To prepare I cleaned the place from top to bottom, with help in the kitchen from Derek as I suddenly ran out of time and realized that I still had to get ready myself. I vacuumed, scrubbed, washed and dusted all over the place. I tidied up and made good use of the Ikea storage boxes I bought a year ago, and filled the spare room's closet. That's the one thing about a flat-warming -- everyone is going to be looking everywhere, so I can't just pile stuff up in the bedroom and shut the door... I finally gave the inside of the windows a good wash, as they were dirty when we moved in, and there's just something about greasy forehead marks on a window that gets to me, especially if they're not from us. Derek had done the outside a few days earlier, so the flat was looking particularly bright for the night.
For food I made my mum's now-famous five layer nacho dip and my peanut butter magic squares, complete with Reese's Peanut Butter chips imported from the Walmart near St. Jacobs. I can't buy peanut butter chips here, you see, and the squares are just not the same without them. We had at least half a dozen bags of tortilla chips, and I put out a plate of store-bought cookies. I was still afraid that there wasn't enough food for the 11 or so guests coming, but it turned out to be perfect. In fact, pretty much no one had any of the cookies -- guess my cooking filled them up!
In total we spent the evening with 5 Canadians, 3 Scots, 2 Americans, and 1 guest each from Germany, Japan and the Philippines. Lots of people wore red and/or white, and my one friend borrowed a Canada Olympics T-shirt of mine to be an honorary Canadian for the night. I don't think we could have fit anyone else in the living room and all be comfortable. As it was Derek was pretty much sitting in doorway (rather useful when we needed to get more drinks for the guests). It was a good number, as more than one conversation could easily go on without it getting too loud.
My party soundtrack was comprised of over 40 Canadian artists, from Joni Mitchell to Nickleback, from Matthew Good to the Guess Who, somewhat obscure one-hit wonders like Tal Bachman and Sky, and bands we hadn't realised were Canadian such as Men Without Hats. One of our Canadian friends who is really into music seemed to enjoy trying to remember the more-forgettable bands and singing along to some of the mid-90s songs from our high school years. Its kind of fun showing off Canada's music accomplishments to friends from other countries who probably assume the big-name bands are American. And kudos to Spotify for greatly increasing their range of international artists, although I still couldn't access some of the bigger-name bands' full catalogue from within the UK.
We had a great night, and I think our guests left full and happy with how the evening had progressed. I was again thankful for the warm, dry summer we've been having so far in Edinburgh. Last year at our flat-warming it was pouring so hard that I had to pull out the drying racks because our guests needed more places to hang their soaking wet jackets and socks. Really, I did. We even got out a blanket for one who was stuck sitting in cold wet jeans for the night (we did offer a pair to change into, but he declined). So a great night overall, lots of good food and conversation, and so many compliments about the flat that I am even more sure that this is just the right place for us :)
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