Women's Day

Sunday was Women's Day here in China -- a holiday not supported in the UK. It is a day to celebrate women and all of their achievements, so most of the department stores have a big sale for a day or two. Web also contributed to the holiday by taking us all out for dinner. But it wasn't just dinner, it was KTV too.

After finishing work we walked across the road to the same karaoke establishment Kimi and I had previously visited, the "Jolly 100". This time a mini-room would not be enough, what I think must be the largest of rooms was booked for us instead. Inside it was certainly spacious, with a cinema-type screen hung onto the wall -- it made reading the lyrics easy even without wearing my glasses.

The party in full swing

It was supposed to be a social gathering with a bit of singing, drinking, and eating, but it seemed although the idea was there, somehow it got lost along the way. The primary reason for this was the volume of the music, it was so high it was almost impossible to talk to each other. With a bit of shouting and speaking into each others ears, we made some effort to communicate with each other. A few Double Deer beers later and we, "the foreign teachers", even came to the stage to sing, "Hey Jude".

Like so many events and dinners I have attended in China, they don't slowly end with some people leaving early and some people staying until the bitter end. I find that a function will just stop, and within a few minutes almost everybody leaves within a split second. There's never an announcement or talk of leaving soon, just a kind of silent alarm that repels all people in a room. So at 9:15 we rapidly left the establishment, all with Tinnitus ringing in our ears.