across this thing. And I, again even was traveling, I don’t have a bucket list. And I went ooh, these names sound exciting. So I see a name and I go, that sounds great. Ljubljana, never heard of it. Never been. Let’s see what else is close by and that’s Slovenia, Slovakia, one of those. But we did that. See I don’t know that. And we did Budapest and Prague and we did all of those places and he said to me, well we can’t just do this, can we do a whole blog and build it somewhere? And then he did it. He started it and uploaded everything and we’d write a few things.
Ruda: And you call it Travul with a “v-u”.
Tracey: The Travul Diary. So it’s Tracey and Avu.
Ruda: Ja, ja.
Tracey: Ja, it’s the Travul Diary. Yes. That was also his idea and now we just share all our trips on there.
Ruda: Oh, so you haven’t, you haven’t used the blog for anything else, it’s just your personal space use.
Tracey: It’s just a personal space.
Ruda: It works like a charm. I’ve been on there now and it’s lovely.
Tracey: It was great. It was us sharing our first trip and I think at the time we did 13 countries and then from there we went from one place to the next to the next and then Rio came as well. And then every time I come back and I say, okay, cool, I think I’m done with traveling now for a year and then I’m back for three months and then I go, I think we need to go elsewhere.
Ruda: Where do you find the time? Because both of you have very full professional lives.
Tracey: We have to book it quite well in advance. We do. I’ve realised that I actually have to set time aside, I spoke to, I’m sure you know Dowwe Dolla, Margit Meyer, and one day she said to me, Tracey, the time’s never going to come. You have to book the time. Set it aside. Once you set it aside, then everything else kind of does fall into place and you just have to be strong and say no to whatever else will come in that time. Because I wouldn’t have been here in any case and if I was booked for any other gig I wouldn’t have been able to do that thing either that did come last minute. So not I’ve just become a little bit stricter. He’s easy on his side because he’s job allows him more leave. It must be so nice, but then we just make a plan.
Ruda: In a freelance life, it is really difficult and it’s almost because you’re your own boss. You have to ask yourself would leave.
Tracey: Exactly! And it’s difficult, so in that sense I battle saying no, but to myself. I can say no very quickly. I’m going to be like, no, it’s not going to happen. You just need to have to work and push through. I’ve, I’ve become a little bit stricter, but being a people pleaser as well is hard.
Ruda: But the two of you, because of the times we live in and the technological times we live in and your profile … Your relationship is often quite public. Have you found that difficult sometimes? Are there posts that you’ve regretted?
Tracey: No, not at all. I’ve also realised that the moment you actually decide what to put out there, it stops any rumours and anyone speculating because I’ve already said what needed to be said, so now you’re just thinking, oh, okay, cool, and then you move on. I think it’s just, it’s easy for us because I don’t overshare, but what I do share, is a real moment in that time. I want to say thank you team for running through my words at Dancing With The Stars and helping me with my audition and I just find so many of our moments lovely. But I don’t share all over them, so when at one moment comes and I can share it, it’s great and people like that and then they do move on again, they do move on after that.
Ruda: But do you think, just in general, almost as advice to young people coming up in the world that you have to be conscious and that you actually have to be careful?
Tracey: Yes, you do. You have to be extremely careful, but I’m also, if I look at previous relationships, I never shared anything and I think it’s because of that. That’s where I learned that a lot of people, they want to know things and then they start scratching and then there’s nothing to find. There’s nothing to find, but then they make up things. So I’ve just decided social media allows me to take control of that. We’ve been asked numerous times for articles on the two of us together and my immediate response – now everyone will know – um, is always very shy. He doesn’t, want to. But it’s got nothing to do with that! He would look at me and he’d say to me …
Ruda: Why?
Tracey: Why? And I would say to him I agree with you. I just don’t get why. Why do you want to come into our home? And share that like these, there’s nothing there. And what I’ve said, you’re not going to see anything different to what I’ve shared on social media. So unless you can actually come to me with a serious angle on something that really make a difference, I don’t understand it.
Ruda: Tracey, and as a young … I mean you’ve been working … What? Eleven years? It’s the first part of your career and a large part of it is freelance. So you have to run it yourself. You have to manage in the sense of other people have managers. You have to manage, manage it yourself. How do you prepare? How do you run it financially? Because I’ve, I’ve known in this industry, people have enormous gigs and they make an enormous amount of money and then six months later there’s nothing, and at the age of 36 they have nothing. How does one work with that?
Tracey: So, I come from a home where my mom was extremely financially savvy. She still is and she had retired young and she would be. She would often just come home and go, okay, cool. I’m going on holiday, I’m going to Mauritius for seven days and she would announce it today and then two weeks later she’d go to Mauritius. My father never had to give her the money, but then she’d been home for how long she would come in and go, cool, I’m going on holiday. That’s what she did. And when I started working at 18 …
Ruda: Sorry, but you saw a woman who was in control of her own finances. That’s a fantastic thing.
Tracey: I know. And especially for someone at … In her generation, because generally the husband takes care of everything and …
Ruda: So, she didn’t have to ask.
Tracey: Never, ever. And then because of that, so when I started working at 18, at the law firm, where I was supposed to not be paid. So when that first paycheque came, my mother said to me, so this is what you are going to do with that money. And I started a pension. We started … There was another savings account that she started and all of those things I still have in place. I also never, never … Let me try to word this properly. I have different streams of income. I only live off one income. The rest is all invested. Literally it would come in and it would go into different places.
Ruda: Why do you do it like that? What’s the underlying principle?
