A Silent Disco on the Canal

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‘Want to go to a silent disco on Friday?’

I love the random text messages I get from my friends. 

I’ve not been out and about for a while and unable to drink, so this was very much needed. My friend works for the Canal and Rivers Trust (incidentally, did you know that Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice?), and her company was holding a silent disco in one of the lock areas last week. I’ve never been to one before, but the concept has always intrigued me – music is played through individual headphones rather than from large speakers, so while the participants still experience the feeling of being at a club or ‘disco,’ anyone without a set of headphones on can’t hear anything. 

The Bloke and I decided to make an evening of it, so we went for a meal at a pizza place and then I dragged him into the bar next door (he doesn’t drink so we don’t usually go to bars together), where I took advantage of their two for one cocktail hour and reacquainted myself with some raspberry mojitos. We had a nice chat with a couple sitting next to us – Fatboy Slim was playing at the arena near the bar and they were enjoying a few pre-show drinks – and after I had thoroughly enjoyed singing along to John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’ that was playing in the bar (I’m not sure whether The Bloke appreciated my warbling), we walked down to the canal where a large floating pontoon had been set up and met my friends. 

The headphones had three channels, all playing different songs. It was a little strange at first – admittedly I was feeling a little self-conscious – but quickly got over it as soon as I discovered Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ on one of the channels. We found it difficult not to sing along, so we eventually gave in and sang our hearts out. The pontoon was in front of a pub, and we must have been a rather amusing sight for the people smoking outside – a bunch of people dancing around to seemingly nothing, stopping to scream ‘woooooaaah! Living on a Prayer’ at various intervals. 

Unfortunatly, people jumping around on a floating pontoon in the dark doesn’t make for particularly great photographs. While my friends and I were dancing, The Bloke was taking pictures for the company, and even he struggled. Hardly an Instagram moment, but something to tick off my new Bucket List!

And it was a blast!

What about you guys? Did you get up to any random things in February?

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31 thoughts on “A Silent Disco on the Canal”

  2. “Did you get up to any random things in February?”

    Burst of laughter forms me as I thought of the only unplanned random thing that I did for February. And I can testify that it wasn’t even close to fun.

    My back yard was invaded by another gopher a few days ago. It was raining, a lot, when the gopher made it past the back yard gopher fence. For the last few months, I’ve worked hard to build that gopher fence and it was working — then it wasn’t.

    February 28th was the first dry day since the invasion, and I waded into the sticky, clay mud to reinforce the gopher fence.

    Just in case no one knows what a gopher fence is: A gopher fence is an underground fence and it has to be about two feet deep to work. That means you dig a trench at least six inches wide and two feet deep before you install the galvanized half inch square mesh fencing material to stop the gophers from tunneling into your yard and eating all the roots for your grass, fruit trees, and vegetable garden — while they fill the years will mounds of dirt around their plugged up holes. They seem to do most of their work at night.

    In two hours I dug a two-foot-deep hole seven feet long and installed more fencing. I found the invading tunnel right below the previous gopher fence I’d installed only 18 inches deep (my only excuse is when clay is dry it’s really hard to dig out and that section went in last summer) and went a few inches deeper and then covered it with the new mesh.

    Now I can laugh, until the next gopher breakthrough.

    • You always have the best stories Lloyd haha! I can’t say I’ve ever had to worry about a gopher but it sounds like it’s been keeping you on your toes haha!

      • I’m not sure about being kept on my toes. More like stuck on my knees mired in sticky, clay mud. California is getting a lot of rain this year.

        No sign of the gophers breaking through the repair in the gopher fence … knock on dry wood. :o)

    • I don’t mean to laugh at your pain of chasing the elusive gopher but it sounds like you are playing Bill Murray’s character in Caddyshack.

      • Yep, the Gophers seem to keep coming back. And each breakthrough means me digging another trench for a deeper gopher fence. The biggest reason, they keep coming back is the 1,000-acre cattle ranch (not my ranch) behind my house and its backyard fence. There is a city of gophers in those pastures and they demand room to expand into the suburbs.

  3. How fun!! I have never heard of such a thing, that would be so much fun to participate in and to watch! The only random thing I did in February was turn 64… sang, “When I’m 64” to the annoyance of anyone who knows me, but other than that… I am a boring old person!

  4. I’ve always been intrigued by that too. I saw it on a show on Netflix called Atypical.
    Nothing as interesting or as fun for me. Maybe something will pop off in March. 🙂

  6. The headphone craze just reached my little town and I thought it was such a weird thing. Like what if you’re listening to something different and someone tries to dance with you to a different song. I don’t know– not my cup of tea I guess. I prefer good old bass thumping.

  8. Well, that’s something new. A silent disco…hmm if the Bloke had been filming, you would all be staring in a silent movie about a silent disco.

  9. Sounds awesome – I remember going to one of these once when I was at uni, and it’s so surreal when you take your headphones off and the room is completely silent! I had to refrain from singing as I was too self-conscious, so good on you just going for it!

  11. We did a silent disco on our Alaska cruise this last summer–the most fun I’ve had in years! The best was taking off the headphones and listening to all the singing!

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