I want to vent my frustration…really. I have been unsuccessful for the last four years trying to get tickets to the National Day Parade celebration…the reply that “you are successful in your eApplication for NDP” never came… never!
And when I did tried to partake in the national “party” last year by crashing with hordes and hordes (or people mountain people seas in Mandarin idiom, please pardon my Chinese) of spectators at the Promontory at Marina Bay last year… the experience left a bitter aftertaste at best.
Late comers (all “foreign talents”) tried to usurp the spot that I secured for taking picture, by arriving really early (read, in the hot sun at 3pm, parade proper starts late part of 6pm). The reason is that they felt that the mini space created by my camera tripod legs in front of me can at least accommodate two to three person (yes, I am not exaggerating).
And since not one considerate person is taking that “space”…they would like to. And in the process, knocked my tripod, pushed others early comers away, even with one them letting go her shoulder length hair fly in the wind, so that the odour of her hair can shared generously….
Yes, it’s that harrowing an experience…fortunately for them, Singapore is a law-abiding country and assault carry a heavy price…It’s never good nor advisable to land the 1st blow, whatever the justification. So my years of martial art training was left moth-balled and incapacitated.
Ok…take a deep breathe…. remove all that hate. All that anger….All that negative energies…Heeeeee…Hooooo….how and what’s the next best thing to enjoy the annual “National Birthday Bash ” ? Well, at the Saturdays rehearsals that lead up to the actual day, of course. The crowd are much thinner, less foreign talents (no please, I do love them, really) and yes…you should not have to experience what I went through last year…. (^___^)
The Red Lions , a perennial crowd favourite… a lady jumper is included this year… a 1st in history !
Army boatmen manning the bay….servicemen for 2 years, “celebrities” for a moment , as they waved back at the spectators fringing the Promontory…
Fellow shutterbugs archiving the occasion for posterity…..I call them “unpaid pictorial historians”…
Junior in a sonic world of her own…
Tourists joining in the festivities….Croco Dundee’s relative ?
A Marina Bay “resident eagle” joining the celebratory mood… it even goes about entertaining everyone…swooping in to catch it’s dinner from the bay…..Awesome! Live National Geographic ! No subscription needed…
Another crowd favourite… the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter segment….
The naval dynamic display segment, awesome water action.
The 21 guns salute…no no less than 21 guns. Just 21 rounds of blanks fired.
The F15SG Eagles….the roar from the Pratt & Whitney engines is something to behold….for those with binoculars…the fiery afterburners are a sight to savour…
An F16 Fighting Falcon doing a belly- flip during the aerial display…. upping the tempo…
Always a proud moment to see our national flag flying by…always….. behind the scene, the predominantly US designed and manufactured military hardwares tells of the friendship of our 2 countries…and of course, our purchasing and astute decision-making prowess….
That’s what most came for…. the Fireworks…..a scaled down event during the rehearsals… but what’s there to complain, ya ? 🙂
A finale to thank all for joining in the fun….
I hope my readers had fun peeping at my blog..do check out the rehearsals to the actual day at the Bay area… you will like the mood…. no more chance till next year… and not that much “people mountain, people seas”…
N.B – All pictures in the blog are copyrighted and all rights reserved.. to Jensen Chua.