Chasing downwinds By Louis Eksteen “Put your nose in the hole,” comes the high-volume instruction clearly audible over the howl of the stormy wind. “What hole?” I keep asking myself, while trying my utmost best not to fall out of my surfski into a False Bay whipped into a frenzy of terrifying white-top [...]

Murmurings of the less blessed By Louis Eksteen Real feelings seldom find traction on the anti-social media landscape of today. Either everything’s absolutely fabulous (“I’m sooo blessed”), or so horrifically terrible the world’s going to end. No “I’m just sommer feeling slightly blue today because I stubbed my toe a little bit and it made [...]

Living la vida local By Kim Browne Recently we found ourselves on the rooftop of an old central Joburg building carefully being completely refurbished for safe and dignified modern residential living. The friendly and enthusiastic host from our client Ithemba, a shareholder in Divercity, was showing us around the impressive Jewel City precinct. We liked [...]

The future is in your hands By Kim Browne Our elections next week are on the minds of many South Africans as we try to anticipate what the future holds. Small business owners such as The Toast may worry about what the political future holds. This has made me think again about being responsible for [...]

Privacy, immediacy and dependency By Louis Eksteen Recent statements by Mark Zuckerberg, co-inventor of Facebook (depending on who you ask), frequently mention an apparently significant move towards protecting the privacy of users. The new Facebook look mirrors the white expanse of Instagram, probably because of its success in giving people an alternative to the blue [...]

The internet is freedom, but at what cost? By Louis Eksteen I love nothing more than to Netflix and chill. My first purchase on Amazon took place on 26 May 1997 and I’ve been with them ever since. I’m a bit off Facebook, but love Instagram to bits. WhatsApp is replacing email and some social [...]

The Toast is eight candles young By Kim Browne Twisted Toast turned eight on 1 April 2019. It's hard to believe how quickly time seems to pass when you're busy. Time truly is relative. The happiness created by the freedom of entrepreneurship is hard to explain to others. It's equal measure elation and terror at [...]

lastminute.comness By Louis Eksteen I’ve earned an unfortunate nickname over time. Last Minute Louis. Totally undeserved, I might add. But I do tend to “sometimes” leave things a tad late. It’s not that I like to be late, I just perpetually think I’ve got more time than I actually have to do this, that and [...]

The feel-good of helping others By Kim Browne Earlier this week we were privileged to attend the annual Atterbury Trust bursary student event. Held at Die Klubhuis, Atterbury’s impressive HQ, the get-together allows the many studying students and alumni, who all received study bursaries from the trust, to meet and mingle with each other, Atterbury [...]

Emailing robots By Louis Eksteen Over the holidays I brushed up on my ping pong skills with my godson. He had already downloaded an iOS game before we left, which we used in preparation. Real life is different though and where we played, the tables were outside, so wind was always a factor. You can [...]