Karaoke

Karaoke is a national obsession in the Phillipines. Its thanks to Karaoke that I met my wife! We first met in a Karaoke bar. To be honest, I wasn't enamoured with Karaoke at first, but it is something that grows on you. We have a Karaoke DVD player at home, and I have been known to give the odd rendition (emphasis on the "odd").

Sometimes friends bring round a device called a "Magic Sing" microphone. This device plugs into your TV and provides the words, music and video background. It even gives you a score out of 100 at the end of the song (but imho it gives bad singers good scores and vice versa!). The machine costs about £150 and can be found here -

http://www.astramagicsing.com/v8.html

In the Phillipines the belief is that they invented Karaoke, nevermind that it is a Japanese word (Kara - Empty, Oke - Orchestra), trust me do not get into an argument with a Filipino/Filipina over this. You may win the argument - but lose a friend!

The Magic Sing is cheaper in the P.I. and I will probably buy one when I visit there next.