The New Year is here-2008

The New Year is upon us. Reveling, drunkenness, brawling, accidents....etc will give us a break at least until the next summer festivities.

The sun has been continually burning like fire for the past three weeks. If global warming is anything to go by, I wonder how hot it will be in the next five to ten years. At least the intervention of rain yesterday night and this morning gave us a much needed intervention albeit temporarily.

Johannesburg aka Jozi, the former city of gold (has lost its golden touch, although optimists may find this to be disputable), was quieter for the past two weeks. Obviously the noise of traffic, people going to and fro will pick up gradually from next week. I've seen people, young and old, alighting from taxis and buses with bags.

As for me, I'm going to miss all the serenity which had visited itself on the streets as over the past few weeks.

Since 1994 the Johannesburg Central Business District has become a slum. The street corners smell of urine. Shops carry on business during the day and at night they are used as lodgings. Before 1994 there were not so many foreigners, legal and illegal, selling fake clothes, cigarettes, drugs, buying fake Identity Documents. I have nothing against foreigners but what I can say is that they have changed the face of Johannesburg, and South Africa too. And most have done so in a negative way.

I spent mine own New Year's day reading David Copperfiled and analyzing short stories for my critiques to the Internet Writing Workshop.

This year is "The year of the writer" for me. At least I must complete my novel which I started 2 years ago and never moved beyond chapter one. I had no confidence that I would complete it and beyond that get it to be published.

But then I've resolved that for now, nothing is important than completing this whodunit. Everything else will follow after, whether I get it published or not is not of paramount importance now. The thrill of writing a novel, even if unpublished, will be enough to set me to rest peacefully. I also want to enter Nanowrimo (the National Novel Writing Month in November) this year with a determination to make it beyond the finish line.

Furthermore, I want to be a better writer by writing more often and on various topics. I want to try sports writing, scripts, drama and essays. This will help stretch my imagination and help me get exposure to different kinds of writing.

Another piece of significant writing is my journal. Over the past 18 months I have neglected my journal writing after a 13 year endeavour. This was after my girlfriend went through my journals and unearthed every bit of my life that I though no one but me was entitled to. I was distraught. I then decided to write my journal on the computer and save it with a password. At least now I'm back at my old labour.

Further, I want to continue to study for a law degree, or maybe switch to an honours in English Literature. This year I want to cut on social life, if any, in order to read and write more.

I want to give Lesego, my preemie baby girl who will be turning a year on the 22nd of January 2008, all my love. Her mom, Shadi, will be turning 30 tomorrow and I hope we will have a lovely small birthday party for her.