Frolic: Bridal weekend overdose

I was on a high from watching the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton last Friday night mainly because I got to finish off the last drop of wine from our Easter celebrations and because I got to hog the tv all to myself that night (which I relished, being a rare event, and to the boys' chagrin who wanted to watch the footy!).

The next day, I was off to my first-ever experience of a Hens Night  in Australia (or bachelorette party,for Americans) at the Shelbourne Hotel in the city. I've only experienced "bridal showers" which is what women do back where I come from, and it's often held in one's home or more private venues, with gifts, games, etc.

Shelbourne Hotel has a really good, value-for-money package for Hens Nights (starting at 3 pm, way before the pub patrons hit the venue at about 11 pm) and already includes the dinner and apetizers, plus: a cocktail making class, life drawing and burlesque dancing sessions.

Life drawing means sketching a nude (male) model  in varied poses that change every few minutes. This lasted for nearly half an hour, including the model's spiels and photo sessions with him (!).  I guess this is the more tasteful way of getting naughty without the standard male stripper experience.  Then of course the much younger ones kept on gulping down alcohol the whole night through. Us married cousins (and mothers of the bride and groom in that group) surrendered by 8 pm.

To my great pleasure, I discovered I still possessed the knack for drawing--after not touching paper and pencils since my early university days. Overall, it was fun. I mean,us married people were a rather jaded bunch, and laughed more at our drawings instead of the giggly pretty young things laughing at something else (actually) and still looking forward to being "attached."

If you get invited to one, make sure you go with someone as mature as you, or in rather similar life circumstances, otherwise you'll begin to feel like one grumpy old woman. Yes, I hung out with the mother of the bride-to-be and groom-to-be that night. And that made it a ball!

By the way, I showed my sketches to the boys (there's a lot more I'm not showing you here) and they all laughed out loud. I was very much encouraged by the middle boy who has been a recipient of art prizes in school, who told me poker-faced "they're acually quite good, Mama."