Wait... It's June Already? 😳

If you heard cheering drifting across Stellenbosch this weekend, it wasn’t just people celebrating finally finding parking in town.

The Junior Springboks absolutely dismantled Georgia 57–14 at Markötter Stadium on Saturday, finishing the U20 International Series in serious style.

The young Boks ran in nine tries and looked frighteningly sharp at times, with the forwards laying the platform and the backs doing what backs do best: running very fast while the rest of us pull a hamstring getting out of bed.

A special mention goes to Gert Kemp, who scored on the field where he once played school rugby for Paul Roos. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The scary part?

Many of these players are still teenagers.

Which means somewhere in Stellenbosch this week there are first-year university students sharing lecture halls with future Springboks who already look like they could carry a Toyota Hilux up Helshoogte.

Stellenbosch restaurant MERTIA has just picked up three major honours in the 2026 Haute Grandeur Global Excellence Awards:

🏆 Best Fine Dining Experience in Africa
🏆 Best Head Chef in Africa
🏆 Best Food & Wine Pairing Experience in Africa

That's a remarkable achievement, especially considering they're competing against some of the finest restaurants across the continent.

While many visitors come to Stellenbosch for the wine, accolades like these are a reminder that the town's food scene is becoming just as impressive.

Congratulations to the entire MERTIA team. Behind every course served and every glass poured is a group of people who clearly take enormous pride in what they do.

Not a bad result for a restaurant tucked away in the heart of Stellenbosch.

Can we all just take a moment to acknowledge that it's somehow June 2026?

January feels like it was approximately three Tuesdays ago.

One minute we were making ambitious New Year's resolutions.

The next minute we're standing in Woolworths wondering why there are already Father's Day displays and Christmas decorations are probably being unloaded somewhere as we speak.

At this point the year is moving so fast that if you leave a banana on the kitchen counter, it ages into banana bread by lunchtime.

The truly concerning part is that many of us are still writing 2025 on forms.

Meanwhile 2026 is already halfway through its victory lap.

If anyone knows where the first five months of the year went, please let us know.

We'd quite like them back.

As winter settles into Stellenbosch, municipal teams have been hard at work clearing stormwater drains, sweeping streets, and removing the leaves, litter, and sand that can turn a rainy day into an unexpected swimming lesson.

The crews often start before most of us have had our first coffee and continue long after we've retreated indoors to complain about the weather.

The municipality is also encouraging residents and businesses to do their part by checking gutters, downpipes, drains, and roofs around their properties.

Because while nobody enjoys climbing a ladder to clear leaves, it's still preferable to discovering your lounge has suddenly become waterfront property.

A few minutes of maintenance now could save a lot of mopping later.

Have you noticed how nobody uses their phone for what they originally picked it up for anymore?

You unlock it to check the weather.

That's it.

A simple task.

Twenty-three minutes later you're watching a video of a man in Finland restoring a 1974 tractor while eating lunch with his pet owl.

You still don't know whether it's going to rain.

Somewhere along the way you also:

• watched two Labrador puppies fall into a swimming pool
• learned three facts about Roman aqueducts
• checked property prices in towns you'll never move to
• and somehow ended up on Instagram looking at photos from someone you met once in 2014.

The frightening part is that these apps are incredibly good at keeping us there.

They're competing for our attention every second of every day.

And most of the time they're winning.

Many of us spend more time looking at other people's lives than living our own.

More time watching sunsets than watching actual sunsets.

More time reading about adventures than having them.

So here's a challenge this week:

Put the phone down for an hour.

Go for a walk.

Meet a friend for coffee.

Read a few pages of a book.

Sit outside.

Look at the mountains.

The posts, reels and videos will still be there when you get back.

The first years of your children's lives, your parents getting older, a conversation with a friend, or another Stellenbosch winter sunset won't.

And unlike the Finnish tractor restoration video...

those things actually matter.

One of the hardest truths to accept is that most of us are not where we are because of a single event, a single person, or a single piece of bad luck.

Yet it's incredibly tempting to blame.

The economy.
The government.
Your boss.
Your parents.
Your spouse.
Your competitors.
The timing.

And while those things can absolutely make life harder, constantly looking outward often prevents us from looking inward.

There's an old saying:

"When you point one finger at someone else, three fingers point back at you."

The moment we stop asking, "Whose fault is this?" and start asking, "What can I do next?" something powerful happens.

We regain control.

Because responsibility is not about carrying blame.

It's about recognising that while we can't control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond.

And that mindset can change the direction of an entire life.

This week, instead of looking for someone to blame, look for one thing you can improve.

The results may surprise you.

Monday ☀️
High: 19°C | Low: 13°C
A cooler day after the warm weekend. Plenty of sunshine with some high cloud drifting through.

Tuesday 🌥️
High: 19°C | Low: 13°C
Mostly cloudy with a chance of a light morning shower. A bit breezy during the afternoon.

Wednesday 🌤️
High: 19°C | Low: 11°C
Cloudy start to the day before sunshine returns in the afternoon. Light breeze.

🧥 Brief Verdict:
A classic Stellenbosch winter week. Cool mornings, mild afternoons, and no major rain expected. Perfect weather for coffee, red wine, and pretending you'll go for a run. ☕🍷🏃‍♂️➡️ 🛋️

As always, thanks for reading. If you spot something in town worth knowing, reply and tell us. Half the best Stellenbosch stories begin that way.

See you around town,
Stellenbosch Brief

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