Inviting yourself to a bleak evening- this is how you do it

One of the downsides to work is the so-called team outings you are dragged into. I can't believe I got talked into attending one of these things- the surest recipe for a headache, especially when you've worked a night shift and slept only five hours (on an ordinary day, that should do well enough, but certainly not after a night of work, and particularly on a Saturday).

So it was that I ended up rubbing my temples at a karaoke night organised by a group of people who took possession of a community club theatre (I'm really not sure what influence they used there, what sort of strings they had to pull), and proceeded, with great gusto, to launch an attack on sane senses. Doing what you enjoy best without worrying about other people's opinions isn't wrong at all- but not when so many people's peace and patience are at stake. Imagine 40-something men and women on stage, pretending to sing karaoke, when for the lives of them they cannot sing a word in tune. Imagine, well, the screeching that a stick of chalk rubbed hard against a blackboard produces. That would describe some of the female voices there. Overdressed aunties were around in plenty, wearing ill-fitting clothes and probably all the make-up out of a vanity case. I am no authority when it comes to fashion, but I'll say sparkling blue eyeshadow on a brown-haired woman wearing bright yellow doesn't quite appeal to good taste. The singers- give me a word for people who think they sing, but actually don't- I'm not even going to try to describe the show of pretence and mimicry that followed. I'll be merciless here, because people who can't sing have no business clambering up on stage and performing in front of people they don't know and who don't care for them. Was there an unknown wager, an ultimatum they'd been given to sing or be guillotined? It's different when you're among a group of friends and are playing the fool, but the amount of attitude and seriousness they were pouring into these performances was absolutely ridiculous.

The audience comprised the families and colleagues of the performers- families present out of pompous confidence in their people's abilities, colleagues because they were too polite and cowardly to say no. I have never been so caustic earlier, but I can say that my Saturday was effectively ruined, and left me in no mood to read or write or do anything useful. Maybe I should just sleep the weariness away.

Note to self: Next time, speak up!

PS: I tried to write something else, a polite, decent, normal piece, but this was the only thing that would come out spontaneously. You see, I have had enough pretence for today. For ever. And if I sound more frustrated than normal, it is because I have to work on Sunday as well, which, of course, means no weekend. As always, who on earth invented money?!