Alice In Clubland

 We had such a chilled out Christmas this year.  No one was really in the mood to make a bit deal about it so we didn’t put any decorations up apart from one piece of tinsel wrapped around one of Jemma’s vases.  We bought each other a couple of little gifts to exchange in the morning but had decided to keep it simple.  We did have cocktails and snowballs for a couple of days before, but other than that didn’t bother getting into the whole thing.  They don’t make as much of a fuss about it all here and it’s a bit odd it being 35 degrees for Christmas anyway.  The funny thing is that the shops that do put decorations up still tend to use snowmen and snowflakes etc, even though it’s the middle of summer and they don’t get snow in winter anyway.  We still had a Christmas dinner but just bought a turkey crown (which didn’t taste at all like turkey) and didn’t even start the Christmas pudding until a few days later.  It was lovely not to get so embroiled in it.

For New Years we booked tickets to go a party called Alice in Clubland.  The theme was to wear a hat, presumably based on the idea of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.  I bought a bowler hat and added the 10/6 plus a feather and ribbon to make one similar to the Mad Hatter, while Jemma added a queen of hearts card to hers and had a gold mask to match her dress.  Glenn had red braces, a red hat and a multi-coloured mask.  After the last fancy dress party we’d been to we weren’t going to be caught out again.  The party was advertised on the radio constantly, so I had an idea in my head that it would be a bit like the Maid in China party we’d been to a few weeks before.  When we got there we were given a handful of mini glow sticks each, a UV sticker on our cheeks and a mini bottle of champagne.  The entrance was decorated with huge neon hangings that glowed in the UV light.  We were then given mini tea cups containing some kind of shot, possibly Apple Sours which I drank whilst sitting on a toadstool.  This is going to be awesome I thought… until I stepped foot into the actual club.  It was not at all as I’d imagined; they hadn’t bothered decorating any of the inside of the club and the place was tiny.  The music was ok but people hadn’t really made much effort with their hats so it was all a bit half arsed.  We had a couple of drinks and chatted to a few people then after a while decided we’d go and check out the Ministry of Sound party at the CTICC.

We got back into the car and jumped on the highway towards the venue, only to get stuck in traffic.  We sat there for what seemed like ages with the clock slowly ticking towards midnight.  I had images of us being in the car in traffic when we hit new year, but luckily it sped up just enough to get us their with 15 minutes to go.  Having parked the car, dumping our hats and practically running to the ticket office we were told that they had sold out and the venue was full, try again in an hour.  Gutted.  We headed up to the entrance to see if there was anything we could do and I noticed that the security checking people’s stamps and tickets were all a bit flustered by the amount of people trying to get in.  In desperation I suggested to Jem and Glenn that maybe we could just walk through with purpose and if we get stopped then at least we will have given it a good shot.  We went for it and amazingly all three of us managed to walk straight through without even being looked at by any of the security.  The place was no where near to what I’d call full.  Not only had we got in with 5 minutes to spare but had also saved ourselves 350 Rand each (that’s about 30 quid).  Bonus.

Managing to get to the bar and grab a drink we immediately joined in the countdown until midnight.  After the clock struck 12 we had a look around to see what was going on and discovered that the layout was still set up similar to the Maid in China party.  It turned out to be a really good night.  There were plenty of different djs in the different rooms again and plenty of bars to keep us entertained.  Towards the end of the evening we took a seat outside on the floor to watch the people with fire poi before heading home.  So it seems my blagging skills work internationally (well more like breaking and entering - minus the breaking).