QUICK COFFEE CATCH-UP

Five years ago, I left South Africa for America. This Fourth of July, watching the fireworks, it hit me differently — a quiet moment of gratitude for the freedom, safety, and opportunity I've found here, sitting right alongside the ache of missing home. This piece is about learning to be patriotic about two countries at once, turning friends into family on foreign soil, and discovering that home doesn't have to be one place. Sometimes it's two, and that's not complicated.

🎬 What I've Been Watching Toy Story 5 and a Conversation About Screens A few weeks ago, Leah and I took the kids to watch Toy Story 5. Like most parents with young children, I've seen more animated movies than I ever imagined possible, but there is something nostalgic about Toy Story. The original film was released in 1995, when I was still a kid myself, so in many ways it feels as though I've grown up alongside these characters. What I wasn't expecting was for a children's

📖 What I've Been Reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It had been sitting on my reading list for years, recommended by everyone from entrepreneurs and athletes to military leaders and historians. Like many books that acquire almost mythical status, I approached it with a healthy degree of scepticism. Whenever something is praised by everyone, there's a part of me that assumes it can't possibly live up t

A few weeks ago, I returned to the Bangkok International Rugby Tens for the first time in five years. What surprised me wasn't how much had changed, but how much hadn't. The same people, places, traditions, and friendships reminded me that in a world constantly chasing what's next, there is something deeply valuable about the things worth returning to.