...Party!

My friends know how much I love a good party, and even more so to throw a party! So, following my new philosophy, I decided to just set the date for my "Fiesta de inauguracion y cumpleanos", Saturday the 16th, and hope for the best! The big question for me was off course, how many people would show up, and, unlike Kate or now Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, my biggest nightmare was not to show up naked at my own wedding, but rather to have only three or four people attending in this huge apartment of mine, watching the clock to see at what time it would be polite enough to disappear from a boring non-event... 

It turns out, twenty-five (25!) people showed up at my party - way more than at my farewell party in Johannesburg ;-) No, I didn't have to hand out flyers stating "booze for free" on the streets, but with some weird stroke of luck (or not), I made some new friends the Saturday before, at another birthday party - the first party I was invited to! Santiago, who studied anthropology with my friend Dorothy in London, invited me to his 50th birthday party in his house in Hurlingham, outside of the city. He arranged a ride for me with Luis and Angel, two of his old schoolmates, and our 1-hour drive including me having to read a map to get back on track, turned out to be quite some fun! And somehow that night, I was in an extremely great form, which means that I ended up entertaining Luis, Angel, Marcela and Carlos - a Colombian couple - with my stories about my great country Belgium, and so for hours tears were rolling from laughter, and we ended up closing the party without even noticing...Luis and Angel are gourmets, and so they offered to prepare the food for my party. So the next Saturday, Luis invited me for lunch at his house with this gourmet crew, just 5 blocks from my place, and then my new friends moved to my place for the party! Milton, part of the crew, is the creative chef of one of Buenos Aires' best restaurants (http://www.chilaweb.com.ar/), and he ended up cooking gourmet food all night for my guests, including specials for my three vegetarian friends! A real show in the open plan kitchen and living / party room, as you can judge from the pictures! We had a special chickpea stew, a huge fresh octopus a la plancha, a spectacular peruvian dish called "Tacu Tacu", and, especially for me, a pot of mussels in white wine, as I told them the weekend before that this is one of Belgium's specialties...I closed the door around 4.00 for my last guests after tea and cake, with a big smile on my face...And have since then been invited to the weekly informal gourmet cooking gatherings which turn out to be a lot of fun...

You'll find more pictures of my party and friends on the link below!

https://picasaweb.google.com/rose.vervenne/BirthdayEnBuenosAires?authkey=Gv1sRgCN-Uv_fP5LbRxQE#