Dining in darkness

Last night I took Ben out for dinner for his birthday to 'Dans le Noir?' where meals are eaten in pitch darkness, and you are served by blind waiting staff. (I never made it to the equivalent Melbourne restaurant, so this was a new experience for me too).

Ben and I were both quite excited by the prospect, and made our way into the restaurant in a line of people, hand on shoulder. We were seated, and felt our place settings, and got our bearings, kind of. It was very strange... it made you feel like your eyes weren't working, and of course it meant that your sense of hearing was amplified. It was fun to start with, but we soon found that the other people in there were talking so loudly (and making stupid loud noises for the hell of it, like moronic children) that we could barely hear ourselves over the din.

It got to the point where two of the waiters had to yell over everyone to be quiet. This only worked for half a minute, unfortunately. And they were mocked for it, too. After five minutes of cacophony, I, being the quiet wallflower I am, also yelled out for people to 'please keep the volume down', and also got mocked, particularly by the guy making the stupid noises, who made another stupid noise for my benefit.
This enraged me, and I screamed out "you're a fucking twat!". Ok, so I lost it a bit. But you have to imagine the pitch darkness, the difficulty hearing each other speak, and the beginnings of panic and distress feeding the situation.

The couple next to us asked to leave, before their starters reached the table, and we quickly followed suit. I was so angry that some thoughtless assholes had to spoil it for so many other people, and that we missed out on what would have been a novel dining experience (we didn't know what we'd be eating). Anyway, we got out of there and ended up having a lovely meal at a nearby restaurant. After a few drinks and some food Ben's heart rate was back to normal and my face had lost its unhealthy flush.

I have to conclude that we prefer lit meals.