You need to be fingerprinted to read this post

I am 27 years old, I'm not old yet!

We've still got it!
Stolen from here

My parents complain they are old. They are not old yet.

My grandparents (who are either in their 80's or nearing them) tell me that they are old, I simply tell them they are not old, just older than they were last year.

I don't believe in old.

But on Saturday Night, I felt old.*

The Hubster and I were attending some friends Housewarming/Birthday Party where we got talking to some of the younger guests. These guys were in their early to mid 20's. Now the Hubster and I might act like an old married couple most of the time, but we liked to think we could still get down and party like everyone else, every now and then when the stars align and we find a babysitter.

We soon learned we no longer had our finger on the pulse.

Did you know...
You need to be fingerprinted to get into a lot of clubs these days
Your license is also scanned
Clubs in Western Sydney are charging $30 cover charges for the honour of waiting in line for eternity, spending up to half an hour getting fingerprinted, scanned, poked and prodded before being allowed entry to the club where you can then spend another eternity waiting in line at the bar where one round of drinks costs you half your weekly pay cheque.
People still do this anyway
And it's not just clubs, some pubs are doing it too

One of the ladies (who was closer to 40 than 30) who joined in the conversation said she had to sweet talk the security guard to let her in because she'd forgotten her license and he wouldn't let anyone in without their license being scanned. SHE WAS GOING INTO A PUB PEOPLE!

My daughter is 10 months old. Surely the 18 months I've been away from the 'going out' scene hasn't aged me so greatly here I was blaming it on my daughter, it appears it's society's fault!


Now I used to party better than most. It took me 5 years to get my degree and I made the most of all those years living on a uni campus and drinking my nights away. Hangovers were for the weak and meble. We drank until our livers begged us to stop and then we had another drink.

Sunnyvale Wine,
$10.99 a carton!
Image from here

We managed to turn anything into a drinking game. We spent our hard earned cash on Sunnyvale Dry White mixed with some solo or drunk in a Goon Sunrise. Many a night ended because the sun was rising and we had to sober up and get to class in a number of hours.

We witnessed the occasional bar fight, every now and then one of our party would be asked to leave because they were a little too intoxicated, so, like responsible adults, we'd take our stumbling friend home, make sure there was someone to keep an eye on them and head back out into the great night. We were conscious of drink spiking, we stuck together and we didn't make trouble.

And yet, just a few years later, people are being fingerprinted to get into clubs and pubs.

What happened in those few short years? Did you know about the hoops you need to jump through to purchase and drink anything in a licensed venue?

Don't get me wrong, obviously these cautions are needed, so I'm not having a digg at them, I'm confused about HOW we got to a place where these systems are required and I'm feeling really bloody old and out of the loop for my lack of knowledge regarding them!

*This had nothing to do with the fact that we left the party at 9pm,  before the jello shots came out, taking care of a 10 month old while in the throes of a hangover sucks, period.

Have you found yourself doing the 'back in my day' speech and felt old too?