Don't get me wrong, I'd take Suite 54 any day over Paddy Orwell's Room 101, or was it his brother Seamus? I must be getting older, the disco above Tonic in Blackrock was a bit too hectic. This is supposed to be a quiet leafy suburb and all a bit Stepford but you may as well be in Mega City 1. On the upside there are plenty of ABC taxis outside, but inside the music is too loud, and insert the usual grinchings on your own time. What baffles me most though is why the young crowd seem so excited, and just don't hide it. See Figure 1.

Well that explained it for one group. I don't know them from Adam, actually I've never met Adam, but staying on topic I was minding my own business just having a few sneaky late Arthurs with my regular co-conspirator Paul and his work buddy John, when all of a sudden a lump of familiar friendly faces not seen in several years came flyin' through the huddled masses yearning to breed free. Well that got me excited, but I hid it. Cue hugs and laughing and shaking of each others hands, the usual bizarre greeting rituals that homo sapiens dignify at the tragic expense of wanton sex. Then the dancin' and why there's a slippery pole on the dance floor I do not know but it just seemed to encourage the women to perform the kind of dance you used to see in movies from the biblical era, where some decent skin's head turns up on Salome's the slapper's plate and big crowds outside are losing the plot even though there isn't a football in sight. Was it Bwian or Thimon in the end? Anyway there was no end of writhing afoot at the aforementioned slippery pole, hereinafter referred to as the pole. We gazed upon the spectacle for some time as you do, purely in amusement at the youthful antics m'Lud.

After uncounted minutes of that sort of thing we made tracks back to base camp sited beside one of the bars, my pint exactly where I'd hidden it. I'm sure it was my pint. Dirty big glug. Replacement ordered I bequaffed the dregs, no call to eke. All happy I whipped out my Canon, mounted the flash, and started snapping. Then I switched the flash on and got some exposures.

Thank God and his dad for P, because once the camera was spotted (that's the 580 EXII flash for you, subtle as a banker's pension) I was approached by a young woman and dragged away to shoot her and her friends. "It's my friends birthday you see, hold on a sec 'til I find her, really appreciate this, what's it for?". I'm thinking "Eh, you rang me", but explained I wasn't press and just liked taking photos. The look of disappointment, I felt like a politician. For 1/2000th, for crying out loud most SLR's are owned by enthusiasts, commercial togs are the minority, how could she not know everything.