When I bought my house, the phrase un dem dorf was written across the original title deed. One of my neighbours told me that it was German, and meant ‘free from corruption or deformity’. A little research also unearths the obscure translation ‘to the cottage’ or ‘and the village’, which might suggest something more prosaic. My home, and the two adjoining ones, were occupied by three sisters in the late 1800s. Perhaps un dem dorf simply means that their three properties were regarded as one. But since the denotation seems so unclear, I prefer my neighbour’s explanation.

I searched Observatory for a month until I found the house. I walked through the gate, and knew it was mine. There was a frangipani: my mother’s tree. Then, a Pride of India: my grandmother’s favourite. It was raining at the time, but I felt instantly connected. I felt famous.

On that show-day, one of the tenants was playing the piano inside. He was an actor from a TV show called Kompleks. He seemed like a Knight to me; powerful, insouciant, attractive. (On reflection, maybe he was a little quixotic, too.)

Over the next few weeks, the universe sent me multiple people who were attached in some way to my house. My friend and business partner, Eugene, and his boyfriend had suggested I go see it in the first place; then I found out a client’s daughter was also a tenant in the house. One of Eugene’s clients spotted some of her furniture in the estate agent’s sales brochure. ‘That’s my fridge!’ Someone I know met her husband in the same road. A couple I met knew the previous owner, who was also a friend of mine! (I had never been to his house.) The landlord of my salon premises informed me that he and his father had once owned all the houses in the street… and so it went on. In total, I counted nine people who had some kind of connection to my new home. Completion. Kompleks!

The centrepiece of Um Dem Dorf is a mourning brooch, traditionally worn as a display for a departed loved one. It reminds me of my (lost) Knight.

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Photography: Russel Smith / Text: Jonathan Bain