Christmas 2023

He had been in a gloomy, despondent, unpredictable mood all-day and he knew his wife and children had tiptoed warily around him. He busied himself in the garage sorting the shelves, rearranging items, taking them down, and putting them back, in exactly the same place. His wife had been busy inside making cookies and cupcakes with her two young helpers. It was Christmas Eve, 2023, a time for peace on earth and goodwill to all.

It had been quite the year, a new variant of Covid had emerged and the country was in lockdown restrictions once again, inflation was running at 15% annually, his five-year mortgage at 1.6% had matured and he had renewed for one year at 10.5% and as if it couldn’t get any worse Russia had launched a tactical nuclear strike on Ukraine in anger as…