$18.50

At around 6pm tonight I received a text message from my dear friend. Her friend, who I had met a few times needed a friend to go out with tonight. So I obliged, thinking it would be a couple of hours, enjoying some adult company and then I would come home.... how wrong was I!

I picked up my friend with every intention to drive home, therefore only have a couple of drinks. She asked if I wanted to have a glass of wine before we left, but I was worried about starting something that would not be 'ideal' behind the wheel. So we went to the pub and started our night there. On the way, she told me she was meeting a 'male' friend who was from her golf club. I went along for the ride, not knowing if she liked him or if it was just an excuse to go out.

When we arrived at the pub, he was already there. A slightly silver haired man, tall, tanned, wearing glasses, but seemed to have that trendy hip look about him. He was drinking a glass of red wine when we arrived, so us girls ordered the special - $5 sparkling wine as the Australia Day 'special' for the night.

My friend shouted me the first drink, the silver fox the second, I ordered drinks for the third round and then she went back for the fourth... but the third, I decided to leave my car behind and pick it up in the morning. My friend was noticeably a little tipsy, so the debonair man, who just happened to have a son who is five years younger than me, said he would take us home.

It was about 10.30pm when we decided to call the night off. He drove us towards our home, but then made a detour to a place we could get coffee.... but unfortunately, the place was closed. He said he knew a great place in Oakleigh, which is about a 20 minute drive away. We were fine about it, even though the back seat passenger of my friend was feeling a little tired and eager to get home.

He took a right hand turn, which wasn't the way to Oakleigh and we ended up outside of the mall. I said that there should be a cafe open here for the late night cinemas. So we went inside and found the cinema cafe still open. We ordered some hot drinks, had a few laughs and thought we would be sneaky and see if we could catch a flick.

As we approached the entrance of the 'ticket only area', an usher approached us asking to see our tickets. We casually walked passed and said 'we just need to use the restroom.' He was fine with it, and we walked on by.

After we did our business, my friend and I, and our silver haired fox, just took pot luck and walked into Cinema 5. There were people sitting down and the movie previews were running. We took a seat in the back row, having no idea what movie we would be seeing, and waited for the house lights to dim.

We were greeted with the solemn sounds of Tarintino's "Django Unwanted." My friend and I 'high-fived' each other, as it was something we both wanted to see. We sat there laughing, annoying the other patrons, who seemed to move to the other side of the cinema after they couldn't stand our banter about the cinematography, special effects and well made-up big-name actors.

But, my goodness, the movie was looooooonnnnnggggg.... we thought about getting up a couple of times and walking out, but there was a little twist that we wanted to see. We ended up getting out in the end when the movie became unbelievable and looked like a scene from an Australian outback western rather than a scene from the south of the United States.... It was 2.05am....oops!

Our chauffeur in waiting drove us back home... he took my friend home first, then dropped me off, insisting on a kiss and hoping for another night at the movies in the future. Told me that I seemed 'level-headed.' Things a girl likes to hear about herself... not!

But it was a funny night! Unexpected with two people I never anticipated I'd have a fun Saturday night out with, and all it cost me was $18.50 (and possibly a train ticket in the morning to pick up my car!)