Gift and Giver

That's B, and that's the hibiscus plant she gave us as a present for our new home.  She's the owner of that garden I posted last week and she noticed that I went ga-ga over her flowers, so she decided to gift this one to us, together with a matching ceramic drip plate when the plant needs to go indoors in the winter as well as instructions with regards to temperature and amount of water.

Passed by Western Union this morning to pay for our reservations in Manila via my goddaughter, and then Starbucks to buy my favourite cheesecake.  The housewarming began at about 19.30 and extended to way past midnight.  Except for M who's on holiday in France and R, hubby's bridge partner, everyone was there -- S and B, H and M, E, and the owner of the house-moving company, good friend M and his 7-year-old son, J.  

J and his dad have a fabulous relationship, but J wasn't just all play.  He hung around me the whole evening, asking for a constant refill of his glass, and doing the honours of serving the other guests.  He would go around with the plates of sausage and garlic shrimp, bowls of chips and peanuts, and then he would report back to me things like 'The liver sausage was more popular than the shrimps, and it was mostly the men who ate the shrimps and the women who had the sausage,' displaying excellent quantitative and qualitative research techniques.  He even put toothpicks in the snacks and trained the guests to put the used ones in a small saucer. In the meantime, hubby had set out a tray with 5 different kinds of French cheese, champagne, white and red wine, beer, and I was ready with coffee and tea plus the cheesecake.  The guests, in turn, had brought along a generous supply of weed.  What a wonderful boy ... and a fantastic evening!