The lovely and stylish lads at Australian Fashion Guide certainly love a good party, they are after all serial offenders on the circuit, never without dapper suits or designer haircuts misplaced. To top it off they're nice guys to boot, so when I was invited to partake in their soiree on the Rooftop of the Prince ' Circa ' I was more than a little excited.
Being the North Queenslander I am , when I'm invited to a pool party I assume that somewhere in the line there will be activities , involving like, you know ... a pool. With this vital clue on my invitation I packed a spare dress and a gym towel just in case the moment took me. It was after all a sweltering weekend - smack bang in the middle of a genuine Melbournian heat wave.
As I climbed the stairs from the street level of St Kilda, I was greeted with what I expected. Models/waitresses/actresses in vintage inspired (but still teeny weeny) swimwear sauntering around offering guests treats. A collection of immaculately presented guests, the slight scent of fake tan and hairspray and the peal of semi genuine laughter.
It looked divine. The drinks were lovely (666 Vodka) and the music was damn good too. From all accounts the gift bag ( the adult version of a show bag) was a filled with goodies ( I missed out). However the thing that was lacking, that I realised .. was that there wasn't a whole lot of fun. You see it's difficult to have a blast when you're wondering what everyone else is thinking of you, considering what they are wearing and sucking your tummy in.
This point was never made so apparent as when I decided to make an impromptu dip in the pool complete with clothes on ( it had NOTHING to do with the fact that there were male models in the pool I SWEAR) and instead of creating a frenzy of other fun party goer's partaking in water based fun .. I was greeted with horror - " but your HAAAIIIIR" one girl shrieked"
All of the elements were indeed there and the lads did a damn nice job, but that missing element, that thing that is hard to account for isn't - that ' thing' is a little thing called ' vibe' and it's possibly the most important element of any event regardless of it's purpose.
Mix the beauties with the party beasts, the barbie dolls with the BBQ fiends and for heaven's sake invite people who can LAUGH at themselves. If you don't you'll end up with something very nice to look at but not that memorable at all.
That said, this very fact worked for me - turns out next time I get my very own guest list on the proviso I bring more ' crazy girls' like me. Luckily most of my friends could have the ability to have fun in a cardboard box and turns out that's more of a valuable skill than I thought.
Till the next invitation
Sheridan
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