NDP CR2

When NDP is around the corner, Saturdays are always the most busy day in the week.

For all the personnal, all the way from the Organising Committee, to the road sweeper, that day is super tiring.

I went to the "family day" to view the rehersal last Sat, with a few of my friends, together with a few thousands more of the public.

And the weather is warm. Thankfully, it's not as hot as last Saturday. The walkways and the nearby shopping malls are full of people walking in the same direction.
All with the same purpose as us. Going into the Marina Stadium.

And from far, we spotted one of our friends. HL.

He looking damm stylo. Been ages since i last saw him.

And as the crowd passes by, the poor SAF men in uniform was "shouting" about the colours of the sectors that our tickets was assigned to.

"Green tickets holders walk further down. Blue tickets this way!" Shouted an army personnal.

"No tickets then go where?" i asked innocently.

In some way, i pity the men in green, having been in their boots in the year 2000.

And surprise. We had goodies bag, wrapped inside plastic bags.

Not the ideal bag. We just have to wait for the actual day to collect our goodies bag.

And into the stadium we go!!!

It was warm, alright. Even with the setting sun.

And 2 rows in front of us, i spotted a family of pirates. "WELCOME TO SINGAPORE, PIRATES!!"

Don't you think their "newspaper hats" looked like the hat on this fellow's head?

Anyway, that showed how warm the weather was at that point of time.

The pre-parade was quite boring. Only interesting thing is the free-fall by the Army parachute team.

It's a bird. No, its, a plane, no, IT'S A PARACHUTE TRAILING SMOKING.

As the saying goes, where's there smoke, there's fire. Is that poor guy burning up??

And the parade starts. The usual stuffs.

Fly past of Chinooks with the state flag during National Anthem, with AH-64D Apache attack Choppers as the escort.

Fly past of F-16 C/D falcon fighter jets in a starburst formation.

Firing of the arty pieces during the parade inspection.

As the arty guns are firing, i heard a kid start crying behind us. He is scared of the sudden sounds from the firing.

We turned back and reassuring the kid. He stopped crying. That kid is cute!! Reminds me of AM's nephew!!

Photo taken with permission of his parents, after he stopped crying.

And then the exciting part (the most exciting part of the NDP celebrations) started.

Boats from the Navy, and the Police Coast Guard gave an exciting show, doing doughnuts, Commandos display their head-down rappelling from the Benjamin Shears Bridge,

And suddenly, a Chinook Chopper desent to above the water surface. The crowd went "WOW!!!"

And still, it went lower.

You can see the Naval divers jumping out of the chopper into the sea, and the Naval boats doing a recovery of the divers.

Next the AH-64D Apache choppers suddenly appear. THey did some turns, salute and flew away.

Finally the SCDF came in with their vehicles. It's a showcase of the equipment.

And i would not be surprised if a submarine suddenly surfaced from the marina bay. Alas, i think too much. No submarine appeared.

After which, the shows started, and after the excitment just now, the shows are "boring". Only thing nice is the lighting effects.

We are waiting for the end of the celebrations, for the pyrotechnics (fireworks). Sadly to say, there's none.

And that's the end of the whole thing. Suddenly.

And suddenly, there's a mad rush for the crowd to leave the stadium. Some even leave before the scheduled departure of the President.

Knowing Singaporeans, we still relaxed in our seats, while the rest make a scramble rush to the exits.

And here's the results.

When we leave, the roads are not busy at all.