SATURDAY NIGHT

It's 10.30pm and I've just taken my dog for a walk before bedtime. While out I met my neighbour and her friends heading off for a night on the town.

I'm not actually quite sure how old my neighbour is - late 20s/early 30s?
The thought of actually having to get all dolled up and go out at this time of night is most certainly not appealing.

However, I remember in 1991 (when I was 32 years old) phoning a friend (in her 40's with two kids) at 10.15pm and asking if she wanted to go out with me. Needless to say she didn't.

Living in a Scottish City in the 1990s all pubs on a Fri/Sat night were open until at least 1am so people didn't actually go out until about 10-11pm. Even if I went out for a couple of drinks with a girlfriend midweek we probably wouldn't meet until about 9pm.

These days I like to go out straight from work, have a few glasses of wine and be home by 7.30pm, lying on the settee watching the latest soaps. How sad is that. Actually, it's not sad because that's what I want to do.

But meeting my neighbour tonight has made me realise that life today is actually not a lot different from what it was 20 years ago. When I came home about 8pm tonight I could see that there were a lot of girls in the neighbours' house. They were probably all getting ready for some big night out.

In my day we used to drink 'Martini & lemonade' before we went out. Can one even buy 'Martini' these days? I can't even remember the last time that I drank Martini. I do remember though there was a very 'prominent' advert for 'Martini'. It involved a girl on roller skates, skating around holding a tray with a bottle of Martini on it.

'Anytime, anyplace, any where
It's the wonderful world that we share
It's the right place, it's the bright place
It's Martini!!?

20 years ago, I think if we had one drink before going out we probably thought we were very daring. Watching my neighbours stagger down the road into town in their scantily clad outfits, it was obviously that they'd had a lot more than one martini?.

And no doubt my neighbours will arrive home at 3-4am, wake my dog up, who will go crazy because she'll think that burglars are approaching.

But ho hum .................................. we're only young once.

Enjoy it.