An Evening of Beverage Consumption

This past weekend we finally had our flatwarming to celebrate the fact that we had triumphed over the evil that is the Auckland renting market...two months after we moved in. The reason why it took so long? Coordinating four, twenty something's schedules.

Turns out that finding a night in the weekend when we were all, a) in town, b) free of plans or, c) not on an alcohol free stint (an excuse I can't claim unfortunately) is bloody difficult. When you're a student this isn't so much of an issue. For one, parties/drinking/debauchery are not limited to the weekend. Oh how I miss every day being a Saturday...

Anyway we had chosen a date and were all attending. Well most of us. One of the flatmates was still a “Maybe” on Facebook right up to the date of (just incase something better came along ofcourse). She's only twenty so her sense of spontaneity is more fine tuned than us older specimens.

Speaking of, that happens to be one of the reasons I love Facebook – it's brought back the good ole RSVP system. A few years back, asking people to RSVP to a party would render memories of primary school where you hand out the invites on My Little Pony paper. Actually BFB (before Facebook), invitations were only given for twenty first's , engagements and other 'milestone' events. A group text more than sufficed for your usual get together.

Now you can give your event an appropriate google image, ridiculous title and (the useful bit) see who's attending, not attending and maybe attending. You can even spam the entire guest list to remind them of their attendance status at the click of a button. Genius.

But I digress. This blog is about how as a twenty something, I (and my flatties) have matured when it comes to hosting a party. For one thing, it would hardly be deemed as 'hosting' in your teens. It's either a secret gathering while the parents are away or a group of students doing keg stands in a flat that has less chance at passing a hygiene test than the KFC in Masterton.

I think we can call ourselves hosts because the event was actually planned. We thought about the date, the guest list, even the menu. Well I guess sausy rolls, garlic bread, chips and dip hardly constitues a menu but still, we were responsible enough to provide food that would sort out any guests that had had one drink too many.

We also cleaned. Before and after. Infact our flat has never been as clean as it was by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. Sunday morning...well it doesn't bear thinking about really. Let's just say I regretted the garlic bread decision.

The moral of the story is that the party was actually a success and now at least I can safely say that I'm on the road to being a responsible host. If only I could have remembered to turn off the oven before leaving for town at 4am...just one step away from a five star dinner party right? Well, if the fantastic British reality show Come Dine With Me is anything to go by then yes, yes I am.

So as the long weekend is upon us and we get ready to do it all again, here's a toast to flatwarmings, sausy rolls and clean toilets.

  PS: If you have MySky- Come Dine With Me screens daily at 1.30pm on One. 

Series link and get amongst.

The Tweet Life

For fear of sounding like a complete wanker I was going to wait a while after my iPhone post before I admitted to my recent aquisition of a Twitter account but in the interest of staying topical I thought, what the hell.  

I'm not entirely sure why I feel like such a tosser when most twenty somethings seem to own both of these social tools. I guess the question that plays on my mind though, is whether Twitter is actually a tool or does it simply just make you one? 

The main criticism that Twitter faces is the fact that it is based on the assumption that people actually care what you are up to. What movie you're about to see, what baking you've just put in the oven, hell even such benign topics as laundry are acceptable in a tweet (I may have tweeted about doing three loads yesterday). 

Now this is all well and good for people like Charlie Sheen who could go to the dairy for milk and still leave a truckload of scandal and psychotic outbursts in his wake. For your average joe however, the everyday comings and goings aren't so intriguing and yet, we still tweet. To be honest I thought you had to be 'someone' in order to get a Twitter account but it turns out that unlike MySpace you can get away with it even if you're not a celeb or rockstar.
 

The cool thing about Twitter is that even us ordinary folk can message the biggest names in the world. Whether they reply is another matter entirely but it's still pretty amazing that if you feel like it, you can tell Britney just what you thought of that outfit she wore on Letterman. 

The reason why I started Tweeting though had nothing to do with this ability to have (often one sided) conversations with big stars. No, this blog is in fact the reason behind my account. Tom brought it to my attention as a way to create more of a following- yes he is slowly but surely dragging me into the 21^st century. Unfortunately I haven't accumulated the largest fanbase, but like the Mainland cheese dudes say, good things take time...

It's actually become so dire that in the wee smalls of a Sunday morning I have been caught shamelessly attempting to rustle up followers out of people that I have just met. To be fair this happened just the once and I wasn't really thinking straight at the time but still, looking back, I officially surrendered whatever coolness I had in that single moment.

