I’ve been meaning to invite people over to our house forever, but it has taken us a long time to really settle into our place.  We’ve been here since October, and the house is just now starting to feel like home.  Part of the reason is that we had to start from scratch in terms of furniture – I got rid of most of my stuff back in the States, and Nick has been living on contract for the last several years.  More importantly, I was wary of really nesting yet – I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high.  We knew we wanted to be based in Cape Town, but the decision really came down to whether Nick was able to get a job posted here.  The interviews ended up taking a long time, and I just wasn’t convinced that we wouldn’t have to move to Joburg in a couple of months!  So I haven’t had my artwork and other little homey touches that I’ve collected sent from Mpls yet.

When Nick got offered a position with SA Express based out of Cape Town a week or so ago, I figured it was a great excuse for a party!  He’ll be heading to Joburg for training for 2 months or so, so it was also a going away party.  So bunch of friends from Somerset West came through to our side of the mountain to help us celebrate a very belated house warming/yay we get to stay in Cape Town/congrats on Nick’s new job/farewell to Nick – lots of reasons to celebrate!  I wasn’t really sure who would come, since for some reason 40 minutes away seems like a serious schlep, but nearly everyone turned out.  The weather cooperated, and the wind managed to leave at least a few of our candles lit.  Good thing one of the frequent summer cold fronts didn’t pass through – our place is tiny and without being able to open our doors and use the patio it would have been a very cozy party indeed!  Fang (aka rent-a-cat) entertained the guests with his tinfoil ball antics and then promptly conked out on the bed, furring up everything he comes in contact with.  We tried to get as many different kinds of beer as we could find for our guests to sample – there aren’t really many micro-brews here in SA and people usually stick to their standards, but we’ve found a few good ones!  It was great to see everyone again.