Can someone explain to me how we managed to have twice as many periods of load shedding in 2007 and it was all put down to a faulty nut in a nuclear reactor (he has since been fired!) and yet no one mentioned at that time that the continents worst case of business planning was just beginning to show itself?

Remember that lovely advert with Eskom lighting up the world, a dreamy shot from outer space as Eskom our powerhouse, our trusted 1st World Style energy producer not only powered up the whole of SA, but the whole of Africa. Well it seems that they may still be powering the rest of Africa because they have long term contracts and commitments, what does that say about their attitude to us their domestic CLIENTS!

In the 90’s I wrote an article that appeared in the Weekend Argus each week called Money Talks. It was not meant to be hi brow just a snippet of news from overseas, a nibble of info on the FTSE and tit bits from the Dow. The point is that I once used the term BOURSE when describing an overseas exchange and I remember even then feeling a bit of a pompous prat, especially as the only bourse is really the CAC and lets face it, CAC just about sums up the word BOURSE, it’s so twee and knowing!

I mention this only as one of SA’s strangest TV channel’s, Summit, seems to have become addicted to the word. Once a day Sky News go to Summit TV, for an update on the African Markets. Suddenly an Asian girl with an American accent was speaking from Johannesburg, very cosmopolitan I thought, if not exactly politically correct. She then went on to enter the Guinness Book of Records by using the word BOURSE six times in approximately 45 seconds! I thought I was going to gag on it!

Sometimes in life you just feel good about something. You just know in your heart and soul if something will be good, bad or indifferent. It steers us in and out of relationships, it directs us, at times, that hard-to-define “feel good” factor.

The year 2008 has that feel to me and hopefully, without tempting fate, I say it looks like it will be a good year.

It appears to be a good year to discard baggage and things that make me feel uncomfortable – and I am not talking of my clothing straining under the pressure of a Christmas and New Year well eaten!