Green Day

I remember that when I was at high school we used to hold "Brag Day" the day before any really big interschool sporting event. We would all dress up and get together in the school hall to sing rousing songs and build spirit ahead of the upcoming sports day. Well, today has been Brag Day for the whole of South Africa, as we prepare to take on England in tomorrow's Rugby World Cup Final.

Everywhere I went today I saw people dressed in green, as well as plenty of Springbok and South African flags flying outside houses and businesses. There's an enormous air of expectation, and quite honestly I don't think a whole lot of work got done around Cape Town today.

Many companies allowed their staff to come to work in casual clothes, and encouraged them to dress in green and gold. These photos were taken by Hannes Thiart, outside the head-office of Paul's employer Santam, which is a large insurance company located in Bellville.

Roll on tomorrow, we're ready!

The real thing

If you like Coca-Cola and plan on visiting Cape Town, then allow me to set your mind at ease - yes, we absolutely do drink Coca-Cola in South Africa ;). In fact, for many it's the default soft drink - they've managed to make Coke curiously addictive haven't they?

The favourite drink of many South Africans (particularly while braaiing [barbecueing] and watching rugby) is fondly known as "Klippies 'n Coke". It's a mixture of Coca-Cola and Klipdrift brandy - and usually as the evening wears on you'll find that the mixture leans more and more heavily towards the Klippies...

As with yesterday's post, this photo was taken in Cape Town's buzzing Long Street.

Snowflake

No, not that kind of snowflake - in fact, I can't remember it ever snowing in Cape Town - except for the little bit that very, very rarely falls on the top of Table Mountain.

The Snowflake buildings that you see in front of Lion's Head are likely to be full of flour. Snowflake, with its tag-line "Too fresh to flop", is a flour manufacturer dating back to 1877. Here it's more or less a household name in flour, so much so that if you'd ask me to name another brand of flour, I doubt I could.