Saturday night we had the pleasure of Retha and Miguel sleeping over the night (they were off on a shark cage diving expedition in Gansbaai yesterday), and in anticipation of their long overdue visit to our little Nagua Bay haven, we organised a big braai – which we then hastily changed to a fondue at the last minute thanks to Gordon’s Bay’s seemingly unwavering insistence on generating as much of the Western Cape’s wind as possible.
So out came the fondue pots and big glass bowls once again.
As always, with Chantelle at the helm of our shopping expedition, we ended up buying about double the amount of stuff that we actually needed (not that I’m complaining of course – it just means more little extras for me to snack on during the next couple of weeks!), and after a little chopping and packing, we were all set up and ready for the big visit… and of course, being Retha and Miguel, they pitched up much later than expected! :P
(Though when you come bearing fresh milk tart, chips, wine, strawberries and cream then one tends to be VERY forgiving, very fast!)
However, the feeling of forgiveness soon passed as both Miguel and Retha managed to trip over my loose telephone cable, thereby completing its total uprootment from the floor, that had admittedly been threatening to happen for quite some time now (and which also meant that yesterday afternoon I spent gluing the damn thing down again!)
Surprisingly enough, well-travelled Miguel had never partaken in an oil-based fondue before and as such we had a good time watching him cook his spring rolls into smithereens, but disappointingly other than that, he generally managed just fine. For a change though, with four people split over two pots, it also meant that there was plenty of space for cooking and this in turn meant that there were a lot less cries of ‘help, I’ve lost my cheese’ than what normally accompanies these nights of hot oil cooking, a great pity in my eyes as I tend to enjoy the extra entertainment dunking for lost items seems to generate for me.
Of course as real men, Miguel and I stayed at the pots until well after the girls had finished, which would explain then why Chantelle and Retha suddenly dived from the table, grabbed the microphones that Chantelle had cunningly left lying out and fired up SingStar, thus sealing our entertainment fate for the rest of the night! Of course, Miguel and I were soon roped in too, and after a little bit of solo action, the four of us soon got involved in heated vocal battles in the various party games that SingStar tends to throw up.
Breaking only for dessert which involved delicious milktart, coffee and strawberries in cream, the singing battles continued well into the night, until finally just before midnight the last of our voices gave out, thereby signalling an end to the festivities and probably at the same time leading to quite a number of sighs of relief from the flats all around us! :)
Not done yet though, next up for the evening was an impromptu midnight beach stroll and the four of us took to what had turned out to be a stunning, starlit evening. Funnily enough, Coco and Olympus wasn’t going to let us hog all the fun, especially since they both amazingly endured our attempts at singing (well, I was the only REALLY terrible singer to be honest), and like two little dogs they followed us out all the way to the beach, stopping only once we reached the sand and then patiently waiting for our return, before obediently following us all the way home again – talk about absolute cutie pies!
Anyway, back home the final small talk was forcibly gotten out of the way and the four of us retired to what can only be described as a well deserved sleepy-time, with the added bonus of looking forward to waking up to freshly baked muffins and banana loaf for breakfast!
Ah, I tell you, this going out with an ex-chef thing really pays off sometimes! :D