My 30th Birthday Party Thing

Posted on 2007/03/19 08:22:57 (March 2007).

[Saturday 17th March]
Given that my birthday fell midweek, I had decided to postpone any serious celebrations until the following weekend (a sign of getting old in itself - gone are the days of heavy drinking on a school night!).

The main thing I had a hankering for was a bit of a sing song, so I first booked a couple of hours at a karaoke place in London, and then planned the rest of the day around that. It turned out that karaoke place only had a free room between 5-7, and so I determined what was needed was a chance to have a pleasant few drinks first, and then somewhere to go for dinner afterwards.

So for the before-the-karaoke bit I decided it would be nice to have a sort of picnic on Primrose Hill. Not sure if picnic is entirely the right word, as we didn't really eat anything - as Chie and I got there around lunch time we had a bit of bread and cheese, but everyone else turned up later and just stuck to the wine. Anyway, it was very pleasant, and I nice kick off to the evening's proceedings.

From Primrose Hill, we took a couple of cabs back down into the city centre - this was great as I was able to get in the second taxi and proclaim simply "follow that cab". Marvelous.

The karaoke was very much the main event, and was a lot of fun. Or at least I had at lot of fun, I assume everyone else did too but maybe they were just humouring me! Having done a brief review on the web, I'd plumped for a place called Lucky Voice. Clearly karaoke places in London are not quite up to the standard of Tokyo, but they were having a good go at recreating that atmosphere at least. I particularly liked the "Thirsty" button - slightly reminiscent of the little button you have on planes to call the flight attendant, but without the sense of worry that if you press it too often you'll get offloaded.

From there we went on to dinner at Royal China on Baker Street. I have to admit this was a bit of a blur, but my camera informs me I had a really fun time with the lazy susan. Which must have been nice.

Finally a few of us went for one last drink to a bar called The Social near Oxford Circus. Again, a bit of a blur really, but presumably we had fun there as well.

So all in all a fun evening. There was a good turnout too - we were 8 in total - me, Chie, Rob, Kate, Simon, Vanessa, Leon and Yukari. I couldn't help but observing how grown up that was - everyone came in couples, and most of us were married. Having said that, I don't think I was any better behaved than I was on my 20th birthday, but whether that is a triumph over getting old, or a sad reflection on my inability to grow up, is a matter of opinion!

Sorry I couldn't make it, John. Looks like you had a great time however. Now, I must remember to give Leon a telling off for stealing Jolene...

Posted by Gavin at 2007/03/19 22:01:41.

No problem Gav - there's always next time! Leon said you'd been to some other places which were a bit more authentic (i.e. dirty and with joyously irrelevant 80s videos behind the lyrics), so I'd been keen to give one of those a go next time.

I didn't realise Jolene was one from your repertoire!

I particularly enjoyed Leon's rendition of "I Predict a Riot", which I've had stuck in my head since Saturday night.

Posted by John at 2007/03/19 22:26:54.

Great Pics!! :d Didn't know that you had a Karaoke in London too... :P

Posted by Lox at 2007/03/20 08:29:08.

There's a couple of extra places that I've been to... Firstly, is Karaoke Box on Frith Street in SoHo (just off Old Compton Street) which is, like you say, pretty dirty and comes with utterly pointless videos to accompany each song. They also have nice authentic Japanese beers and snacks.

The other one I went to the other day was a Korean restaurant called Assa which is just behind Centre Point. If you ask politely, or eat some kim-chi beforehand, they've got a couple of boxes in the basement too! Though be warned... every 30 minutes it forces you to sing along to the South Korean national anthem :S

Posted by Gavin at 2007/03/20 13:41:06.

I think I'd quite enjoy singing along to the South Korean national anthem... although after the first couple of times the novelty may wear off.

Posted by John at 2007/03/20 15:07:32.

I protest!

"this was great as I was able to get in the second taxi and proclaim simply "follow that cab"

Was nothing of the sort. He eventually got around to saying it, via:

"Well, you see, we've got to go to Poland Street, under Yo Sushi and, well, erm, you see that cab over there. That one's going there too, so I suppose you might follow that one."

Neil Gaiman circum elocution at its best.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2007/03/21 14:59:03.

OK yea I admit I hard exercised a bit of artistic license there Rob.

Posted by John at 2007/03/21 19:57:58.

Post a comment