Yard 41 — Local services in uMgeni Local Municipality

I grew up in ‘Maritzburg, I like old red brick buildings, Victorian architecture. I enjoy nature, green grass, beautiful views the country. You’ll find me in coffee shops, drinking flat whites with something to nibble on …..Yard 41 should have ticked all the boxes for me. It seemed perfect….maybe it was just too curated. Felt like a show day, and all the people were scattered around ornamentally. Perhaps my perspective was coloured by circumstances. We were there to see a friend, she’d left her house for the first time (she’s quite ill). She’d been looking forward to a particular item on the menu. It wasn’t available. She left soon after. I walked around the grounds and shops, it seemed that almost everyone was on their phones. Many couples at their coffee tables, on phones. A dad and son at the swings, he on the phone. Me taking pics…connected, but also unavailable, on my phone. The only contact I saw was a couple who had obviously heard bad news. She was looking out over the view…sobbing. He was doing that awkward thing we men do, rubbing her back, in an attempt to swipe the grief away. Slowly it dawned on me. Yard 41 was a Lifestyle store. An attempt to offer an ideology that embodies the values, interests, attitudes of a culture for marketing purposes. What were they selling? Not coffee, gardens or neat design. Nope, they were selling a future, homes for those who could afford to retire, who could escape the grief (or numb themselves with phones). I fled soon. And composed a long...

We visited the Village restaurant and had an interesting experience. On arrival we were led to an outside table which would have been fine if not for a clear pattern in the demographic sitting outside Vs the people inside. The inside was also not full so we found it weird to be sat outside without being given the option of indoor seating. The wait period between ordering and recieving food was crazy. Even once we had eaten we had to wait extensively for the bill and to be further assisted. Majority of our time was spent trying to decider if the reason for us burning in direct sunlight was a coincidence or somewhat racially charged. When we were not doing that we were sat waiting to be served in any capacity. The restaurant and the view are...

So I ordered my meal, halfway through the meal the waitress accidentally takes my meal while on a phone call… I guess she assumed I was done because I had covered it with a serviette since there were so many flies. By the way when we asked for something to remove the flies we were told there is nothing to assist with reducing the amount of flies that were around the table wanting to sit on our food. We were told to just “ignore them” by the waitress.

Anyways asked for my food, they offered to make me another burger and guess what it came cut in half. How disappointing… yes the burger wasn’t a full one but to cut it in half… DISSAPOINTED… especially receiving it 30...