Tag: new year

Day 646 – Hangover?

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I know that many people will be waking up with a hangover after the huge celebrations yesterday.

What they might have missed, during (or because of? lol) their festive boozing – is that it’s also the start of a New Year today. I don’t know why I capitalised New and Year like that. Maybe just that I suppose I would do that if I was starting a fresh sentence, having put a very large full stop at the end of 2021.

Wouldn’t that be great?

And who knows? Maybe there’s been a dramatic breakthrough that I don’t know about because I wrote this post in mid-December. I doubt it, but I forever live in hope.

Anyway, some Genpayne, a phat bacon butty on white bread, a thick double espresso, a sachet of rehydrate, a can of Red Bull and 2 litres of water* will have you up, running and ready to face 2022 in no time at all.

Happy New Year, everyone.

* I’m not a doctor

Day 281 – Best wishes

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Happy New Year!

We’re nowhere near through this yet. This frustrating, horrible virus has no concept that we have some arbitrary (yet significant) time frame ending this evening, and a new one beginning at midnight.

And so, our traditional new start at the start of the new year will not include an end to the horrendous news and numbers we are now used to seeing on a daily basis. Rather – locally, at least – we can expect more misery before we get to, and beyond, the peak of the second wave.

It will have been a different New Year for us. No friends, no family, no fireworks on Struisbaai beach. Curfewed at 9pm. No alcohol (apart from the local stash, which remains plentiful at this time, deity be praised).

Still, we can’t allow ourselves to be continually dragged down by things over which we have very limited control. And so, with that in mind, I’d urge you all to focus on finding the positives in every other area of your lives. Because those will be the things that help us to get through the rest of this other, all-pervading mess.

Have a very Happy New Year and thank you for reading 6000 miles… over the past 366 days.

May 2021 bring you – and everyone else – better things and happier times.

Day 280, part 2 – Grey dawn

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The last day of the 2020 has dawned and it’s cloudy and grey.

Usually, this would be of concern, given that the plan is to go and bring in the New Year with the traditional fireworks on Struisbaai beach.

However, this time around it will be less of a problem because the fireworks aren’t happening, the beaches aren’t open and we’re not allowed out after 9pm anyway.

And all that is aside from the fact that it really wouldn’t be a good idea to congregate there (or anywhere else) during a pandemic.

Not Ukraine

And so we’ll huddle around the braai to keep warm this evening and celebrate New Year with Western Kazakhstan instead of the Western Cape.

Day 280 – Rather be there

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I’d love to be allowed down there. Just look at it.

But that’s just for fishermen (Page 7, Part 10a) and people to whom the regulations don’t apply.

There is a path along the back of the dunes. Previously, I would have categorically stated that it was not part of the beach, but now, I’m less sure. Arbitrary lines again.

The fact is that we have to endure a rather miserable, limited holiday this year. And yet, we’re still much more fortunate than others. We’d do very well to remember that before complaining about not being allowed to sit on the sand.

If we’re careful, and if our luck holds out, we’ll be around to enjoy a much more traditional, fun-filled summer holiday next year.

Right now, my biggest gripe is with myself for not spending more on soundproofing the cottage. We have quite literally surrounded by loud Afrikaners playing alles van die grootste sokkie treffers for the last 5 days, with a seemingly neverending supply of dodgy brandewyn and their JBL doof doof speakers.

I’m being patient. I’m being diplomatic. I have even tried to embrace it. I understand that we all need that release at the end of this nightmare year. But that does include me as well.

And there’s no escape onto the beach this time around. Argh!

Low tide for tonight

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It’s always safer when the tide is low for New Year’s on Struisbaai beach.

Several thousand drunk Afrikaners with several (or more) fireworks each get quite concentrated when the tide is up, but I’ve checked and the first tide of the New Year is a low one at about 00:33.

That means that there will be plenty of beach to have fun on for the duration of the festivities.

I suppose that this is a good thing, but it will make it a whole lot less exciting than last year.