News24.com | HELLO WEEKEND | Zola on motherhood, SA's fanciest hotel rooms, and a Mexican eatery with lavish offerings

The latest edition of News24's weekly digital weekend magazine stuffed full of interviews, reviews, excerpts, and in-depth stories. Enjoy the read.

Zola Nombona on the joys of being a mom and navigating work-life balance

By Bonolo Sekudu

The life of a working mom is not glitzy, even for celebrity mom actor Zola Nombona who finds herself in and out of sets ever so often. It has been a busy season in her life as a Foschini ambassador and TV work that she has coming up. For working moms, the idea of a "work-life balance" is almost non-existent and hard to navigate. So, when there was an opportunity to be on set for a Foschini Mother's Day shoot with three-year-old Cebelihle, it made work special.

Take control of the conversation: Expert advice on how to ensure others listen when you speak

By Jo Hartley

Sitting at the kitchen bench, I tell my husband about my day. As he chops vegetables, I recount our son's antics, my increasing workload and what I've planned for the weekend. I look up for some acknowledgement. The lights are on but no one's home. "Have you heard anything I've said?" I growl through gritted teeth. He looks up and nods. The reality is he hasn't. I'm simply background noise. This situation is common in households around the world. However, for women, it's only the tip of the iceberg. 

Behind the Damascene: The men, the vines and the wine

By Daléne Fourie

Did you know? There is only about 7.02ha* of Gamay in South Africa. Most of it owned by Radford Dale. R&D stands for Research and Development. A business term that denotes the gathering of knowledge/information to create a new product or discover new ways to improve existing products and services. RD can also stand for Radford Dale (quite serendipitously for me), a wine company that was a virtual winery in South Africa before it was trendy to do so. They adopted the Burgundian model of sourcing grapes from standout vineyards and produced show-stopping wines in their Stellenbosch cellar.

Queen Charlotte stars on history's greatest love story: 'Only love can keep you together'

By Bashiera Parker

George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He was "widely remembered for two things", its written on the official website of the royal family, "losing the American colonies and going mad". "This is far from the whole truth." In Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, we also come to know George as both King George and Farmer George – and the great love of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Grand pianos, fireplaces and epic views - inside 6 of South Africa’s most expensive hotel suites

By Andrew Thompson

Most of us are never likely to see the inside of the world's priciest hotels, let alone put our feet up on the table in their most expensive rooms. Yet, despite this, there's something deeply intriguing about what's hiding behind those thick double doors that hotels believe justifies the high price tags. The country's best hotel rooms often have incredible views of mountains, oceans, or cityscapes. But with others, it's purely about the address, prestige, and room features - coupled with the kind of service levels you'd expect when paying several thousand rands a night.

THE CRITIC | Hacienda is a fun place in the heart of Cape Town’s busy restaurant strip

By Emile Joubert

It felt good not being a 20-year-old no more, as the temptation of getting totally blotto would have hit me before any desire to try Hacienda’s array of Mexican-inspired sustenance. This fashionable and colourful place in the heart of bustling Bree Street has a list of tequilas and cocktails daunting enough to give Keith Richards the tremors. On the tequila list, I stopped counting at 50 offerings, and add another 20-something to the line-up of mezcals – tequila’s sister spirit distilled from the agave-plant – and even the most disciplined tasting of these fiery elixirs will send one into a comatose siesta.

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