The Cocktail Party

Writing about the cocktail party we went to at Elle's college in Canberra reminded me that these days, a cocktail party rarely involves cocktails. It's usually some champagne, lovely wines, beers and sparkling water. 

Amazingly, (you'll get the irony shortly) I actually recall a real cocktail party when I was at college. How anyone thought an event offering more than a dozen different cocktails for 17 - 22 year-olds to work their way through was a good idea, is beyond me - even if it was the 1980s.

The common room was set up with different stations, each offering a different, extremely alcoholic concoction. These included but were not limited to; Grasshoppers, B-52s, Harvey Wall Bangers, Martinis, Long Island Iced Teas, Blue Lagoons, Fluffy Ducks and few with 'hilarious' names like Sex On The Beach and A Comfortable Screw.

Hydration wasn't such a big thing in the 80s. Why drink water when you could just keep drinking cocktails? Especially, if you were starting to feel a little dizzy, there was a very tasty light option - kahlua and milk. 

For most of us, we'd only indulged in these exotic mixtures on occasion and certainly not all at once. We were even issued with a check list - just to be sure we didn't miss any.

These days, a sense of responsibility usually means serving food at such events, often something like chicken sandwiches, mini burgers and other substantial finger food to slow the uptake of alcohol among an excitable crowd.  Back in the 80s, it was a couple of bowls of Burger Rings and some Twisties.

We had loads of drunken, raucous parties at college, but this would have to have been the fastest. It started at 8pm and was done and dusted by 10.30pm. There wasn't a conscious soul left as everyone had either passed out, vomited, become disorientated and lost in the gardens or successfully crawled off to bed.

Based on this, my only experience of a cocktail party with both scope and scale, perhaps it's just as well that most are beer and wine.

You Know You're An Adult When....

I was reading a post the other night called  20 Signs That You're An Adult. I stumbled upon it  via yet another blogger - Fox In Flats - proving yet again that it is a trap to keep surfing the net late at night when you should be sleeping!  Anyway, this post is so funny becasue it's so true and I was inspired to start my own list -  many of which you might recognise as I have posted about some of these things before.

So in addtion to the original, I add:

You Know You're An Adult When...

1. You drive a minivan with sliding doors
   
2. You can unstack a dishwasher and breast feed a baby - at the same time
   
3. You need to know what 'superannuation' actually means - and realise it's not that super
   
4. When $4,000 a year on private health insurance seems like a good use of your money
   
5. When you're as excited over a new dishwasher as you are over new shoes - possibly even more if you've been washing dishes by hand for a week
   
6. Sleep is a more attractive option than sex (especially when your kids are tiny)
   
7. You decide not to buy that divine new coat as you know the money would be better directed to your mortgage
   
8. You really care about turning off the lights and appliances to save electricity and not becasue of the environment
   
9. You can clean up poo and vomit without gagging - or even batting an eyelid for that matter
   
10. Activities like gardening are now enjoyable
    

So what do you think the criteria is? Feel free to add your own  and let's see if we can get 20.