Dress 17 : You're my butterfly, sugar, baby

This song always makes me want to dance!

 I also always think when I see the video it’s the prettiest music video ever made for a rap song!  All these years after its release and I still think it’s a fun song!  I don’t know if the band ever had another hit.  My earliest memories of this song are dancing to it at our local pub that we all used to go to when we turned 18.

The Hallam Hotel was a Melbourne institution.  Hallam is situated about 45 minutes out of the city of Melbourne and people used to travel from far and wide to have a beer and see the Headlining bands and singers that would come perform at the Hallam.  Today it still sees its fair share of Aussie icon acts but the place isn’t what it as in its hay day.  A few years after we started going there the Hallam was shut down and changed to be more of a restaurant / gaming venue.  A new nightclub opened in Narre Warren and the violence, drunkenness and things I think they were trying to stop at the Hallam followed.  I never felt unsafe or anything at the Hallam but it did have a reputation.

My girlfriends and I would go to the Hallam at that age for many reasons: it was free to get in before 10, the bands would throw out ping pong balls with drink specials, as it was close our parents would alternate driving us and we would all have left over money to get a hot dog and a taxi home at the end of the night.  The only problem was there was generally 5 or more girls who would go together so being small I always had to lay across the girls laps in the back seat to get there.  My view would be the stars moving through the window in the darkness and I was amazed one night when I actually go to sit upright and see where I was going!

So back to the important ping pong balls.  With collecting the ping pong balls from the band my friends and I always had a strategy.  My friend Megan was a netball player and very tall so she would catch the high ones, being small I would get any that went low or on the ground and our friend Kara took out the middle.  She was also our keeper of the ping pong balls, we always made sure she wore a cleavage top to hide them as she was blessed with a more voluptuous chest than Megan and I.  Together we all made a great team.  When the Hallam closed down and we had to go to the new Nightclub in Narre Warren the same band went but without the ping pong balls.  To show our displeasure one of the first weeks it was opened we took all the ping pong balls we had left over and threw them at the band .. I don’t know if they were more shocked that we threw them at them or that we had so many!

At the Hallam we danced, scored free lolly pops, met boys and bumped into old friends.   Your shoes would always stick to the floor and it was always a hard decision to stay for the band or head to the other room to see what music was playing in there.  Since moving home I have headed to the Hallam to see Wendy Matthews play (yes I will admit that) and also to try out the karaoke they host on a Thursday night.  It’s funny because the guy who runs the karaoke was the DJ when I was 18… weird to think that someone could work all those years at the Hallam Hotel.

The dress I’m wearing today actually comes from my one hour shopping spree in Mexico while docked from our Cruise ship.  On that trip it was very much like the Hallam but on water.  There was a great dance club where we danced, met boys and spent an amazing holiday with old friends.  The only thing you couldn’t get at the Hallam which I could on that trip was some amazingly cute dresses .. oh well Hallam we had to move on some time.  There was a movement a few years back lobbying to bring the Hallam back to its former glory.  For now though it seems that a nice chicken snitzel and a play of the pokies is as close as you will get to the Hallam we once knew.  But every time I see a ping pong ball I will remember the fun times I had with my girlfriends and that’s the best thing of all.

Today I thought I would attempt to take my dress photos myself .. well at least you can see the dress maybe I’ll take some better shots next time!  Oh and I promise Rachel I did iron this dress but it has been hot in Melbourne and sitting down I think it crinkled!

Day 17: You’re my Butterfly Sugar Baby
Bought: 2 years
Price Range: 10.00
From: Mexico
What I like about this dress: I LOVE the colour
Tag Info: No tag info!
Photo Credit: SCondon