If Christmas is celebrated in your country I'd be surprised to find a mall that hasn't already started putting up decorations in preparation for the two bumper trading months, November and December.

Kerry-Anne and I always agree to do our Christmas shopping way before December, but you'll always find us shopping on 23 December. It's really a terrible way to spend the festive season. I remember one year that we took a few hours off and just sat in this mall watching harried Christmas shoppers rush up and down. It left a lot to ponder over.

Sanlam is one of the big life insurers in South Africa, and the holding company of South Africa's best short-term insurer, Santam, my employer. ;)

This wall of glass, to the left of Sanlam's reception area, has water pouring over it into a pool below... I'm not sure exactly what the reason is: perhaps it dampens voices and conversations in the reception area, perhaps it clears the air of pollutants, or perhaps it's just to create a talking point amongst visitors.

We went to a photography club awards evening tonight. We weren't involved at all (and don't belong to a photography club), but just went along to have a look at the photos on display and to see a bit of the judging.

There were some really beautiful entries, but what struck me most was how the judges' ideas of what constituted a prize-winning photograph differed so dramatically from my own at times. I listened with surprise as they gave relatively low scores to shots I thought were well-composed and original, and exceptionally high scores to shots that I considered to be fairly ordinary.

It made me realise once again that the appreciation of art really is a very subjective thing. (It also made me glad that no-one was scoring any of our photos.)

Kerry-Anne and I visited La Romantica the other night for dinner. They sell burgers, steak, pizza and pasta, amongst other things; and they are particularly renowned for their killer specials. Sunday night always used to be half-price pizza, Monday nights were half-price pasta, and Tuesday nights were spouse-on-the-house... although we were never entirely sure what that meant... :-)

Okay, so this baby boy was wandering around, doing naughty things, and generally irritating his mom and dad. Eventually dad grabbed hold of his tail and just hung on... the tail acting much like one of those harnesses some human parents strap onto their super-active kids' backs to keep them from darting into traffic or getting lost in crowded malls.

Apparently these Hamadryas baboons are among the most dangerous monkeys in the world.

There's something special about the sun setting over the ocean. Don't you just love it? Capetonians living in the Blaauwberg area have loads of wind to clear the air of pollutants, leading to clear skies and beautiful sunsets.

I must apologise for this post being so delayed, I spent a few hours last night trying to get Blogger to work, but it just wasn't playing along.

Meet the Vulturine Guineafowl, the largest (and almost certainly prettiest) member of the guineafowl family. This one lives with a friend or two at Monkey Town in Somerset West. As Paul mentioned in a previous post, we were the ones inside the cage, not the animals.

We visited a friend for a braai (a.k.a. barbecue) last night. A little while before sunset I dashed out of his West Beach house and up a sand dune to take this photo. The clouds in the background are covering Table Mountain, although you'll see Signal Hill faintly through the cloud to the right.

Please indulge me if this photo looks a little too processed for your taste - it's my first attempt at HDR imaging, thanks to a couple of posts by Gaëlle at Grenoble Daily Photo.

Koeberg Road leads from the N1 national highway in the Table View direction, passing by the Caltex oil refinery, a dismal awful-smelling area. One of the few rays of sunshine while passing the billowing, smoking refinery is this few hundred meter stretch of wall that's been painted with a message. I couldn't find any details about who painted it or what it's about, but with words like "freedom", "virtue", "love", "caring", "joy", "happiness", etc. painted, I figured that the message was positive - perhaps with the intention of fostering goodwill and love.

Around 70% of South Africans carry cellular phones these days, but we still have a fair number of these bright green public telephones in malls and on street corners. I can't recall when last I used a public phone...

We found this blue building in Long Street while waiting for the Springboks to make their victory tour through Cape Town. We haven't been inside, but from the sign on the front says "Blue Mountain Backpackers".

Today, the first of the month, is Theme Day and there are currently 121 blogs participating. Please take a quick tour of the world by clicking on some of the links below.

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Yes, I know that the likeness is uncanny - so Kerry-Anne keeps telling me. As part of the MINI toy run (mentioned in a previous post), we visited my supposed family at Monkey Town in Somerset West.

