The good and the bad of 2023

Wow! Didn’t this year just fly… I, for one, am glad to see the back of this year – 2023 was perhaps the most challenging year of my life.

It started with the lovely Snapdragon developing a life-threatening condition which necessitated a dangerous operation.

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I was confronted with the finality of death in a family such as ours, and the many hours spent in front of the mirror was life-changing.

She survived, but the malfunctioning hands and the never ending pain is a constant reminder of just how fleeting the structures are that we see as permanent.

Workwise, the challenges were huge. Financially I had to pull my belt in. I battled with my health…

There were also good things happening in 2023. I became a grandfather. Egg, the apple of my eye, went to “big school” when she started grade one.

But overall, I can’t be more relieved to see this terrible year passing. Next year will be great, I’m sure… Of course the pressure took its toll.

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I’ve always seen myself as above being involved in parking lot incidents – something I’ve always considered as Snapdragon’s domain.

Yesterday alone, I have been pivotal in three parking lot arguments. While doing my Christmas shopping, I took a wide turn to manoeuvre into a particularly tricky parking spot.

A bossy woman – judged by her looks she will be described as a Karen – shouted at me: “In this country we drive on the left side of the road!” I exploded.

I explained to her, in language that cannot be repeated in a good publication such as The Citizen, that we were in a parking lot, not on a public road.

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That nobody appointed her as a metro police assistant. And that I seriously doubt her intelligence. On my way home, I had words with a parking lot assistant when my parking ticket didn’t work.

And that evening, I had an argument with a taxi driver at my local supermarket because he insisted on parking in a bay reserved for people with disabilities.

I think I won those little battles, but I have lost the war. Those incidents were mere symptoms of the fact that 2023’s pressure had made me a jerk.

I’ve got work to do on myself in 2024…

Dear reader, may you all have a terrific festive season. And may you avoid conflict in any form. Particularly in parking lots.