My Year of Meaningful (2011)

BIG PARTY last night was really fun. And as promised, it was the locals/partners who took to the dance floor long before any of the Dutch wall flowers got moving.

I took this video at the very beginning of the boogie, before it REALLY got up and running. Actually when we left at the end of the night, they were still going in full force (dancing).


Anyway it was really fun and big thank-yous to Her Majesty Queen Beatrix for all the lovely wines and beers and uh.... pretty average (cold, stale) finger food! :D

Some more photos

the Mr. and Alice

Here's everyone listening to the Dutch Consul's speech. When we first arrived we were introduced to Mr. Important, here, and he was actually really nice and engaging and we had a pretty cool chat. My first time ever to rub shoulders with an official "international representative".

it was a really great night in a really nice atmosphere and setting. We sat around the little fire pit with Alice and Corine for a good chunk of it, just drinking and talking, and hung out with Petra for another good while, and ended up the night with Vincent (who's getting married on Saturday to K. - see photos from the eclipse night). I really, really like Vincent. Must be something about guys named Vincent. heehee. Anyway there we were, taking to V., who then proceeded to drag this other dutch guy's spouse from Peru over to me and shoved her in my face so that I could practice my spanish. ?!?!

It was so embarassing because I was just a wee bit liquored up and half the words that came out of my mouth were dutch. oops. when i'm pissed I can't seperate my foreign languages very well. not a good scene. then SHE shoved her 80-year old Peruvian MOTHER in my face and this lady was talking some wild and crazy south american dialect of peru-spanol and I understood about 1 word in 500. ygh. how embarassing. but she JUST. KEPT. GOING. ON! and on! Mr. dutch husband and his wife had to drag her away from me and then she insisted that we do this really weird drunken-details-swap. Now my question is.... for what exactly do we need each other's phone numbers?! anyway. it was great.

There is a Scorpions cd in my car stereo. And I'm strangely enough enjoying it quite a bit.

This weekend I have She-haam's baby shower. I've never been to a baby shower for someone expecting twins. A boy and a girl. Does this mean I have to buy 2 presents? I'm excited about the shower because there's going to be champagne (YESSSSS) and new people I've never met so again I hope to meet some nice ones. If they're friends with S-h then they've gotta be nice. I'm also totally excited about the fact that its the first social engagement here to which I can actually WALK! ;-)

The best part is she's gonna start cooking for it TODAY, and that's 2 days away from the shower. She'll be serving her famous Malay curry (which I've had and I KNOW it's heaven in your mouth), potato salad, something else, something else, something something, and something else. We have to loan her a shelf or two in our fridge because hers is overflowing. So it'll be an eating exxxtravaganza. I feel like I should start fasting now.

Talking to P. last night we decided we should all get together for a big music festival in joburg sometime soon. We're all craving live music and a big concert scene and Joburg is definitely the place to get it. Slap it on the agenda.