Time to make new nemories: A farewell to The Citizen’s Industria West office

After travelling the same road to work for the past 23 and a half years, Friday will be the last time I hop onto the N1 highway and head south towards The Citizen in Industria West.

This week, we are moving to Caxton’s Craighall office, having been stationed west of Joburg since the late ’90s.

If the walls could talk, there are so many great stories to tell… so many brilliant editions brought out over the years.

And, for me, it all started at 9 Wright Street.

As a previous editor once said: “If you take into account all the words from the different sections of the newspaper daily, we put out a small novel six days a week.”

I will never forget 9/11 – it feels like just the other day.

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Our chief sub at the time walked in and shouted “put the TV on, some idiot has just flown into the World Trade Centre”.

Moments later we learned it wasn’t an accident as a second plane flew into one of the Twin Towers.

To this day, I’ve never seen the newsroom buzz like that fateful day in 2001.

I’ll also never forget celebrating with colleagues in front of a makeshift big screen in the office when Bafana Bafana’s Siphiwe Tshabalala smashed the ball past the Mexican goalkeeper and into the net in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, as we all took a breather between putting out pages for the Saturday edition.

As much as things initially bother you, over time you learn to accept the good with the bad.

I don’t get as angry as I used to when negotiating my way around the disastrous Rea Vaya lane to get home during peak hour traffic.

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The traffic lights seldom work and there is very little consideration for the law as everyone pushes in and cuts corners.

I’ve learnt to contend with the many large trucks that seem to pick the worst moment to get stuck across the road as you are running late for a meeting.

Don’t even let me start on people that insist on driving down the wrong way in our street, nor the ill-timed loud noises from the factory next door just as you are starting an interview or meeting.

But that’s what makes the office your second home – good food at Augusta’s canteen, the friendly staff that greet you each day and the rare downtime with your colleagues during the night shift as you wait for the all clear for the first editions to print.

Change is always inevitable. It’s time to make some new memories.