Noisy Restaurants

It varies, some restaurants are really noisy, but it depends on the time you visit.

I was in a restaurant with two friends a few weeks ago for the first time in two years, and the noise was horrific. Partly the general and unavoidable hubub of each chat trying to be audible above all the others and merely escalating the volume as a result. Partly that the music they were playing was turned up too loud, and had lyrics which distracted as well. I found it very hard to track the conversation as a result (that can often happen in non-one-to-one conversations even in the best of conditions, my brain keeps buffering or something) and was fraudulently nodding in agreement (I hope appropriately) to whatever was being said about a quarter of the time. Took me a week to recover from the resulting burn-out, and I had a voice like Barry White the next day with the usual feeling of having gargled razor blades - all from simply having to talk under those conditions. One good thing in the place was the low-key lighting: mostly dark, with just some opaque/shaded hanging lanterns. I find harsh overhead lighting so hard to deal with, especially if they then sit me anywhere near a visible mirror where the full horror of my shiny bald head is made relentlessly apparent to me and I know that what my friends are having to endure looking at is even worse than usual. 

I was in a restaurant with two friends a few weeks ago for the first time in two years, and the noise was horrific. Partly the general and unavoidable hubub of each chat trying to be audible above all the others and merely escalating the volume as a result. Partly that the music they were playing was turned up too loud, and had lyrics which distracted as well. I found it very hard to track the conversation as a result (that can often happen in non-one-to-one conversations even in the best of conditions, my brain keeps buffering or something) and was fraudulently nodding in agreement (I hope appropriately) to whatever was being said about a quarter of the time. Took me a week to recover from the resulting burn-out, and I had a voice like Barry White the next day with the usual feeling of having gargled razor blades - all from simply having to talk under those conditions. One good thing in the place was the low-key lighting: mostly dark, with just some opaque/shaded hanging lanterns. I find harsh overhead lighting so hard to deal with, especially if they then sit me anywhere near a visible mirror where the full horror of my shiny bald head is made relentlessly apparent to me and I know that what my friends are having to endure looking at is even worse than usual.