To all intents and purposes, the festive season is over. Another year with its expected twists and turns, starts in earnest on Monday. It is time maybe to reflect on what the festive season has meant to us over the years.

A sporting accident prevented me from a sporting event I would have given anything to attend last week.

This happened on a Monday evening. I had gone for my usual game of squash — please don’t say again—when it happened. We were on the last game, and despite my vow to take things easy on the court, my competitive spirit took over. I went for a ball I should not have gone for and crowded my opponent in the process. He also wanted the point (badly?) and tried to hit the ball when he should have held back.

General Olusegun Obasanjo took one of his protégées, Dr Goodluck Jonathan to the cleaners in an 18- page missive last week.

Curiosity they say kills the cat. Yet curiosity is a major attribute to good journalism. I often hide my curiosity, or need to know as I quaintly put it, under this guise. So when Cornelius Tay, an old friend, invited me to the funeral of his mother in Ghana, I felt it was an opportunity to know how the other side handles funerals.

I often wonder how lucky Igbinedion feels anytime he goes around Benin City and sees the difference a fellow human being has made in five years; something he didn’t— or couldn’t—do in eight.

Armed robbers visit your house, spending over three harrowing and traumatic hours with you and your family. Young men who are not older than your first child, or who, given their scruffiness, could easily be your mechanic or house boy slap you around and kick your butt if you are tardy in obeying their rapid fire instructions.

Jones Usen, a popular broadcaster with the FRCN at a time, and self styled ‘man with the golden voice’ called the golden eaglets the beautiful ones after their exploits of 1985 in far away Asia. Those young boys dazzled and glittered in China and made our heads swell with pride as they delighted the world with skilful and purposeful football. In celebrating our moments of euphoria, Jones had declared ‘the beautiful ones have now been born’.

A joke went viral in the early days of the GSM which read: ‘What is it that starts at the neck, slides through the breasts, caresses the belly button, and moves across the thighs? It’s not what you think. It is a seat belt!’

I missed the many ‘interesting photographs and comments’ on our President’s trip to Israel. The reason is simple. I am a dinosaur when it comes to the latest developments in IT and the social media.

The Moderates Club honoured one of its own last week when it hosted Oba Michael Adedotun Gbadebo to a 70th birthday lunch.