Monkey Town, a monkey sanctuary, was started in December 2000 by owner Roseline Grobler, when she saved an abused Capuchin. Not enjoying the luxury of government grants, Monkey Town looks after more than 270 monkeys by means of funding derived from entrance fees and donations from businesses and the public.

When you're in the area, do stop over at Monkey Town - it really was a treat!

From the lines on the photo you may be fooled into thinking that this monkey was in a cage. It was in fact us visitors who were in a cage-like tunnel. The monkeys are out in the open, surrounded by a tall fence with low-powered electrical fencing - mainly to keep the little children away from the cute monkeys. ;)

On Sunday I posted about a MINI Toy Run we went on. We received a few comments in answer to my question in the post, and yes, you guys guessed it. A Toy Run is an event traditionally organised for bikers. Hundreds of bikers buy toys, muster and ride off on their "Toy Run", delivering the toys to orphanages and children's hospitals. It's generally the only time that huge burly bikers can be seen carrying big fluffy toys.

Sunday was a lot more subdued. MINI drivers hardly have the same rough and tough look about them, but still we bought our toys and mustered to begin our Toy Run. After taking a detour (which I'll post about tomorrow) we finally ended up at the Red Cross Children's Hospital, where a whole lot of kids had a little brightness brought to their day.

Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of Cape Town today to welcome the Springboks home after winning international rugby's great prize, the William Webb Ellis cup. Kerry-Anne and I took a few hours off work to experience the festive atmosphere and catch a few snaps of these South African heroes.

Well done and welcome home boys!

Thanks to Cafe Zorina on 172 Loop Street; they kindly allowed us onto their balcony to take these photos and plied us with drinks and some of the best authentic samoosas I've had.

A month or two ago Kerry-Anne bought a MINI Cooper from Auric Auto (a MINI and BMW dealer in Claremont). Auric Auto held a MINI Toy Run today, and invited Kerry-Anne and I along to join in the fun.

1. Do you know what a "Toy Run" is?
2. Have you been on one?

We have something else lined up for tomorrow, so you'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out exactly where we went and what we did...

Kerry-Anne and I socialised with computer geeks, marketers, entrepreneurs and media-fundis at this evening's 27Dinner held at Deer Park Café in Vredehoek. Apart from the good food and great speakers, we met and chatted with a bunch of really nice people.

Deer Park Café is situated in a residential part of Cape Town city, on the beautiful slopes of Table Mountain (yip, that's Table Mountain hiding under its table cloth in the background).

Kerry-Anne's dad called earlier this evening to tell us about the unusual cloud formation in the sky. The clouds were moving pretty quickly and about 5 minutes after I was finished taking photos they were gone.

One thing that I noticed while taking this photo was the large number of aeroplanes crossing our skies at night. Several passed in front of the moon as I was taking photos, but it sure is a trick trying to take a photo of them in flight backed by such a bright moon.

That sure does look like some mighty tasty grass - if you're a horse that is. I've tasted grass and, well, I guess that it's a lot like whiskey, an acquired taste.

The photo was taken somewhere out the back of Durbanville, about 30 minutes' drive from Cape Town. Isn't it an absolutely beautiful view that these animals have to look out on each day? The mountains, the fields, the flowers... I wonder if they get tired of the view... do you think horses can get tired of a view?

Having grown up in the suburbs, a child of the technological age, I'm not too well-versed in old-school farm equipment. So I have absolutely no idea what this is. It looks interesting though, and I'd like your creative suggestions as to what it could be used for (kind of like a game of "Props" on "Whose line is it anyway?").

So, if you had one of these just standing in your garage, how would you put it to use? Personally, I think it would make a fantastic mobile jewellery rack - all those hooky bits are just crying out to have bracelets hung on them, and the big round wheely part would look oh-so-pretty adorned with an array of necklaces.

A postcard for the best suggestion...

Since it's been a very rainy day and for the sake of readers who aren't quite as excited about the rugby results as we are, I decided to post a picture of this little guy - many kids' (and adults') comic book hero. I was surprised to find out that Tintin is actually quite the cult figure - just Google it. Perhaps I should have bought this wooden Tintin and sold it on eBay...

