5 Mid Mornings

There are some foods that people have VERY strong opinions about. Oysters. Olives. Blue cheese. Mushrooms. Tripe. Anchovies. Even coriander. You either love them, or you absolutely cannot understand why anyone would willingly put them in their mouth. 

But then there are the foods we’ve convinced ourselves we’re supposed to like. Maybe you order the oysters because everyone else is
ordering them.

Maybe you pretend to enjoy blue cheese because it feels sophisticated. Or maybe you’ve been saying you love something for years because you feel like you’re supposed to. And then there’s the complete opposite that one food you genuinely LOVE that everyone around you thinks is disgusting.

Concert season is officially back, the weather is warming up, and South Africa is becoming a serious stop for some of the biggest names in music.

We’ve had artists like Doja Cat bring her show to Pretoria, and now we’ve got names like J. Cole and Limp Bizkit on the calendar, alongside artists like Bryan Adams and Boyz II Men.

But with all these concerts, festivals and live experiences happening, we have to ask: how much is too much for a concert ticket? Because the ticket price is only part of the expense. There’s transport, parking, food, maybe accommodation if you’re travelling — and then there are those VIP and hospitality packages that can take the price into another universe.

And let’s be honest, sometimes it’s not even about whether you can afford the ticket. It’s about whether that artist is worth spending your money on. Would you rather spend R2,000 seeing your favourite artist live, or use that same money for an entire weekend away?

Remember when hobbies were just hobbies?

You read a book because you enjoyed it. You went for a run because it felt good. You cooked because you were hungry. You painted because you felt like painting. And more than that, hobbies were things you took part in for the fun of it and for escaping the stresses of the world. 

But now, it seems like everything has to come with a goal attached to it. We’re not just reading anymore — we’re trying to read 50 books a year. We’re not just running — we’re tracking our pace, our distance and trying to beat our personal best. Even cooking can become content for Instagram. Even worse, we are starting to think of ways to monetise our hobbies. 

Somewhere along the way, our hobbies started looking suspiciously like work. And maybe that’s the shift: we’ve become so obsessed with improving ourselves that we’ve forgotten how to do things simply because we enjoy them.

Have our hobbies become another form ofproductivity, or is there nothing wrong with wanting to get better at the things we love?

Mbalenhle Mkhatshwa, affectionately known as Mbali, is the founder of Mballet, a dance academy rooted in Tembisa that uses ballet as a tool for much more than performance. Mbali first fell in love with ballet at just six years old, introduced to the art by her mother, who saw dance as a way to give her discipline, confidence and a sense of possibility. Today, she is passing that gift on to a new generation of children, particularly young girls from under-resourced backgrounds. Through Mballet, Mbali creates a space where children can feel seen, build self-worth, develop discipline and imagine futures beyond the circumstances they were born into.

It’s voting season, and as I’m going through manifestos and educating myself on who’s saying what, I started thinking… politicians really aren’t politicians the way they used to be. Back then, you saw them on the news, in Parliament, at

political rallies or giving formal speeches. Now, politicians have Instagram, TikTok and X accounts where we see their families, their homes, their outfits, their holidays, their personalities and sometimes even the most ordinary parts of their everyday lives. Social media has made politicians more accessible than ever — but has it also blurred the line between the person and the public official? Maybe seeing more of their lives helps us understand who we’re voting for. Or maybe it makes politics too personal, where popularity and personality can become just as important as policies and performance.

Has Modern Convenience Made Us Less Resilient? Food arrives in minutes. Groceries come to our door. Dating happens with a swipe, and AI can plan our holidays, write our emails and answer almost anything.

Life has never been more convenient. But are we becoming less patient and less resilient because of it? Think about it: When was the last time you memorised a phone number, waited a week for a package, sat through boredom without your phone, or struggled with a problem before Googling the answer?

Even waiting a few seconds for a video to buffer can test our patience. But maybe convenience isn't making us weaker. Maybe it's simply freeing us from boring tasks so we can spend our time on what matters.