In South Africa, you had the beer giant SAB Miller, which recently turned into the really unappealing sounding name Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev). For all of its bad, and for all of its comercial nonsense, some of the original SAB Miller beers, like Castle, Castle milk stout, Black Label, and Lion, are tied to so many memories for so many South Africans. Drinking your first Castle with your grandfather on a Saturday afternoon while watching test cricket, cracking open a Black Label (or zamalek) watching varsity rugby, and enjoying a Castle milk stout while the fires are burning talking absolute nonsense with my father. Again, for all of the bad that they stand, these commercial products have become household names, tied to memories, and almost becoming "verbs" and not nouns.

I did not know what I expected. But my situation is also not unique by all means. I am in fact luckier than others - but that then brings me back to the first statement: I did not know what I expected. My father is in academia, I have been in academia for a number of years, and I have been talking to others who are in similar positions than I am.

It is kind of crazy how many craft beers South Africa has. Considering everything, we are really a small nation and country, but also not. But either way, we have so many different craft beers, I cannot even drink them all. But the idea is to at least try!

Usually I do not write about Hive in my Hive posts. It always feels like breaking a fourth wall, like actors on stage talking to the audience as part of the play but also not. I am not always sure about this relationship of when talking to the audience becomes part of the play but also not. Either way, I rarely do this "fourth wall" break as I see it. I know a lot of people on Hive write about Hive, but Hive to me is more of a creative release, a release of tension that built up through time (the week, the day, the year, my life, and so on). It is only on my Hive Birthday that I write about Hive.

we walked a thousand miles only to realise that we were the ones in control of this story unfolding in myriad of ways that felt so strange yet so beautiful at timesWe needed a cleansing hike. That is, we needed to clear our heads from the buzzing of noises - work, studies, life, money, problems, capitalism and all of its beautiful nonsense. So, what better way to do this than walk in nature to a beautiful waterfall that few people will ever see?

It seems that life is heading its own pace. It does not matter how hard we try to slow down, life itself is speeding up. Either that, or we are sleeping more (and hence having fewer time) to cope with all of the extra work we are having these days.