Festive season, in this case, is the period a little before the big day - Christmas - plus the following days until a little after the new year.

Take, for instance, the 2009 new year’s day, falling on a Thursday which is right on the edge of the weekend. Most business will include the weekend into their as part of the festive season and will only officially open for business on Monday.

It is a global tendency that business(es) break off before a day or two before Christmas and only re-open a day or two after the new year celebrations. It is no different here either. As you can tell, so many days, staying at home - eating, drinking and going out to lots of shows organized in almost every entertainment centre, eventually puts a hole into my purse and there is no way to feel like you patching it up until work resumes.

I have looked at the most annoying reasons why this joyful period turns out to be a not so cheerful period.

1. Transport fares hike - not only do public transport fares go up 3 times during this period, but it is always a time fuel mysteriously goes out of stock. Everyone is on keen on making a profit from the miserable consumer the public transport chaps to the street trader. It is period when so many city dwellers make the long journey to enjoy a meal with the extended family several kilometers in the village.

2. Excessive human traffic - people of all sizes and shapes descend on the city flooding the shopping centers everywhere, blocking entrances and exits, huge and small in size. You never see such a high volume of people on any other day except during the festive season. These make move around of foot very uncomfortable. They keep crashing into you and some paths you walk literally in “air”

3. Dirty town - with a high volume of people moving about and shopping stuff, litter is almost everywhere and no matter how hard you try to avoid it, success is not normally on your side. It could be the only available must take to get out fast.

4. Pickpockets/thieves - these are having a field day at their “job”. They have mastered their craft that you do not feel your purse/pocket is being picked. They are everywhere especially in places where there are lots of squeezing. Some pretend to be street beggers in such areas but busy at making sure passersby are not keeping any money in their socks!

5. Food prices - extremely high! Of course, with increased public transport fares, food vendors too, raise value of their items and they top it off with a Christmas profit. The phrase “everything has gone up” has become an excepted phrase for the reasons why the above normal prices.

6. Traffic jams - Being a city dweller; vehicle traffic jams are not strange. In normal days, they let up after a couple of minutes or hours but during the festive season, they never do. Suddenly, it appears like everywhere there is a car and it is going in your particular direction. You cannot take a walk either as the streets are also so full of people moving in every direction, almost pushing against your car.

7. Working over time - Being a festive season with so many people buying and selling, your boss would want everyone to report extremely early and leave late so as to cash in on the festive season business boom. If you were work 8 hours before, this time around you work 16!

8. Fuel scarcity - Always during this festive season, fuel mysteriously gets exhausted the entire country over.

9. Being end of year, traders think people have lots of cash stashed away just to buy stuff during this period. Some items are so over-priced and very little discounts are offered regardless of what most people think.

10. Public transport within the city becomes uncertain. The public transport vehicles or “taxis” are eager to cash in on the lucrative long distance travel during this period. If you are not a car-owner, you could end up waiting 2 hours on the road for a public taxi to town 30 minutes drive away. To top up the misery, you must pay thrice your normal taxi fare!