We’ve just thrown our first real grown-up party since being in Hong Kong.
Our excuse was a house-warming. We’re finally in a place big enough to have more than three people over simultaneously and it actually feels homey. Our last place reminded me of one of our university flats with its minimal furnishings, cool and constant breeze in winter and scorching heat in summer. No improvements had been made to it since its construction in 1822 (both the uni flat and the one in HK).
While we haven’t bought any furniture since moving, our current place feels like a home. It looks fairly minimalist given we don’t own much and didn’t bring much from Australia but it feels very different. Here, we can relax away from the noise of a constantly slamming front door, the beep beep beep of the electronic keypad, drones of golf carts and crying children.
Right now I can hear birds chirping, a few waves when the wind picks up and then nothingness. This area was deforested many years ago and Australian natives have been planted to regenerate the area. As a result, I feel like I’m living in the Australian bush with some non-native animals.
As with our first housewarming, Mr Shallot had decided he wanted to cook up a storm. Unlike that housewarming, there was only me here to assist. Thankfully he scaled back his original ideas and came up with a menu that was manageable. We’d decided to have nibblies on our rooftop overlooking the ocean and then go downstairs for a bbq later in the evening.
On the menu were stuffed mussels (cozze ripiene), bruschetta, rosemary Italian bread, bresaola as well as some standards such as chips and dips. Mrs Wave brought back some organic sausages from her last visit to Perth, we made some salads and the Australian / New Zealand dessert favourite – a pavlova (that’s my contribution).
The weather was fantastic, the haze was a little too much and obscured some of the view of the nearby islands, the food was impressive and the company was well-behaved – for the most part anyway.
A good time was had by all – or at least they were polite enough to say that, we met some new people and have decided that we can entertain here a lot more easily than our last place.
Now, for some furniture…
* Thanks to CeCe Peniston for the title to this post.