Is it just me or are well all really struggling to get off the couch in this first week of 2022? My daughter Ava tells me that getting off the couch after watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S all afternoon is like trying to pull a plaster off. You know you need to, but it’s painful.

I feel her.

On Monday morning I had to remind myself several times to go to my desk and switch on the laptop. That’s that sleek grey electronic device that is next to my mouse and collection of pens and highlighters. Yup, you open the screen, wait… ok there it is, the login screen. Thank goodness it’s a fancy fingerprint login laptop otherwise I’d have run into problems. Which would have been the closest I would have been to running all week.

It’s not like I’m not well rested. I am.
I mean I’ve barely seen any friends all holiday. (Sorry friends!) At one point I didn’t even leave the couch for so long my watch logged it as a sleep and gave me stats on my sleep cycles. WTF. I didn’t even make it for the Mauritian New Year’s countdown never mind South Africa.

It’s not like the kids are even that distracting. They aren’t.
Yes. I also read it. I wrote that. Please oh please don’t let lightening strike down and turn the kids feral. If that’s even a thing but knowing my luck it will happen.

It’s not like I don’t have a tan. I do. I’m still trying to figure that one out considering the stingy offering of sunny days so far this Summer. Maybe my high dark chocolate “cocoa” consumption has a surprising benefit of darker skin tone in addition to making me happy?

So this begs the question.. why am I finding it hard to motivate my mojo in MMXXII?

Herewith are my top 5 excuses….

1

Past Trauma
I could be suffering PTSD from last year where I was all fired up and rearing to go, begging for school and work to start so that things can get back to “normal” only for it to catastrophically collapse with the explosion of the 2nd? 3rd? Wave? Stage? Level? Resulting in the commencement of the kids return to school AFTER Valentine’s Day. February! FFS.
So I think it’s quite plausible to not feel amped as you just don’t know what could happen or what new Greek lettered viral variant our stellar South African scientists may discover. A side note – Why can’t we be great at other world firsts like renewing drivers licences online? #justsaying. oh it’s been done already? By quite a lot of other countries you say? Oh. Right. Okay.

2

Poorly allocated Public Holidays
The holidays fell on both weekends this year creating chaos with our calendars. Which meant that the first “working” day after New Years was essentially the first working day of the new year. Stick with me on this. Surely that shouldn’t be allowed? I feel robbed of weekday public holidays in a way. And the sushi place which is usually open 7 days a week every week, all the time was closed. Dammit.

3

Improper leave planning .
I staggered my leave in an on/ off pattern for various reasons which sounded very logical at the time I booked it but now it’s causing havoc with my mojo. I had a week off at the start of the December period. Then back at the desk the following week. Then off again between Christmas and New Year’s – however long that was. Then back at my desk. Then next week when everyone else is back in action I’m off on a pre booked beach holiday. Ummm what was I thinking? Maybe Murphy’s Law dictates that because Inland provinces are back at school, Durbs will be bright and sunny?

4

Everyone has covid.
Or everyone thinks that they may have covid. Maybe I have covid? Maybe it’s a tummy bug. That used to be a thing. Or food poisoning? Who knows? Just the thought of thinking you may have omicron or delta is enough you make your throat tighten, your head ache and suddenly need to just lay down a minute. Or is that just me?

5

Proceeding with caution.
Perhaps Covid had changed things and maybe we are all just slowly cracking opening the door to this new year optimistically yet cautiously with no sudden moves. We don’t want to wake up 2022 too early and make it grumpy?

Nobody wants that.