1981 was my first trip to North America. My brother decided he was paying too much tax and would emigrate to another English speaking country. Australia was on the cards; but in the end he moved to Toronto.

He was in a nice rented flat in Forest Hills area. He bought a phone from the stores at a time when Brits were still obliged to rent the apparatus from BT. He had more 'discretionary' income and seemed to be enjoying himself. Toronto was nice and shiny and clean with a good public transport system. I was impressed that Summer with how everybody was out and about enjoying themselves jogging, rollerskating etc. Then I heard you were cooped up in Winter. The bus stopped every 200 yards and you had to sit in your car and let it warm up for 5 minutes before you drove off. You had to wear a hat called a 'tuke' or you would freeze.

We went to a rodeo and people put their hand on their heart during the national anthem. Tony Bennet was singing 'I left my heart in San Francisco' in some other fair we walked through. The brother got cars from 'Rent a Wreck' but I was disappointed that they did not have vicious, big fins. Toronto was multicultural in a way that London was not. We had big numbers from a limited number of countries. They had Eastern Europeans. Walk down one street past Hungarian and Italian places and there was an Orange Lodge. There was an area called China Spadina.

The brother moved out to Brampton into a place with one of those basements that North American houses seem to have. He had a couple of Canadian born children which meant something called a 'baby shower' for his wife. She never settled in Canada as she was a home bird and missed her family. The brother loved it. Eventually he had an opportunity working for a Canadian company in London and that covered the cost of returning. They never saw anything of Canada apart from Toronto.

I went up to Quebec. I did not do too much clothes shopping though I got an Arrow half sleeve and the brother mentioned Florsheim shoes.

I also flew into New York La Guardia and stayed in Manhattan which was noisy and hectic and just the sort of experience you could understand driving all those Jack Lemon characters round the bend. I could never imagine living or working there. I met my cousin in Manhattan and my aunt in Queens. My aunt had a sofa covered in see through plastic.

^ Also known as 'rising intonation' a habit many British youngsters have adopted after watching Australian soap operas. Better than faux Jamaican patois innit ?

'Is Jamaica in the European Union?'

'No'.

'Is that racist?'

As reported in Tony Benn's diaries.  Well worth a read.

'81 - I was 33, and had returned to the UK after three years living in a beach house in New Providence, Bahamas.  Financed my way through a Masters degree in the UK Midlands - about as far as you can possibly get from a beach in the UK.  Got married in Scotland that year, but my father-in-law didn't make the wedding despite paying for it.  I guess he knew it wasn't going anywhere - I was only 11 weeks into the marriage when I discovered my wife was having 'an affair'.  Divorce laws were much tougher back then - about the only grounds for divorce within 5 years of marriage was 'mental cruelty' so I filed under that - and succeeded.  Severely strapped for cash so my wardrobe was cheap and very modest.  Didn't drop in to see JS or John Lally - I couldn't stand the thought of admiring the stuff and not being able to buy, so I hung onto the few remaining OCBDs in my closet and one last pair of wine coloured tassled loafers that I had purchased there when times were better.  I was listening to Tower Of Power from Oakland CA - We Came To Play, Back on the Streets, etc.  There was just a handful of us at that time in the UK that knew about them.  Making more people aware and open their ears to East Bay Soul was a personal crusade for me in '81.  I ended up that year working in Malawi in Africa - the dawn of AIDS was breaking.