Karaoke


I've been slack. I know. Some people actually wonder what I am up to. Granted most of them are stalkers, serial killers and representative from various government agencies, but I imagine I have some friends and acquaintances who wonder where I am in the world and what I am doing - and not just what videos I am watching on YouTube [enter Registered Trademark symbol here].

I'm back in London temporarily. I had a few shifts in a clinic down the road. It wasn't very far away, but it's relative location meant that it took me over an hour to get there and close to two hours to get back. C'est London!

I went to finale of The Proms in Hyde Park on Saturday. The proms are an eighth-week festival of orchestral, classical music - basically another excuse for people to come to the park and socialise - i.e. drink. Apparently 400,000 people were in attendance.

It is such an inspiring display of national pride, as almost everyone was fervently waving a British flag - probably not realising the flags were made in Taiwan, the conductor of the orchestra was Czech, and the tenor was Italian.

The final hour of the finale is where crowd participation is required - the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall play uplifting songs of British patriotism and relay it to the big screens in Hyde park so that everyone can sing along. Of course, the words to all the songs were subtitled across the screens. Yes, the prom was the largest organised karaoke event that I've been to - and the only one at which I've actually sang.

The line up included:

Jerusalem
God save the Queen
Land of hope and glory

AND.....

Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Brittons never, never, never shall be slaves.