Celebrations will go on for weeks to come. Today motorists were still blowing their hooters in the streets of Cape Town and fans once again donned their green and gold rugby jerseys. There wasn't too much fanfair among my many colleagues, just an air of knowing (in a "we knew all along" kind of way) that our boys are the 2007 Rugby World Champions.

Two things struck me during this World Cup. Since their victory we've seen many interviews of John Smit, Bryan Habana, Percy Montgomery, etc. and what's interesting is how they - and the rest of the team - all seem like such genuinely nice guys.

The other thing that struck me was how 22 guys and two coaches have managed to unite a very diverse nation in a common goal, a common victory. It was thought-provoking to see black and white fans, who would ordinarily have been divided to a great degree, now hugging each other in the streets.

As I write this the Springbok team is flying (not only figuratively) thousands of feet above the earth, returning to South Africa and preparing to be met by thousands of screaming supporters at OR Tambo Airport tomorrow morning. Welcome back boys!

For anyone who may have missed the news, the Springboks became the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions last night, joining Australia as one of the only two teams to have won the trophy twice. The streets of Cape Town were filled with people celebrating into the early hours of the morning - motorists hooted, flags were flown, vuvuzelas were blasted, and pedestrians ran up and down high-fiving people as they drove past. It was an awesome ending to a month and a half of excitement, a week of nervous build-up, and two days of unbelievable Springbok fever. We're a happy nation today, despite the collective hangover. :)

Thanks to everyone who posted good luck messages here over the past week or two! For those of you outside of South Africa, today's post title is a reference to this advert.

We spent the day at PodCamp Cape Town, an unconference for anyone with an interest in podcasting, blogging or any other forms of new media. We learnt plenty about the world of new media, and met some super people, all innovators in their own way. They were very generous in giving us a whole host of excellent photo ideas for this blog, which we'll be going out and shooting over the next few months. Watch this space...

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!

If this house was a little too upmarket and fancy-schmancy for you, then perhaps you'd prefer something a little more... rustic?

Disclaimer: I'm 99.9% sure there are no people living in this dilapidated structure. I can't be sure, but I think it could be a shed of some kind. Beautiful surroundings though, not so?

With four different types of Pinocchios, this furniture shop seemed to have a bit of a Pinocchio fetish - or was it perhaps that they had Geppetto out back making all the furniture?

We found this house not far from where I took yesterday's photo. The area is rural and peaceful - making for a refreshing break from city life. If you enjoy rural living, it must be a wonderful place to stay - only a few minute's drive from Durbanville town-centre, yet far enough away to escape the city.

These purple flowers cover the fields and verges in and around Cape Town in springtime. We're not too sure what they actually are (anyone care to shed some light on this?), although they're generally regarded as weeds when they appear in the garden. They certainly look beautiful when they grow in big clumps like this, though.

The French rugby team (Les Bleus) lost to the English team last night in the first semi-final of the Rugby World Cup at Stade de France. Kerry-Anne and I watched in dismay as Jonny Wilkinson managed to kick the ball over the posts twice in the last 5 minutes of the game, putting England ahead.

The rooster is one of France's national symbols. We found these roosters, fittingly, sitting on the bench and looking highly annoyed.

Commiserations to our French blogger friends Eric, Alice, Nathalie and Gaëlle - we do feel for you!

Visit Grenoble Daily Photo to see Gaëlle's rooster - looking slightly happier than perhaps it should. ;)

We're off to watch the Springboks play Argentina in the second semi-final in a few hours' time - any good vibes and positive thoughts you want to send their way would be most welcome.

This picture finds three strangers working together to remove a tightly wound piece of fishing line from a Egyptian Goose's leg. The bird, clearly in pain, initially put up a fight - trying desperately to escape our hands. After several minutes the gentleman to the left managed to unwind the last strand of nylon.

Birds along our coast sometimes get caught up in fishing line. I wish that all fishermen would be caring and careful enough to properly dispose of discarded fishing line. Sometimes it's impossible to retrieve lost line, but often people just seem lazy and leave fishing line tangled in rocks or reeds.

Once released the limping bird headed for the water and was last seen swimming towards its friends, seemingly happier.