“The Bright Lights Tonight” Richard & Linda Thompson
This song has been going around in my head all week after it came up on a Spotify play 
list. It reminded me of when my daughters lived at home and would get ready for a night out.
Newcastle has a reputation as a party city and the town centre is full of bars and clubs. Every age, social group and sexual preference is catered for. Although the bars are free to enter the drinks are expensive and so “prinking” was created. Basically, it means getting drunk before you go out working on the premise that it will save you money. Sadly, it usually doesn’t work as the alcohol you drink before you go out decrees your inhibition to not order more alcohol when you do go out.
Last night I heard a new addition to the lexicon of drinking words, we had decided to go out to the local cafe for a quick drink before dinner and my daughter said “Are we going for an amuse booze?”
Prinking*
My daughter and assorted friends
Have gathered before the Friday night out
Hard earned money in their purses
The fridge is stocked with Prosecco
Soon the bathroom is overrun
They parade before the mirror
Swapping shoes, clothes and gossip
Pimping their outfits until they sparkle
Parade again, open another bottle
Music blasts around the house
The walls shake and they shriek
They are drunk on the joy of life
(as well as the Prosecco)
These moments seem ephemeral
But they cement bonds
They will draw on for years to come
Attachments that will straddle continents
There is power in friendships
Permanency in the cords that tie them
Outside a taxi sounds its horn
Suddenly the house falls silent
After they leave I survey the wreckage
The bedroom is like a war zone
Clothes that did not make the grade
Are scattered like battlefield corpses
The bathroom is a bombed out ruin
I pop a pizza in the oven and open a bottle of beer
©Jeff Price August 2017
*Prinking, short for “pre-drinking” Friends sharing wine etc before a night out.
