I had a hard weekend where I wasn’t a better man.

I was feeling sorry for myself, regretful and as per usual mainly angry.

When my friend called.

His mother was in ICU and had a massive heart attack and needed open heart surgery for a by pass but wasn’t strong enough to be transferred.  He was upset.  He is the anchor in his family and was holding it up for everybody.  I was proud that he called me.  Today his Mum had the surgery and it was not really looking too good.  I went down to the hospital, I hugged my friend and he cried on my shoulder.

I got my perspective back.

He called me tonight and said his Mum was still in ICU but serious but stable and things were looking up.  He thanked me again for being his mate: LYLAB he said.

Love You Like a Brother

To get this post into perspective you have to understand that it is my wife who loves Karaoke.  (I mean loves!!)

When we first got together she sat me down and with grave conviction and great seriousness told me she loved Karaoke and would not give it up for anything.  I accepted this as a part of her  – only if I’d known!

My wife sang me a song for our wedding as her speech.  Don’t get me wrong she is a great singer, but Karaoke is not all about singing for my wife; it is about parties, socialising and involvement, no matter what you skill level.

My wife has an annual Karaoke Birthday Party (one of many excuse parties to sing Karaoke) and through this has her own Karaoke set up, including PA, speakers (the speakers are my fault I bought them in a moment of weakness one christmas – she loves them!) and a library of over 600 songs which is growing constantly.

To my wonderful wife this is not just a hobby it’s a passion and a true part of her life.

I remember when she told me that she would not give it up at the start of our relationship and my naive reply of “No problems, I would never make you give up something you love”

Well over the years the sounds in our lounge room masquerading as singing has taken it’s toll.  Most parties now I have what my wife calls the ‘anti-Karaoke movement’ of displaced husbands, wife’s, friends and children who sit out the back with me during the parties in an attempt to avoid the worst of it.  It is a happy balance.

My wife’s Karaoke reputation is far and wide.  Recently she was invited by a friend to run a Karaoke evening a a local football club – she jumped at the chance; but there was a catch.  It was the first ‘public’ one my wife had done and she needed my ‘technical support’ in case something went wrong.

So……

I started to write this post a few days after the Karaoke night.  I started it on my ipad but couldn’t get it all to work properly, so some further days on I am writing it on my computer. My first unfinished post about being better at Karaoke which I stopped mainly through technical issues, actually hit a bigger hurdle and that was, it is hard to write about being better when in actual fact I was not doing anything better.

In helping my wife in her first and somewhat nervous hosting of the football club Karaoke night I constantly let it known I was doing it under sufferance.  I went down to the football club in the days before for a test run and was snappy, begrudgingly helpful and constantly espoused my reluctant involvement in something I thought was stupid.  On the night I wasn’t much better until I found out me, as the ‘roadie’ got free beer all night.

Nothing went wrong and the night was a resounding success which I basked in.

It is pretty easy to write about being a better man.  It is a whole lot different looking at moments when there is no attempt in that goal, your mantras were songs of protest and a moment when you could have shined is another in a long list of stuff when you didn’t behave better, you just behaved the same.

But…..

This time you saw it,
This time you noticed it,
This time it was not just about regret,
It is about change,

It is about being a better man.