卡拉永遠OK

Last night, or rather, this morning, at close to 1a.m., I received a phone call from Dan. He tried to sound surprised at the fact that I was still awake but failed spectacularly. They had decided inpromptu to go Karaoke and wanted to invite me along.

At 1a.m.? Will anything be open in Sydney at 1a.m.?

Oh yes, we know of one that is open till 4a.m. We're trying to round up the people (meaning their friends from Stef's former university in Shanghai) and hope to get as many as possible.

I told him I can't sing to save my own dear life, but I will tag along. Five minutes later, I had changed and was outside waiting for their car. Not surprisingly, there were just the four of us (Dan, Stef, Fred and me) in the end. I asked about the "others". He laughed and said all of the "others" had gone to bed at 10p.m. He gave up trying after disturbing a few of them from their slumber. So there.

I cannot remember the last time I had gone to a Karaoke. Maybe it was during my undergraduate days. Seemed to recall going with a group of friends that included 秋. Technology never ceases to amaze me. And it did so again last night. Not only that, I was surprised by the wide repertoire of chinese songs available at the Karaoke. In Sydney no less!

The three of them seemed to enjoy themselves a lot singing. And I enjoyed their antics a lot. Fred tended to shuffle slowly backwards and kick as he tried to scale the notes. Stef would declare from time to time she was going to sing properly NOW, then promptly stood on the sofa and sang whilst lightly bouncing on it (Dan explained to me later that's her definition of singing properly).

After hearing them destroy belt out a few oldies, it suddenly occurred to me the Karaoke may carry singers or songs that I had come to love but for some reason never got around to purchasing. Top on that list was 黃韻玲's 出發. I believe it's a song from 1993.

Surprise surprise, they had it. I remember first hearing this song in JC2 on radio. Before I could make up my mind about getting the CD then, enlistment, BMT and an ex-girlfriend combined to push that idea to the back of my mind.

But it had re-entered my conscious mind recently, without any known trigger, and I have been toying with the idea of getting the CD since (if I can still find it). Hearing it for the first time in years, on a decent sound system, had left quite an impression on me.

I've now decided to look for it when I get home. 飛鷹 at Shaw Tower may just have it.

Still 34 days to go.

P.S. The title of this post is actually the title of an Alan Tam song from his 1990 album, 夢幻舞台.