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Goodbye 2013!

So today we’ll bid farewell to the year in which my motherland hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons. The year in which boy wonder Gabadinho Mhango’s popularity played second fiddle to fellas such as Paul Mphwiyo and Osward Lutepo. The year in which the most common word was ‘cashgate’ that even a team at Misuku Hills in Chitipa adopted it as their name.

Tonight, we will say goodbye to the year in which netballer Laureen Ngwira had to undergo three pregnancy tests—nkhanza kwa amayi! Goodbye to the year in which ‘Gaba’ had five different ages—17 today, 21 tomorrow, 19 the other day, then 22 a couple days later and then 20. Goodbye to the year in which we got a wiseman from east called Tom Saintfiet who pledged to take us to the promised land in the name of a volunteer. So difficult was his name that others called him simply ‘Safintra’.

All good things must come to an end ladies and gentlemen and we have to bid farewell to the year in which Sir Alex Ferguson retired after a very successful spell with Manchetser United and left us with memories of chewing bubblegum.

By the way, after quite sometime, I bumped into my tyre-fitter friend called Gama last week and he, too, acknowledged that this season was quite exciting saying: “Ndipo olo matimu amene awapanga regulation aja, anayesesa”.

Well, we say adieu to the year in which a fan Lemiyasi Josita died at Balaka Stadium when violence reared its ugly head again on a day we were supposed to celebrate a season which set high standards in terms of competition that was on offer and the overall entertainment package, we explored our fantasies. Let’s spare a thought for Lemiyasi who left behind a wife and one-month-old baby.

We also lost our sports personalities such as Chikondi ‘Doctor’ Banda and Kenneth Kandulu. Let’s spare a thought for them. On a personal note, I lost my dearest brother Chaonaine Mkandawire, my cousin Glory Harawa, my grandpa Benson Chirwa and my colleague Liz Banda, whom we fondly called each other ‘neighbour’—RIP.

There were also joyous times and my colleagues Peter Kanjere, Cliff Kawanga, George Mhango, Chikondi Chiyembekeza and Kondwani ‘Tadeyo’ Kamiyala started a new lease of life by getting hitched and they no longer play ‘hockey’—congratulations once again dudes! As we say goodbye to 2013, lets toast to 2014; can’t wait to dance to the hit songs Azonto and ‘Personally! Glory be to God! Uloliwe.. Uloliwe wayidudula hi..Nang’esiza! [The train is pushing!]

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