Our visiting cat has been rather agitated recently, not really being quite so settled, and constantly on alert. Clearly something was going on in cat world, though what we were not sure – a new cat, some damage to the area after the storm (though we, of course, couldn’t see anything), a portent of a forthcoming earthquake? Well, it turns out there is a turf war going on, and our house seems to be part of the border dispute. On Friday, a lunch time conference saw misse moj (‘our’ cat) and the rather lovely grey cat who has been here a few times, at least rub noses and make friends.
Peace treaty negotiations
This morning (Sunday), saw a stand-off between misse moj and the stripey cat that has also been around quite a bit recently. There was some rather dramatic caterwauling and posturing going on, which certainly added some drama to our lazy Sunday morning.
Border dispute at 144A
This land is my land…
Anyway, yesterday, Saturday, we had a housewarming party/lunch. We have now been in New Zealand 5 months, and as it is also the weekend between our birthdays, it seemed like a good time to host our first get together.
There were 16 guests from 8 different countries, who filled our downstairs room. I decided to make a big pot of chilli, since it is easy to do for numbers.
Big pot of chilli
I covered the table with salads, dips, bread and cheese of all sorts, and for ‘desert’ passed round bowls of M&Ms and mini bars of hokey pokey chocolate.
Part of the spread
Another part of the spread
The afternoon sun was shining and lit up the house beautifully. It was a fun afternoon with an interesting group of people, our new friends in New Zealand.
Thistles and Kiwis 