A Friday night playing bingo you say?

Last Friday three of my friends and I headed off to the bingo. Yeah you read that right, bingo. My friend Dayle decided to get us a Groupon (I think) voucher for the four of us to play bingo, have dinner there and have a wee drink. We'd all been moaning that we wanted to try bingo so she must have been listening!

We headed in, a bit later than we were supposed to as Muj and I had a panic about dabbers and ran to Poundland just in case. As we ran in to the reception, Mel and Dayle were waiting for us and finishing getting registered sorted out. Muj and I filled out our forms and we were ready to go. The woman who got us all sorted took us into the hall and explained how it all worked. I don't know about the rest of the girls but I absolutely shat my pants. 

This room was filled with what looked like hundreds of tables, the place was massive, it was a lot bigger on the inside! ;) and it looked like it was filled with veterans. Men and women who had been at this for years and knew what the fuck they were talking about. In walked us 4 early to mid twenty year olds giggling and looking very red in the face!

We were set up with our temporary membership cards, our bingo books and complimentary dabbers (of fucking course!), asked what food and drink we wanted then we had a bit of time before the main event. We were quietly whisper-chatting and figuring out what we were actually doing and to my utter horror we were shushed. SHUSHED! For figuring out what to do. I really had to bite my tongue and hold back the scathing response that was trying to escape. In silence and slightly red-faced we returned to our booklets to continue trying to learn. This is when I started to panic, I thought we had to go through the 6 page booklet every time a number was called out which in hindsight is really bloody stupid and pretty much impossible but I started to get very nervous until our food was delivered and the woman that brought it out explained. Just as well she did, I honestly thought I was going to have a nervy b and I wasn't the only one! After joking with Mel that she should bring her knitting, she actually did!

We had much more fun than we thought we would once we had calmed down a bit and got right into the swing of it. Number called, quick scan of just one page, dab the number, count how many more you need before you should call out. Panic during the whole game about what you'll actually call if you do win, I'm not joking, I spent most of the time during the games thinking about what I should shout. What's appropriate? The classic 'BINGO', the 'right' that was the favourite of the night or a proper cheer if you win big? Unfortunately I didn't find out as I didn't win a single thing and neither did the girls. No beginner's luck for us unfortunately but now that we know the rules and how to play thanks to the lovely couple of ladies sitting next to us who prompted us when we looked lost (unlike the bloody shushers!) hopefully we'll get on a lot better next time.

We're heading back on the 8th for another go and because we joined we were given vouchers for another free meal and dessert this time! I'll fill you all in if I hit a win next time. If I do then the money will be going towards the imats trip I've decided to go on with Hailey from haileysbeautyworld in June!