Well another new year has come and gone with little or no noticeable change and as usual the 1st of January was filled with more hangovers and resolutions than a meeting of the Afrikaner Broederbond. Luckily when one starts to sober up stupid decisions like choosing to give up smoking go out the window with the exhalation of the first empowering drag. Resolutions to quit are for those that have a problem. Now that the MDMA has been taken, the balloons have been inhaled and the crustys have limped their way down Sir Lowry’s pass back to the Mother City it is time look forward at what the citizens of our fair city can expect. New Year’s Eve is too often the most overrated party of the year, often weeks of planning and tickets bought months in advance will fall through due to a misunderstanding, a falling out, or a misplaced earing. Whatever causes it is irrelevant, many a New Year’s Eve count down has been spent on the couch watch washed up Top Billing presenters slugging warm JC Le Roux out of the bottle, bitter and resolving to find new friends and a less observant girlfriend during the year ahead.
Now however that is all over and as citizens of the finest city on the planet we are obliged to ask what next, what does 2012 have in store for us. As children of the Mother City we are spoiled and thus always expecting constant stimulation and amusement, so you will forgive me for looking at what 2012 has to offer me, from political mudslinging to all night parties. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this year.
The development on the city facing side of Lion’s Head is bound to make the headlines eventually. For those who have spent the festive season gazing out towards the ocean the Lion’s Head development is a complex of flats which unsurprisingly has been met with much contention. Through some political skulduggery they seem to have managed to get plans passed by excluding certain parts of the development deemed environmentally unfriendly, when in fact the entire development is ecologically unsound and flies in the face of everything Cape Town development stands for. By agreeing to not go ahead with the section of the complex that causes the most concern the developers are making themselves look very sanctimonious when in fact they have more to gain by scrapping one section to build the rest. One can’t help but wonder if there was some crafty sandbagging going on.
Talking of politics, well I’m not going to even try and make predictions about the political landscape in Cape Town for the coming year. It’s a landscape that changes more often than the desert on a windy day. I have only one hope for Mother City politics for 2012, that there are no major changes. Not because I am particularly enamoured with the current powers that be but because I am not sure I can handle the excitement of anymore change. Mostly though I hope, no I pray that the ban on the political blue light brigade will remain in force.
So here’s to a great year for all of you that live the Cape Town lifestyle, where ever you may be.
