The mood is changing as the last Sunday of South Africa's festive season comes to an end.
The morning lie-ins, the afternoons of endless ice-cream and late evenings are over and the days of scheduled power cuts are set to be back. The coastal cities are emptying out as the Vaalies (slang for residents of the Highveld) return up country to turn their attention back to kickstarting the economy.
On Monday, major corporate offices reopen and later this week, kids will return to schools. It's the Sunday afternoon South Africans wish could last forever and at Newlands, it felt like it did.
The afternoon featured a long and lethargic bowling performance, which lacked intent against an England line-up that demonstrated their fragility just two days ago. The result is that South Africa are all but out of contention to win this Test.
While some of the blame can be pinned on their batting efforts in the first innings, the rest is due to their unimaginative showing in the field. The trouble is, unlike the rest of the country, South Africa's cricketers were not supposed to treat Sunday as a holiday.
Having conceded a 46-run lead, South Africa should have got to straight to work. Instead, Kagiso Rabada overpitched twice in his first over, but quickly pulled his lengths back. He and Vernon Philander conceded 27 in the first 10 overs without threatening the batsmen.
"Vernon didn't bowl with the same venom as usual," South Africa's coach Mark Boucher assessed after play. "He was feeling a little sick this morning."
They managed to create just about enough pressure to draw Zak Crawley forward and have him caught behind. That over may have been the end of Rabada's opening spell, but the wicket earned him another where he missed his line and conceded two boundaries.
Philander returned post-lunch for a five-over spell which included 20 dot balls to Joe Denly, who has struggled to score off him all series. But at the other end, Keshav Maharaj struggled to sustain any pressure like Dom Bess did for England in the first innings.
Then, Philander didn't return until the final session - his sickness may have played a hand - as the other three quicks rotated from one end. That strategy could have worked - and it did in the first innings - but it needed the seamers to go full tilt to crack England open, and they didn't.
Rabada mixed up his lengths and sent down a few balls above 140, but the aggression from earlier had dissipated. Anrich Nortje bowled with a little more venom, particularly when he switched to bowling over the wicket to Denly. He was rewarded when he had Denly pulling to fine leg, the wicket belonging as much to Dwaine Pretorius who caught it well diving forward.
Pretorius did not bowl at all in the afternoon session, another questionable decision based on the idea that Pretorius offers only 10-15 overs an innings, in Faf du Plessis' words, and it was left to Nortje to greet Joe Root.
He did so by rushing the England captain into playing to square leg. Despite that, Nortje did not continue after tea. He had to wait for Rabada and Pretorius to have spells and for Philander to replace Maharaj at the other end. When he was reintroduced, there was no short leg for the short ball.
Even as the second new ball loomed, South Africa appeared to be going through the motions. Boucher explained that it was a combination of fatigue and flatter conditions that flummoxed his attack.
"The chat is that the ball got really soft," he said. "There were times when we wanted to attack Joe Root when he first came to the crease but our bowlers put in a bit of work in the first innings and didn't get much rest with our batting so I think that takes its toll.
"Everyone is talking about the crack and it didn't seem to misbehave as much as we expected it to. It looked like it had flattened out quite a bit and there wasn't as much lateral movement."
Sunday was a cooler, cloudier day than Friday and Saturday had been and the absence of hot and direct sunlight on the pitch showed. The famed crack, which Philander tried to find in his first spell, was tame and others did not open.
Similar weather is forecast for Monday when South Africa will be on the hunt for early wickets. The trouble is that the skies are set to clear on Tuesday and the mercury will rise which could make run-scoring more challenge.
As the rest of the country will be back to their grindstones by then, so South Africa's cricketers will have plenty of inspiration from their countrymen. The holidays, and perhaps the new administration's brief honeymoon period, are over and work must begin again.