Tracey: I think it’s just always knowing that tomorrow all of this could end. The work in the industry … Today I’m the flavour of the month and tomorrow I won’t be. And it’s just one of those things and it’s part of why you need to diversify and make sure that you can do everything behind the scenes too. But it’s just making sure that I always have a backup. I always have a backup. But having said that, that backup started before I even started as a freelancer because my mother also always said you could also just use your job tomorrow and then what? And you need to have a backup fund for at least a year. And that’s, that’s the starting point. That was … My mother’s very strict on that. So that’s starting point. So anything can happen and … But I’m glad that I could still go and do the freelance things and her and my dad, then never stood in my way. But those … That foundation was laid and it never changed.
Ruda: And the principle of independence.
Tracey: Yes. Yes.
Ruda: Taking responsibility and with that, building your independence. It sounds as if family is really important.
Tracey: Very much so. Very much so. My folks live in Somerset West. It’s 30 minutes away. I don’t get to see them often, but we talk on the phone often. My sister and her three kids – she’s the oldest nine years older than I am than I am. And it’s just lovely to always just catch up and hear what’s happening. And hear the funny stories from the kids, from my nephews and my niece. Family is everything. My father comes from a huge family. He’s the eldest of 13 and that’s always been good. We all have these Whatsapp groups and every now and then they play Noot Vir Noot, I mean it’s just the weirdest things you get home at the end of the day, it’s 400 messages and you’re … What happened in this group today and it was just a competition they did amongst each other. It is so much fun and family is … Family is everything to me. I’d be completely lost without them. They keep you grounded as well. They couldn’t care less about the rest, it’s like nice. Oh cool, lovely, but yeah, this is still Tracey. Remember back in the day when you walked around with a stick on your head. That’s still there
Ruda: And home? Where do you live and why did you choose that? You and Avukile moved in together about a year ago? It’s difficult to suddenly share a space.
Tracey: It is quite difficult, and at the time … But I think it also helped that at the time … It sounds weird if I say helped. At the time he was stuck in London, he had DVT, he had a blood clot and he couldn’t fly back because of all his traveling so he had to stay in London until all of that was sorted and then I ended up moving in and it was all of that …
Ruda: So, you got to choose the colours and the carpets …
Tracey: Oh no, that’s his baby. I said to him, that’s your job. You take care of that because he loves that. He’s a very creative … Got a great eye for detail and I left that in his hands, but moving all the things in that, that was my baby. But it was nice to kind of just have that space for myself for a little while and then when he came with was, oh, you just happened to be there and I think with us traveling as, as much as we do. This is separately for work, you constantly also have that space to yourself more often than not and I think both of us are just extremely respectful people. Like I, I just, he’s never in my way. I know I’m never in his way. I’d like to believe that I’m not in his way. There’s something very comfortable about our relationship and what happens there. Our home is our safe space. I’ve always wanted to live in the city in Cape Town and we found this beautiful place where we both walked in and we went this is it.
Ruda: A house? An apartment?
Tracey: An apartment. An 11th floor apartment, which we love.
Ruda: And what was it that, that made you made it click, that this was the right space? The view? The space?
Tracey: That’s the interesting thing … When I lived in Gardens, I had the view of the mountain and I liked that. I never thought I would love a view of buildings. So I walked into this place and there was just this view of buildings and I thought that’s interesting, but I like it there something New York about it. And I think that sold it for me. He looked at it and he, he came to me outside on the deck and he said to me, we need to put in an offer today. Put in an offer now. And I said, yes, I really like this place. I had a good feeling about it when he showed me the brochures, but he’d also taken care of that as well, so he was the one that sent me all the pictures of the places. I just go, cool. I’m very … I’m a very go with the flow kind of person. He’s the one that plans very much so and it just worked for us and we still love it. And it’s a year later now.
Ruda: Can you see yourself somewhere else apart from Cape Town?
Tracey: Oh yes.
Ruda: Like where?
Tracey: I would love someplace in Europe. I love Belgium. I also love Amsterdam. I’d like that.
Ruda: Why? What is it about Amsterdam that makes you say that?
Tracey: I think it’s the culture. I get the feeling … And, having said that, being on holiday is very different to living in a place. But I get the feeling just by watching people that when you, that they work, but they also make a lot of time to live. It’s almost kind of just, that’s just part of the lives. I like the safety aspects of it as well. Purely, like I said, I walk everywhere and everyone always asks me like, aren’t you scared something’s going to happen. And I’m not, but it’s always at the back of your mind, believe it or not, it is always there. And I loved … And I was in Amsterdam for the first time. My two friends and I, we fell asleep at the train station, because we were just a little bit too early for our tour that had to start. We fell asleep, it was 6:00 in the morning and when we woke up, everything, was there. Our cellphones, our bags. Everything. We were at the train station! Where does that happen? And I … Since then I’ve always just wanted … I keep going back. I just like the feel of it.
Ruda: So, do you think at some point you might want to live somewhere else for a year or two?
Tracey: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Amsterdam, definitely. If it comes my way I won’t say no, thank you. But then having said that, any other place that will have to come away and be like, okay cool, here’s is a great opportunity. I’m probably going to go ja, and then I’ll figure it out as I go along.
Ruda: But come back?
Tracey: Yes, I definitely will come back. And I don’t … I keep worrying now, especially with my folks being older, I don’t want to be too far from them either. So I don’t see it happening anytime soon, but if it does happen, I will go, but I will come back.
Ruda: Tracey, thank you so much. This has been a real pleasure.
Tracey: Thank you very much. It’s been good. Thank you.
Ruda: And go well, all the best with all your plans.
Tracey: Thank you.
Ruda: Okay. Until next time for us. Goodbye.
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