Going Out

When I was reading about the fiasco with Florida (Madhouse)

I was engulfed by the nostalgia of back when going out was just.....different. The sprucing up, the anticipation, the courting and the bitter sweet sepatration and longing for the next jaunt. This was men and women in thier finery, smelling their best, enjoying each other, the atmosphere and the music...

Today the proliferation of "Joints" and "Locals" combined with the triviality of the whole going out thing has made the "hang" loose its color. Everything is easy booze, women, men, sex, drugs et al.

I particulary find disturbing the whole concept where boys and girls each separately guzzle themselves to near oblivion then in the dead of the night try to get together with one intention, to get each other in the sack. No preambles...if this one won't do...scroll down on the phone. I'm sure the phone companies wonder what these spikes of call and sms in the dead of the night are all about.

My nostalgia goes back to the late DJ Alois' Tropical Nights at Club Visions, the pulsating sounds of DJ Perez at he Ainsworth, not forgeting the scents and sounds of the Carnivore.

Yes, I know this sounds like some middle aged bat ruminating about his more potent days...but lets face it. We now have a few "Lounges" in the city that just charge you twice the price of any other place for your poison because you get to sit on a sofa, then there is the "Bistros" (always thought that was a caf'e) who will double that to keep the rif raf away ? Where do you get to shake a leg ?

Everything below the lounge is your standard squeezed bar, with loud music from a dime-a-dozen DJ (who will probable change next week), ring fenced by half a dozen TVs showing Premier Leage soccer or a croc being disected (NatGeoWILD). This or the place is in Westie.

Maybe I'm not the man about town, but where would one get dressed up and go dancing with his or her better half and enjoy a couple of slow numbers ??

This will obviously get worse with the World Cup, I offer my condolences to the football "widows", mainly because I'm not sure what I will do myself not being a fan of football, but I guess we shall survive.