Simon Need has a secret. That he won’t share with us. Yet. The secret has to do with the reason he decided to come and live in Mauritius. The Welshman is otherwise not very secretive about the rest of his life. In between spurts of laughter and intense seriousness bordering on passion, Simon takes us to Wales and back…

His passion is above all for his country. “I am a Welsh and I will remain a Welsh regardless of the fact that I have made a conscious choice to move away from my home forever and ever.”

In 1993, when Simon came on holiday to Mauritius for the first time, he was astounded; he never expected beauty of this kind. Oh! but he is not talking about the island, he’s talking about his… wife! It is the stuff Mills and Boons novels are made of. A Welshman on holidays, who goes clubbing and meets a girl in a discotheque. The next day, they go for their first date at Café de la Plage… and the rest is history! So says the man at any rate. I didn’t get a chance to meet Véronique, his wife…

The couple got married ten years ago and have been living in Wales since. Until the day Simon got home one evening at 21h 30, looked at his wife whom he hadn’t seen for over twelve hours and decided that was it: “ I mean, what do you want in life? To make money and have no life at all?” asks Simon, his eyes glinting.

And because Simon had his secret plan that needed implementing, he decided that he would go and live in Mauritius with his family because he needed to be happy, because he needed the challenge… because he simply needed time to live instead of just exist.

Simon, his wife and their dog came over. They are happy. But the man is a bit restless, you see; his secret won’t be a secret soon! Do you have any idea how frustrating it was to sit with a man and his brother for over an hour and they both keep talking about their “big secret” with stars in their eyes and they refuse to give you any hint? The closest was “It will help Mauritius a lot. It has to do with new technology.” So I am none the wiser.

Simon met most of his friends while he was visiting his “baby”- dog while he was on quarantine for… “for six months, can you imagine?” Mr Need was so outraged at what was happening to his baby, he started campaigning… and now the quarantine period has been reduced to one month!” So, animal lovers, you may thank Simon Need for this good deed! And I am not trying to make words rhyme…

Seeing that Simon has fully settled in his new home, I thought I’d check if he likes the food… “Yeah! it’s great but I have to admit it takes a while to adjust to it… I have lost 20 kg since I’ve been here by the way” and he bursts out laughing! You really cannot hold the fact that he’d rather starve himself than eat our food against our Simon. He loves everything else about the place. Well… almost…

Simon has a younger brother, Tim, who is in the secret of the Gods… and he has promised to tell us more about it… Next week!

Till then…