The festive season is those simmery summery holidays which one and all look ever so forward to; family all around, delicious food, a break from the hustle and bustle of school and work and purely a time to relax and party. Unfortunately we forget the darker side of this oh so merry time; family and relationship drama. Throughout the year you miss your siblings and parents so much and romance between you and your partner is at its optimum that you just can’t wait.
Then comes the big “F” and suddenly you realize that life alone in the city might not be so bad. The first week or so are absolute bliss, it’s late nights of “Did you know...?” in the kitchen and sniggers all-round. You wonder how you will manage ripping yourself from your sisters, brothers and cousins, life is so much better when the family is all together. Not to mention the pain at your side and abundant “I love you’s” at missing your partner. You can’t get enough of each other on the phone, you talk about all the things you plan on doing when you’re together again and lah de lah.
All is well on planet holiday until week three comes up. Suddenly everything that grated your nipples about your family comes waltzing to your doorstep. Your spoilt and lazy younger brother is still the same old prick who gets his way, all day. The chores start piling up on your side when there’s a house full of people, it becomes your duty to cook, clean, feed everyone else’s children while their mothers are around simply because you belong to the group labelled the “youngest”, which in African culture means the bunch that should do everything. On top of that, the fight you had with your sister during the year lies await in the ice bucket, tucked snuggly with the crisp bottle of Sauvignon Blanc you're having. Then, boom, when the happy fairy from the winery whizzes merrily in your system, you hear a subtle but catty remark about what you “did to me!”.
The love of your life suddenly stops answering your calls on weekends, calls you at awkward hours of the morning with anything but a straight voice, can’t seem to fully account for his whereabouts while music blares in the background. Every issue you worked on during the year and beautiful tear-wrenching make up session you had comes crumbling down on you as you see that nothing has changed! Then square one is right back where you are. Need I say more?
Now you are stuck in drama land and your feet and luggage just can’t wait to board that bus back to Joburg. You wonder how you will survive the next few weeks with your sanity still intact and how booking a therapy session at the nearest practice might not be such a bad idea. The extra roll you’ve developed around a now abundant waist-line starts telling you that gym, which you will probably only go to for the first three weeks of January, is now fully due. You swim and weave through this never-ending miasma of iFesteeve , emotions running high. The 1st of January is on the horizon and now you have to leave in a few days.
Then, like a light bulb moment, it dawns on you how much you are going to miss the squealing of your nieces, your demanding and neurotic aged grandmother, the laughter in the kitchen fuelled by umgosi and dramatic stories about the line of dogs your sisters dated, your mother’s voice as she nags you about the wrong way you’ve closed the curtains, the wonder at the copious amounts of tea that one household can consume and most importantly the love that has kept you all together. You are already counting down the months till you get to do it all over again
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