It could be a post COVID thing, but lately, the changing times are just rolling together in a big homogenous blur like so many paint-mixing videos on Instagram.
Ever since we ground to a halt almost four years ago (yep, 2020 was actually that long ago) and eventually re-opened for business in October nearly two years ago (and yep, lockdowns ended that long ago), it seems that time moves so fast and so slow all at once that we're left in a tail-spin.
Now, 2023 is done and dusted, and I'm wondering if I'm the only person who feels like I'm living in a timeline that makes less sense than a Christopher Nolan flick.
So 2023 was the year the early 2000s became cool again. It was the year when the kids started talking about the '90s like they were some distant historical century that happened more than 20 years before most of them were born (wait ...) and conveniently laid claim to all the best bits of the three decades that came before while ignoring all the tragic denim-on-denim.
It was the year of weird turns, big headlines, and wild yarns, yet the dial on the status quo didn't shift much.
Labor swept to an historic state election victory in March, colouring the entire mainland red, but in the Hunter's Labor-stronghold the results weren't all that surprising.
After filing a last report on election night, I remember wandering down Hunter Street for a nightcap at the Rum Diary Bar (soon to be closed and re-opened as Charlie's Rooftop), past The Family Hotel (soon to be sold in November after eight years in business) and Subo (soon to be repossessed in September).
It was the year the Cambridge bowed out in a blaze of glory, and a few old names came back out of the woodwork at Battlesticks and King Street.
It was the year music scene legend Brian Lizotte sold his iconic New Lambton venue to Wallsend entertainer Wayne Rogers; the year the Burwood burned, the Beach Hotel had a facelift, and developer Jerry Schwartz's Post Office project didn't.
It was the year that the Maccas on the M1 at Wyong closed to be replaced by Oporto and Hungry Jacks (Mc'Oh, the humanity!), only for competing fuel chain OTR to declare it would open a new twin servo at Cooranbong (McCrisis averted).
It was the year that the lights at Liddell Power Station finally went down, and the Hunter found itself more than ever at the forefront of the conversation on energy transition. It was the year of direct action, as protestors faced court and activists blockaded the world's largest coal port for the weekend.
It was the year the Voice referendum failed, and the cost of living soared; a year of interest rates, when we all learnt who the governor of the Reserve Bank was (and then he wasn't) and rediscovered how much $10 can't buy at Coles.
It was the year fuel topped $2 a litre, UFOs turned out to be real (maybe), and the earth opened up under the bowlo at Wallsend.
It was a year of storms, floods, fires, thunder rolling, and lightning strikes.
The political theatre had its turns of hail and shine as well. Tim Crakanthorp was sensationally dumped from cabinet, and then we learned about all the properties his family owned. A bloke from Japan showed a truly remarkable level of dedicated interest in local civics. And Kate Washington released a koala at Port Stephens named in her honour.
We mourned the loss of local icons, like water speed record holder Ken Warby, who passed away with Alzheimer's disease in February, credited for clocking 511km per hour in a hand-built speed boat in 1978.
The Newcastle Knights lost a behind-the-scenes hero with the passing of former football manager Dave Morely in March.
Screaming Jets founding bass player Paul Woseen died at 56 in September, the same month as Hunter technology innovator and 'father of Newcastle's internet' Chris Deere.
University of Newcastle Professor Kypros Kypri was killed in a tragic cycling accident in New Zealand in October, and in November, the city mourned former footballer and local police officer Mark Lucas.
It was the year Elton said goodbye to the Yellow Brick Road from Newcastle. Robbie Williams dedicated a song to a local fan in Sydney. And a kid called McCartney travelled 650 kilometres with his mum to see Paul - the original Beatle and his namesake - rock McDonald Jones Stadium in a history-making performance.
It was the year that a romantic gesture stopped Newcastle in its tracks as lovestruck Adrian Jablonski proposed to Olia Mykulyshyn, and the words "Marry Me Ola" appeared in the sky. Only a few months later, in a moment of perfect serendipity at the city's RAAF Air Show at Nobbys the couple revealed they were expecting the birth of their first child.
It was the year that the Knights women's league brought home back-to-back premierships, the boys made it back into the finals, and Coal Crusher won the region's million-dollar horse race.
And we haven't even mentioned the coronation yet ...
Who ever said it was a curse to live in interesting times? Wonder what 2024 will bring.
