Yes, I officially popped my Cherry..

Originally posted on Sept 28 2006 on my Friendster blog.

My clubbing cherry lah, what are you thinking? Eeeyear... Dirty-minded...

So anyway, I went clubbing for the first time last night. *shock horror* I went only because my friend was the promoter and he asked very nicely. Heh heh. It was at Fix in the Docklands and was billed as the Cherry Event. Not that you'd be interested but I better get the details down before I forget them around lunchtime.

I was getting a lift there and back from a friend (MO) and we were a little late cos the other girl we had to pick up lived in a hard-to-find place. 'Late' means we got there about midnight. The first interesting thing that happened was with the parking. By the time we got the venue, there was no more street (read: free) parking available and we cruised the various paid-parking areas for a while to see which was cheaper. The cheapest worked out to be AUD $12 for 2-4 hours which is an utter rip-off as overnight parking in the CBD itself is only AUD $8. As we circled back to the parking area nearest to the club, we noticed that the boomgate was up so Mo just drove right in. "Free parking! Yay!" Then some not-so-bright dude drives up to the open boomgate and presses the ticket button, lowering the boomgate! Flying fish! Now we are parked, but without a ticket... We decided that we would worry about that later.

Lined up to get into the club (which makes me question the point of tickets) and once in, I checked my jacket in with the coat service people for AUD $4 (cha-ching!) and surveyed the scene. It was a wierd feeling because I got deja vu, hard. I've seen this scene before, done this before. But how? This is my first time ever clubbing! Then I realised. I'd done this countless times before during my stint in the Interact Club during high school. Ah, yes... The good old Interact Club. I remember 2 events where we did charity work but overwhelmingly, the rest of IC events I remember are of the 'clubbing' variety.

We squirmed our way through the crowd to the bar and I got a lemon-lime bitters (Thanks Dale!). I make it a point to DRINK drink only at home or in the company of family when out, but that's another story. We sipped our drinks and watched the action for a while. Nothing has changed since I was fifteen. The girls still wear too little and the guys still have too much product in their hair. The music was quite good though. I have to admit I was eager to get on the dance floor and start moving.

But there's where the difference lies. I was moving to the music and so was everyone else, but it had no hold for me. It wasn't forbidden anymore. In those IC events of the past, the hosting club usually booked a ballroom at a hotel and there would be dancing after the food was served and the tables cleared away. Everybody knew everybody (almost) and the dancefloor would be a dark, heaving, gyrating mass of bodies and hormones. It was naughty, forbidden, frowned upon. And I liked it like that! I remember those times of moving to the music, eyes closed, my arms above my head, hands in my hair. And pretty soon I would be joined by other arms sliding around my waist, other hands on my hips, on my back, just dancing. And I wouldn't even have to open my eyes because those hands would belong to someone I knew (usually) and what does it matter as long as he can dance well! (Hint: You know why women go crazy for a guy who can dance? It shows that he knows how to use his body...)

Last night was different. The thrill, the excitement of it was not there. Maybe it's because I'm EXPECTED to go clubbing now, maybe it's because I did it so often for 3 years, maybe I've grown up. Whatever it is, in the words of Mo as we left early at 2am:

"I am SO over clubbing..."

The second interesting thing for the night was getting OUT of the car park. We were calling for help already when a nice guy we knew walked by and asked us what was wrong. We explained the situation to him and he kindly drove up to the boomgate, pressed the ticket button and reversed out. The boomgate was up and we just drove out! Yay! Free parking!