Post-Party analysis

Q: What happens when you let one 13 year old, and one under-appreciated husband loose with a bunch of decorations in your house?

A: Cool stuff happens, I tell you. Very cool and inventive stuff, that results in all entrances to the garage being blocked and lots of tape on the walls, but no less an amazing effect. Thanks guys!

I'm very happy with how the party went. Not so loud that someone would contemplate calling the police, but just loud enough to annoy the most annoying of the annoying neighbors, whose children/dogs could function as our alarm clocks if we wanted to get up at 5AM every Sunday. There was more than plenty of food and drink (What is it with the locals? They always show up with food and drinks, even when asked not to). Everyone, and I mean everyone, came in a well thought out costume, and is undoubtedly regretting that decision now as the pictures have been uploaded onto Facebook.

Regardless of our stuff still sailing somewhere on the Atlantic (any day now...) the party was a success. Our friends showed up bright and early to help, and never slowed down for the whole day, even when the bad hostess half forgot to offer them lunch or coffee (the hostess also forgot to eat lunch herself, resulting in an emergency taco ingestion after two glasses of wine within the first 30 minutes of the party). The host ended up doing less cooking than expected (or feared) and was positively taken aback by the latent cooking abilities of the hostess... This could be bad, I must ruin a pot or a pan asap...

The punch - Long Island Ice tea - got everyone going early and wine and tequila were in the end enjoyed in the proper ways, or at least no proper tequila was wasted on the salt and lemon shots. For some reason, however, no one touched any of the white wine leaving me stocked for the next couple of months at least (the hubby seems to think I should be writing 'for the next year', but hey I prefer not to lie in writing).  

Again, we were both surprised by how willing the locals are to accept new people into their firmly established circles of friends, and how cool they are with discussing the many sides of their nation - the good as well as the bad, and how open they are with their opinions. Agreeing to disagree is the concept of the day, and luckily I'm no less included, even if I am always on the disagreeing end. Perhaps we shouldn't any longer be so surprised by the open arms and hearts hiding behind the high security gates, and accept South Africa as what it is - An absolutely awesome, hospitable country as long as you remember to look beyond the first impressions.