Just been to a birthday party in a pub where the hired entertainer screwed the volume control up way too high for guitar, mike and drum machine plus the background music when he wasn't live. Nothing wrong with the music or the musicianship but boy do I get fed up with shouted conversations, it is not a good way to socialise. Eventually escaped to the smokers compnay in the car park after trying to reason with the power junkie (the host was too occupied). I also suggested to him that his own auditory system may have already been impaired.

And while I'm on it my other pet hate is hired wedding photographers who take over the event. Whoever looks at the albums or DVD in a blue moon anyway apart from the one pic on the mantlepiece. How many photos do you need of a knife cutting a cake or a pageboy with a lucky horse shoe? I'm going to start drawing up arrangements for my own funeral but can't be certain someone won't hijack that event either!