Best not to dwell on one's social blunders though. I also want to talk about what Twitter has done for Facebook. I've only really noticed it since opening my account, that tweeting has elevated the quality of Facebook status updates. Tweets are literally a statement of what you're doing, whereas Facebook status updates are less frequent and generally more thought provoking observations (all except for that token FB friend that posts on the hour).    

 

 

I'm sure we've all posted a status and then scrutinised it for a minute or two wondering if it's witty enough to generate any likes or comments before removing it and rewording. The worst bit is when it you accidentally post both so the effort and thought behind said status is revealed to everyone, making you look like a right twat. With Twitter though, there's less pressure to be clever.  You just tell it like it is.

 

I suppose the reasoning behind tweeting about what you are doing is just the same as posting photos on your Facebook. You're essentially letting people know that yes, you do have a life and look how much fun it is, aren't you jealous?!

No wonder Twitter is such a hit with us twenty somethings because it provides us with a socially acceptable way to boast about our social lives. And lets face it, twenty somethings are most competitive when it comes to being out and about. Sure we compete in other arenas- who has the best job or relationship for example, but the real competition is who has the most fun. To be honest this is a competition that I'm more than happy to compete in...even if only a handful of people will appreciate my efforts.   

So have you jumped on board the Twitter train? If so you're welcome to follow me @Amanda_Bidwell (I promise to limit the amount of laundry related tweets).

The iPhonomenon

Just over a week ago I made a purchase that changed my life. This purchase saw me congratulated on countless occasions and high fived left right and centre. Anyone would have thought that I'd announced an engagement or some fabulous job promotion but no, this response was purely because I had gone to the mall and handed a wee man called Donny some cash.

Ok now it's sounding like a dodgy, illegal type transaction so I better make it clear that what I actually purchased was an iPhone.

I never expected it to generate so much hype. Especially amongst a workplace where the majority of people own one themselves...well to be fair the only people really impressed with me were in fact the iPhone owners. Maybe because owning an iPhone has become a kind of religion; the Doctrine of Apple...in Apps we trust. 

All I can say is I was converted.

Tom bought an iPhone 3 over a year ago and I thought it was the most frivolous waste of money. I was fine trucking along with my wee Samsung that could survive the apocalypse judging by the amount of times I dropped it. I couldn't see the point in shelling out more than my standard $10 a month on PrePay (yeah I was one of those people that refused to check their voicemail for fear of cutting into my 500 text deal).  

But time passed and the much sexier looking iPhone 4 came out. Then I discovered Scramble (best waste of time ever). And somehow the reasons why I should buy one outweighed the fact that it would drain my bank account.

His name is iVan and I love him. Never again will my terrible sense of direction see me lost on my way to...well anywhere that isn't within a radius of 10km from our house. Nor will I have to pretend to text when I'm awkwardly waiting somewhere and avoiding small talk with others- now I can Scramble, Facebook or check my work emails (ha). 

Plus the bonus is that, as I mentioned, Tom has an inferior model so I can taunt him with iVan's  front camera, longer battery life and other such mega pixels and stuff. It pains him I'm sure, although he's still clinging to the old excuse that 3's mean you're cooler because you knew how awesome they were first (but he can't check in on Facebook can he? In his face!).

Wow. How did I become such a geek in less than a fortnight?

When I think about it though it's a wonder I hadn't already. It seems that iPhones are the new children for twenty somethings. Not just iPhones but all whiz bang techno gadgets really. We replace the satisfaction of reproducing with purchasing.

Being the proud owner of an iPhone has let me into a club, much the same as a new mother being welcomed into a coffee group...and to be fair I worry about its welfare like it's a child. Sad really but the bottom line is I'd rather spend my pay cheque right now on a calling plan I don't use half of than nappies.  

Plus gadgets are fun and as we get older it becomes much harder to justify buying them- “Hey honey, I skipped our mortgage repayment and the kids are eating mince for the next month but check out the resolution on this thing!”

So really its rude not to embrace the twenty something urge to splurge. I know I'm not the only one and would be interested to know what purchase has made the biggest impact on you lately? Maybe you too bought an iPhone- if so, has it changed your life? Or do you think (as I did before I saw the light) that they are simply overhyped, overpriced tools for procrastination?

Either way, I recommend you give Scramble a go.