Karaoke crisis

Have you ever been forced to do karaoke against your will? Then you will know how I felt tonight singing 'Wannabe' with four others who clearly didn't wannabe on a Wednesday night in my living room in front of all our parents either. The song seemed to go on forever and before long the colour of my face matched my red shirt and my glass of Rose.

I love the idea of karaoke. I even quite like listening to others. But as soon as a microphone is thrust in my hand I panic. Of course, karaoke without an audience is a different matter altogether. You can go wild, dance, sing out of tune, pretend you are a rockstar - without the reality check of seeing your audience clutching their ears and begging for mercy.

I will never forget an ex-boyfriend's initiation into my family. On one of his first - if not his first - visit to my family home, the karaoke machine came out and he was invited to sing. Unfortunately he picked the longest song on offer - 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'. You would have thought the family would have had mercy and erupted into a round of applause halfway through or something - but no, he was forced to sing right to the very end. Needless to say, after that effort he was accepted into the family forevermore.

I don't quite know what the fascination is with my family and karaoke, but I do know that it's one thing I won't miss in Argentina! Not even at Christmas... well, at least I'm saying that now.