Oh. My. God. It’s just after 8pm and I finished dinner not too long ago and made the mistake of ordering another beer at my usual restaurant. Why? I was having fun playing a Texas Hold ‘Em poker app on my phone and it’s not like I have anything better going on tonight. (Did I mention before that a beer here usually comes in 0.5L sizes only? I ordered the small one and it still came as a 0.5L size!)
Normally that would not be a problem as I can hold my beer, even after one litre of it. And Suzhou is a seriously safe city plus the place I’m staying at is maybe 300-400 meters away.
But none of that is the cause of my “OMG” outburst. You see, there are all these karaoke places near by and I know a bunch of my coworkers really enjoy singing. Like REALLY enjoy. I’m pretty sure they are all part owners in karaoke joints…It’s not just a myth that karaoke is popular over in this part of the world.
Anyway, it turns out tonight’s live music at this restaurant/bar is a guy with a CD collection of karaoke hits, an electronic keyboard, and a microphone. Apparently all he knows are codependency songs from the late 70s and early 80s…And he’s the only one singing. It feels like I’m stuck in a timewarp and no matter how hard I try and drain this beer, the bottom of the glass seems further and further away! It might be a night to leave a wounded soldier upon the field of battle …
Tomorrow’s agenda: My first trip to Shanghai! Yep, you guessed it; there’s a poker match to be had 🙂 And no faux karaoke!