[A] [S]ucky dinner, [O]blivious to appetites [C]ommitee to blame

Something really funny happened today.

I attended a dinner. There. Ha ha. Laugh. That's what's so funny. Actually, the funny thing is that I didn't attend a dinner. I attended some weird themed party which was thinly disguised as a dinner.

I mean, dinners are supposed to feed people, right? Who would go into a dinner and not expect food? It's ridiculous! So that's what I expected when I paid the 8 dollars one week prior to the event. I expected lots of good food. With 8 dollars, I was only being reasonable, right? I mean, if I'm paying the equivilant of 2 normal dinners in a foodcourt, there *must* be good food, right? Why else would they charge you 8 dollars?

So I reached the venue half an hour after the official opening time. The place was dressed up pretty nicely, with fancy neon patterns hanging from the ceiling, as if I was walking through some Austin Powers MTV. Then, there was this "wheel of fortune" that dictated what door gift you'll get. Pretty cheesy, but original and thus passable. The door gifts, though, were pretty inane. Why would a sane person want to wear tacky ear-rings, or a masquerade mask? Why is my 8 bucks not going more into the food? Ok, maybe these were from the sponsors, I consoled myself. So I headed further in.

The whole place was lit up like an Austin Powers MTV. The organisers had taken the trouble to dress all the light tubes with coloured sheets. Whoa. So much effort into decor. The food must be really something, eh?

People everywhere were dressed up in retro outfits, fitting into the theme of the night. That meant bold, psychedelic patterned dresses, hoop ear-rings, wide pastel hairbands for the girls. And T-shirts, berms and sandals for the guys. Ok, some of them bothered to dress up, but ended up looking more 1930s than 1980s. Or more weird-afro-hair silly than slick John Travola cool. Well, it looks like everyone's getting into the mood. They look happy. The food must be good then.

So I took a little walk around the buffet tables. Hamburgers was first, but a friend who had eaten earlier told me that they weren't really nice, so I moved on. Spaghetti was next, but where's the sauce? Apparently, the whole vat was empty. The only sauce I could get was off the stained sauce ladle, which had apparently dropped into the full vat five minutes into what I'd imagine to be a mad rush for the food. Hmm... Only crumbs were left from the fish and chips. Ok, I'll head deeper.

I picked up a root beer float. At least it'll stop the growling stomach for a while. Ice cream and waffles was next. That'll work as dessert, not a staple. Pop corn: snacks while watching a blockbuster, not dinner material. Candy floss: pink stuff little kids eat in amusement parks, also not for dinner. Mash potatoes. Well, here we finally have something decent. I picked a cup up. Very sloshy, but I was hungry. It'll do. So, what else is nice?

Nothing apparently. 8 bucks, and that was all the food they had. So I figured that sucky burgers was the least of all remaining evils. But guess what? They ran out of that too! WOW WHEE! WHY THE HELL DO YOU CHARGE US 8 FREAKING BUCKS, BUT THEN HAVE NOT ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED US? WHAT KIND OF FREAKING DINNER IS THIS? WHY THE F**K DO YOU WANT TO SPEND ON DRESSING THE PLACE UP WHEN THE MOTIVE OF A DINNER IS TO F**KING EAT? WHAT KINDA F**KING RETARD EATS SPAGHETTI WITHOUT ANY SAUCE?

I was angry. It's true what they say, you know. A hungry man is an angry man. I'm not saying that the whole event was a failure. It's really a chance for us students to meet on an informal level. It's not everyday that you see so people you know or have worked with at one location. BUT PLEASE, IF YOu'RE GOING TO CHARGE US EIGHT FREAKING BUCKS AND MARKET IT AS A DINNER, at least have the decency to serve ENOUGH FOOD!

What's worse was that it was announced that later during the night, 450 bucks worth of pizza would arrive. The pizza's actually meant to reward the people who are cleaning up the place then, but laypeople are allowed to indulge too... no doubt they'll end up helping out as they'll prolly feel weird not doing so while their friends slog away.

Why do you want to let the laypeople know about the pizzas? If it's meant as supplementary food, why didn't you spend more for the actual dinner? If it's meant as "welfare food", why let us know? If it's supposed to be an incentive for laypeople to stay on, why call it "welfare food"? If it's simply just a way to clear the budget, why didn't they order more food in the first place?

Something funny happened today. I had eight dollars worth of misery. -Jimmy