And where do you think you're going?

I had to go to an engagement party last night; It's totally not my thing and I wasn't keen. I'm not into big groups of people and I knew I'd not know anyone there other than the girl getting engaged and...Well, I just didn't want to go for a lot of reasons.

I wasn't the only person not keen on me going out and the other person made it quite clear she was not impressed with a look that said, how dare you go out and not stay home for cuddles. I'm talking about my cat Cleo whom you can see giving me the evil eye for going out when she didn't want me to. Clearly she's not at all impressed.

She can't talk but she has a way of getting her message across...It's in the attitude, the body language and the eyes. It doesn't leave any doubt about what she's thinking and last night was no different. She's the boss and when the boss isn't happy there's hell to pay!

She was quite indignant as she watched me get ready to go and when I went to say goodbye she gave me one of those looks that sort of said, yeah keep walking buddy, I'm not giving you a kiss and cuddle - You know why. I didn't want to leave her but I had to.

I was ready to go and it was time to mount up and ride into battle.

The engagement was at a place called The Joiners Arms Hotel which is one of the cities oldest pubs, dating back about 150 years; It has been expertly refurbished and I'd never been there before so was interested to see how it had been finished off - I was more interested in that than the actual engagement party to be honest.

On arrival I realised the soccer stadium had a national game on and the Entertainment Centre had a national netball game on and considering they are both within 500 metres of The Joiners...Car parks weren't easy to come by. Grumpy-level went up by a factor of ten right about that point and I wished I was at home cuddling with Cleo. I managed to find a car park though and made my way to the event despite wanting to turn around and go right home.

On arrival there was the mandatory social-convention of greeting, small talk and engagement congratulations, along with the hand-over of a card with $150 in it for the happy couple - Expensive night out for sure! I then headed to the bar for a drink, a beer on this occasion, then did a recce (reconnaissance) found a corner to hide in, behind a plant.

I did some people watching from my snipers hide corner and observed far too many people with dresses three sizes too small and lips four sizes too large. It's the way of the world these days I think...It was amusing though, if somewhat horrifying at the same time. Do these people not have mirrors? I was morbidly fascinated for a time.

I'm not sure what it is about people and super-loud music but one was not able to hear anyone else speak, so everyone spoke louder and...Well, I couldn't understand anyone; Is that supposed to be fun? I wasn't enjoying it. But then some food turned up and things got a little better; Not much, but marginally.

The food was really pretty good, I'll be honest. It was platters of finger food with flat bread and dips, crispy chicken tenders, arancini balls, little pizzas, sliders, tempura calamari, satay beef skewers and stuff like that. I tried a little of everything and felt my grumpy-level diminish somewhat, but not go altogether...I had a second drink, a pinot noir this time, and wasn't feeling quite as annoyed at having to come out here in the first place. Still, at home with Cleo on my lap seemed a better option...Always does.

It was about then that the mother of the girl who got engaged introduced me to an older woman who hailed from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She was about 65-70 I guess, quite intelligent and fairly interesting. We chatted a bit, despite me not hearing a word she said, and that passed a lot of the time which was good. She left South Africa in the height of the Apartheid, went to the UK and then ended up here in Australia where she married; An interesting story and I was happy to listen...She didn't ask about me and I didn't volunteer much and I'm happy with that scenario and the fact that she helped the time move quickly.

I'd set an operational window of two hours for my engagement-party deployment and was dismayed to realise I was thirty minutes behind schedule and so said my farewells and made my way home at 2130h leaving the too-small-dress wearers, and loud drunk wankers to their evening. I was done, obligation met. Mission accomplished.

On arrival home I changed and spent some time with Cleo who, by this time wanted cuddles so badly that she forgave me for leaving, and that was that...Saturday night in a nutshell.

I'm not much of a social butterfly, as you can probably tell. I prefer the company of selected people, few selected people, and don't value loud environments preferring more intimate gatherings. I'm forced to do the socialising thing sometimes though and this was one such occasion. I have a wedding to attend next week so will have to do it all again...Another scenario I'm not really keen on but I'll go despite wishing I was elsewhere.

So how about you? Are you a party-animal who likes to go out a lot and socialise or are you like me, one who prefers more quieter moments. Let me know in the comments.