This section contains my life condensed down into three pages. Click the "NEXT" button at the bottom right of each page to view the subsequent page.
Before My Time
My father fled Hungary in 1956 after having participated in the revolution against the Soviet occupation of Hungary. Ten years later, these ex-revolutionaries were allowed to return to Hungary without fear of persecution, and it was then that my father met my mother. I was made in Hungary, and my father bought my mother over to Canada after the wedding in Hungary. I had my first plane ride six months after conception while still in her womb. I did not fly again until the age of 11.
The Early Years
My name is Thomas and I was born in Toronto, Canada in 1968 A.D. Since my mother spoke no English whatsoever, I learned to speak Hungarian fluently before heading off to kindergarten. It was here where I started to learn this strange language called English. To this day I can vividly recall the difficulties I had at ages five and six years, being amongst people that spoke a language I didn't understand. Not having any brothers or sisters made it even more difficult to cope, but I managed. I learned to speak English with no accent whatsoever, and to this day I still speak, read and write Hungarian fluently.
I can't believe this was me
The Elementary School Years
I continued through primary school with better than average grades, although I will admit I was never at the top of the class. I found school very boring, but a necessary evil. I was never one of the popular kids, but I always had one or two very good friends with whom we would stand apart from the rest.
In 1979 when I was ten years old, my parents divorced, and I stayed with my father in Toronto for two years. After that I moved to Ottawa to live with my mother and her new partner. It is Ottawa that I have called home since then.
Young and blonde.
Moving to a New Neighbourhood :The Interest to Explore New Areas is Awakened at Age 11
When I was eleven years old, our family moved from an apartment building in Toronto where I grew up, to a house further away from the city centre. It was the first time I found myself in unfamiliar surroundings. Curiosity about my new neighbourhood eventually got the best of me, so after school I would take my 10-speed bicycle and go exploring a new area each evening. Eventually I found myself traveling to new neighbourhoods, some of them 2 or 3 kilometers away. My parents would have had a heart attack if they knew how far from home I would stray.
My hometown of Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario. Picture copyright Mr. Roelof Mol Jr.
Moving to a New City at Age 13: Like Discovering a New Country
At the age of thirteen I moved to Ottawa, 400km from Toronto to go live with my mother. Being in a totally new environment, the curiosity to explore became stronger than ever. I decided I to explore around my new Ottawa neighbourhood using my bicycle, just like I had done in Toronto, but his time I took a more planned approach. I bought an Ottawa map, divided it into several zones using a black marker pen, and put it up on my wall in my bedroom. Each week I would spend a few evenings after school in one particular zone and the following week, I would concentrate on a new zone, farther away from home. I logged a lot of kilometers on that bicycle, and got to know all the back alleys and secret areas in my corner of the city.
Ottawa, my new city and new home. Picture copyright Robert Agnel
