INCH by inch we edge towards 2008, the year in which all our troubles will be as wisps of mist and our bank accounts will mount like a Mars-bound rocket. Well … in your dreams, as they say. But we can try picturing the coming year as being better than its predecessor – providing we take positive action to make that pleasant vision come true.
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DOESN’T it get your goat when authority strikes right at Christmas and makes life ever more burdensome? First, we had a certain energy provider hell-bent on stranding most of us at home unable to afford suddenly increased fares; then Christmas was a signal for wall-to-wall power failures in many areas. Whee!
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GOODS in the retail stores have never been so expensive; many products increased by up to 25% immediately prior to Christmas. Of course, we all understand that’s the cost of living in a country with a burgeoning economy, as the Government never fails to tell us – but where are the price inspectors?
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NEXT, a visa to the USA will cost just under K400 from Jan 1 – “the first increase in visa-application fees since 2002,” the US embassy hastens to assure us. No wonder the good old US of A is the world’s wealthiest country (after Brunei, of course).
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WE see no earthly reason why a stamp in your passport (for which you’ve already paid an arm and a leg) shouldn’t be free. And of course, the length of time taken by the world’s civil servants to process visas is the stuff of legend.
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SO you think your word power is on a par with that of the literati, do you? Right then, here’s a festive season challenge for you. How many of you experienced borborygmus after Christmas dinner? Sadly, one of our friends suffered from a deep cut to his hallux after stepping on some cullet following an uproarious celebration with his friends.
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SO give it a go – a quick end of the year e-mail to deenesenolis@hotmail.com could result in you squeezing into our list of the 2007 Column One immortals.
Cheers on the last Friday of the year!
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– Dee Nesenolis