Karaoke

I went to a karaoke last night organised by some of the girls in the Tax Department in Shanghai (Thanks for the invite ladies - I had loads of fun - hope your ears heal soon!).

It's been ages since I've been to a karaoke night. And even then, when you go to a karaoke in HK, it seems that not many people sing. Most of the time, we just sit around drinking beers and playing dice games. Or maybe this is just indicative of the people I normally go with! Anyway ....

Everytime I go to a karaoke in Hong Kong or China, it always reminds me of my first experience with karaoke in the UK. You have to realise, the karaoke setup in the UK isn't anywhere near as good as the setup in HK/China. In HK/China, when you go to a karaoke bar, you get a room to yourself so that you and your friends can sing and drink and be merry!

In the UK, there aren't any dedicated karaoke bars. The karaoke itself was run by a restaurant. So what would happen is that guests would go in and sit down at their table. Each table would sit around 10-12 people and the restuarant had approximately 12-15 tables. Singing itself was strictly by rotation - ie 1 person from table 1 would sing followed by 1 person from table 2 etcetera and so forth. While you were waiting for your turn, you would order and eat your dinner (it was a restuarant, remember?).

This obviously has several problems. The first being that it takes bloody ages before its your turn to sing! Basically, over the course of 1 evening, you would only get 1-2 songs in unless you got lucky and some people at your table weren't interested in singing.

However, there is a second and bigger problem. Dinner.

Can you imagine what its like watching someone who has just stuffed their face with fried noodles trying to sing Elvis? Trust me - not nice (and I know as I was right next to the guy!). It was our first and only time in a karaoke in the UK - we basically decided it was better to go to the local pub and brave amateur night instead.

On the plus side, I did manage to get some take-away fried noodles. Had to wash them out of my hair first though...