When we normalise something it becomes less taboo. For many, many years we have associated alcohol with a rip roaring good time. We commit the unfortunate events that happen after the abuse of alcohol as the anomaly but the negative effects are more usual than an anomaly. I talk about my own experiences with alcohol and the decisions I have come to. This is also the last episode in this iteration and in a few weeks a changed up version will be published on this and other platforms. Stay tuned to the Cape Flats King Facebook and Insta pages for more details. Thank you for listening.

I have been fortunate to be exposed to opportunities for growth this year. I am grateful for this. It has also taken the podcast into a new direction as a I attempt to do this on my own for a while, inviting different collaborators. I talk about staying true to your core values and how change is perhaps the greatest gift you can be presented with. I am grateful to go through this life with these tools and please know that I do not expect validation from anyone but it is a way for me to document my state of mind as I grow older and if it helps you, then praise the architect for great blessings.

Peter Smit has been a friend to me from a paralell universe. When we met we understood each other and there is not much we can do that will upset the other. A loyalty born from a shared experience of pain and trauma and though we all suffer trauma in one way or another because our exposure to life and the tribulations thereof is different from one to the other, we must all visit the shores of tears and anger to cleanse ourselves from that which seeks to destroy us. That which lives inside of us. My conversation with Peter is just that, a conversation when you arrive at your personal left of bang!

I met Bboy Duanne when he was still in high school. I was instrumental in getting him to join Black Noise. He would move on to become one of the most important figures in South African Breakdance and has cemented his place in that history. I am grateful to have toured and spent time with him, doing fantastically creative things from recording the Rotational High Album to getting drunk at a party we were not invited to. We sit down to talk, 15 years after sharing the stage with each other.

The year comes to a close and the brake on this 2023 buggy just failed. The Rev has been out of it for two weeks and I am calling it done for 2023 also. We will start up in January 2024 again. But as the year careens to head first into a Mariah Carey Christmas song, I feel the need to touch on some important points. For school leavers the ugly truths of what awaits them cannot be understated and I mention this to scare the shit out of them. And as I started this new venture with my wife, which is unlike any other business I have started because it relies on marketing, I discovered an odd phenomenon. It has been coined, by me, as appraisal denial. Not hitting the like button on someone else doing a good job because you feel it will steal from you. Or, you don't want someone else to be validated in the hopes that they may fail, making you feel okay about your own failures or inactions. This is not the best strategy for success. You have to be bold enough to try and failure is not a measure of your ability.

I have had the pleasure of using some really useful bits of gear and in this episode I speak about some of the practical pieces I have in my EDC and why I find them useful. In trying to remain unspoilt by the consumer agenda, I feel what I acquire must have multiple uses and must improve my life and the lives of those around me. Please listen as I explain what those items have been this year. Enjoy.

Well we made it, almost. Some of us have scars and others or dragging ourself across the line. But we must still be aware of our environment. We must still stay safe and keep our families safe so here is some things to think about. How do we keep aware this December? When we leave the house we take it for granted that we will be safe and coming home as we left. Sometimes that doesn't happen and this episode talks about getting back home.

Maintaining a state of humbleness is essential to your self awareness. Excess hubris overshadows our incremental spiritual and mental health gains. As I get older I prepare myself, mentally for a time when I am no longer there. This all has to do with my objective and subjective relevance. For how long will I be relevant? Will I be relevant long after I am gone or will I start to die while I am still alive? Most importantly how can I affect the way in which I will see my end? Will my excessive life be the cause of great agony and pain in my final days or will I be fit for the coming of the end. Perhaps morbid topics but if you are uncomfortable speaking about it then you have not matured enough for many topics you should engage before you even speak of your own mortality. This episode is necessary for middle aged men!

It seems that we like to argue. We love to be opposed to something. We can call it virtue signaling or just being difficult but the path to understanding each other is through discourse. It is not through anger. Rev and I have a heartfelt conversation about the times that we live in and our lack of ability to manage our mental health or to be able to direct accurate and appropriate responses to challenges. This episode is is unedited!

The older I get the more I realize I must invest into my own mental health. Because the older I become, I realize that a questioning reliance of providence is less likely in these times, and no one will invest in my spiritual and mental health because everyone is so self involved. Creativity helps us to find the quiet places in our mind where sense and logic resides. But a logic according to us. There is such a thing and it has value.