I’ve decided to start the year off by posting about bread rather than the other things happening that I will get to soon enough.� It was an OK bread year but some great loaves were made.

The last loaf I made in 2025 was a repeated triumph over disaster adventure that I hope is the theme for 2026.

I mixed the dough on a Friday and put it in the fridge for a day long cold ferment.� The next day (Saturday) I took if out to rise. It looks weird and continued to look weird throughout the day. Then I realized that I hadn’t put in the yeast.� I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up adding the yeast into the already mixed dough, kneading it some more and stuck it back in the fridge to see what happened.

The following day (Sunday) the bread still looked weird. I took it out to see if it would rise.� It was out for several hours and there was no change in the dough.� I put it back in the fridge for the yeast to continue its hydration (assuming that was the issue) and hoped for the best.

The day after that (Monday) the bread still looked weird (but less so) when I pulled it out of the fridge.� It wasn’t looking great at first for the dough but then after some kneading and folding it came to life with the gluten forming and it� started to rise.

It ended up being a pretty loaf. Not the prettiest load of the year (that was the late August loaf) but it was the tastiest by far.� Those days of fermentation really made a difference.

May the triumph over disaster carry over through the year.

Here is a brief selection of some of the breads of the latter half of 2025. I haven’t included any of the focaccia made in 2025.

Brenda Fassie (known to many as Ma Brrr) was one of the greatest stars ever!� A major soundtrack of my life.� I had the pleasure of meeting her in London at a cobrncert where she performed� in the early 90’s. My brain almost exploded at meeting someone who had made such an impact on my life.

We miss you Ma Brrr.

Here is Brenda & The Big Dudes with their debut hit Weekend Special.

Wikipedia’s Black August Page

Citizen Action of New York�s 2020 Anti-Racism Reading List

Presenting one of the best clips ever created . . .

I wish I could figure out a way to have it on a loop.

Here is the original video:

What a week!� If you hadn’t already heard, a political bombshell exploded across South Africa (07/06/25) when Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Lucky Mkhwanazi, the Provincial Police Commissioner of KwaZulu Natal Province, in what appear to be full military gear (it wasn’t) flanked by similarly dressed men with guns, gave a press conference where he made a bunch of explosive accusations including the fact that his ultimate boss Senzo Mchunu, the Minister of Police, shut down an investigation into political killings because� of his involvement in criminal activity.

For a summery of� what he said, check out the BBC report on the story. Here is the full text of his press conference.� The video is embedded below.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was in Brazil attending the BRICS conference when this political earthquake hit.� He addressed the nation yesterday.� And as I dreaded, the big takeaway was that yet another commission was being called to look into the allegations.� �Ughhhhhhhhh!!!!!!� �He said the commission would “submit the final report to the President. Interim reports are expected after 3 and 6 months respectively. The final report of the commission will be sent to the Speaker and to the Chief Justice.”

The other big take away was that Minister Mchunu would be put on special leave effective immediately and that Ramaphosa was bringing in Wits law professor, Firoz Cachalia, to fill in as the Acting P0lice Minister starting August 1. In the interim, someone from the cabinet would fill the position.

Here is the� full text of his speech. The video is embedded below.

I think the President’s response to this crisis was adequate but not great. I know a bunch of people were mad that there wasn’t� more of a forceful condemnation from Ramaphosa. And yes, he did look tired when he delivered the speech, but that wasn’t as big an issue for me. I’m sure all of this has been exhausting for him.

My number 1 criticism of the speech (other than calling for yet another commission!!!!) was that there was no mention whatsoever of witness protection or safety measures especially given the fact that at the heart of the allegations are political assignations and officials who allegedly have relationships with criminal syndicates and gangs. One can NEVER bring up the issue of witness protection/safety enough in such situations.� Given the currently climate and reality of witness protection/safety, I wouldn’t say shit if I had any relevant info related to this situation if I wanted to be able to go home alive to my family and communities.

The second issue I have with the speech was the 3/6 month interim report benchmarks.� That will do NOTHING to increase the already tarnished public trust in institutions. What actual, practical things are going to happen in between those benchmarks?� Let people know what’s being done to secure the evidence. Let people know what other suspensions and firing will take place. Also, is the President the only one who will see these interim reports or will the rest of us see them as well? That was not clear at all.

The third issue I had with the speech was that the minister was put on a leave of absence with full benefits.� If he is found to be implicated, does the state get to recoup what he was paid? How long is this leave of absence? Until the the report is eventually submitted? This report won’t be ready in at least 6 months. Not a good look at all.

Lastly, as a “communications professional” and the other things I do, I’m interested in how the Office of Presidency’s communications team will deal with the pushback the speech is getting and will get.� I will just leave it there.

Below is the video of President Ramaphosa’s full speech.

Below is� the full video of Mkhwanazi’s press conference.

Dan Corder did a great update a few days after Mkhwanazi’s press conference that broke down the different� issues and players mentioned and identified in the alleged scandals.

Eyewitness News‘ (EWN) amazing political journalist Tshidi Madia (QUEEN!!!!) hosted a radio show before and after Ramaphosa’s address to the nation to analyze and give some context to the address. As usual she did an exceptional job. She was joined by EWN’s crime journalist Orrin Singh, 2 professors and representatives of almost all the major political parties who called in to give their opinions.

This was so much easier than shooting, editing and the rest of it to get the video in shape. I ended up needing to use OBS Studios (a free, kinda simple to learn streaming program) that I had been avoiding and now wish I had picked up years ago. I like that I can switch input sources in OBS Studio so in this video I’m using my phone to record the table and my laptop to record my face. �I sound definitely needs to be worked on.

I’ll continue to play with streaming. Will play with some cooking, baking, DaVinci Resolve videos, general video editing videos and other random topics.

The four books (affiliate links) looked at are:

• The Homemade Vegan Pantry, Miyoko Schinner [author website]
• Veggielicious, Mokgadi Itweng [author Instagram]
• Afro-Vegan, Bryant Terry [author website]
• Big Vegan Flavor, Nisha Vora [author website]