Stream of Consciousness Rant

Bah. I missed Fash Bash. For the second time. And it was held over two days! Man, the weekends are simply too short. I woke up late yesterday after playing sitter to a bunch of my drunk/high workmates the night before, and alternated between being present at my dad's birthday bash (I struggled with that, even) and going out with The Boyfriend's friends from out-of-town.

And today - Work. I'm fast becoming a no-Lifer! Ughhhhhhhhhhh. The dumbest thing was, when I was ready to sit down and start punching into my lappie, I realised that I'd brought everything home but the most important bits. Thinking back now, I can't quite believe that I made the trip back to the office and back just to fetch those silly sheets of paper. Argh. Thankfully my sis was nice enough to accompany me. She just sat patiently next to me, with her revision in her lap (complete with calculator) while we made our journey through the rain and back. *pat pat*

Some photos of the energy-draining night.

Their way of saying Farewell: forcing drinks down her throat.

My colleagues trying to strip me. Such nice people they are.

"I just can't get enough. I just can't get enough!"

I wanted to put up more photos, but I think my colleagues'll kill me if they found out I'd pasted their drunken miens for all and sundry to see on the world wide web. And there weren't more of me I can share, because it's much more fun taking pictures of high people doing silly things than sober people sitting around avoiding getting trampled on by stiletto-clad feet, you see.

My Red, Red Heart

As a little girl, I was seriously patriotic. Whenever Majulah Singapura was played over tv or the pledge recited, I would stand, ramrod straight, and belt out the lines with gusto. Ah, those days of self-consciouslessness.

But those things changed as I grew older. Slowly, I started to notice the adults giggling at me when I sang my national anthem at attention. As I moved onto secondary school, it suddenly dawned on me that it was uncool to be seen singing at assemblies in earnest, and learnt to play down my siao-onness, as they call it. Things came to a fore in JC, when I learnt things about my country's governance I'd never even dreamt of before, and started becoming more skeptical about news articles extolling how well the Party had done that year, or how many more jobs the growing economy had bolstered.

So when I was given tickets to my first NDP last year, I wasn't very enthused. In fact, even as a kid who loved hanging the state flag outside my flat, I was never enamoured of the broadcasted event. It simply wasn't able to capture my short attention span.

That changed, however, when I actually attended the event. The flying of the flag as we sang the Anthem, the communal taking of the pledge, and of course, the fireworks, ignited the latent patriot in me once again. There was just something that roused me when I watched it live for the first time. I'm a sucker for these things. Except for the actual parade pieces.

It was the same this year (yes, I was lucky enough to be given tickets again to the event). I may complain a lot about Singapore, but I do love it at the end of the day, warts and all. Here are some pictures I took at the event.

Local Gems

Forever yummy, The Dim Sum Dollies! (And I think I recognise another famous mien in the bottom left-hand corner of this picture.)


The T'ang Quartet! I love their verve. And I like that they looked happy to be there.


A close-up of my fave, Leslie Tan.


Kit Chan! My favourite local singer.

The Parade (or at least, the bits that I caught)

One of the "Red Lions" doing his thing, which, unlike his moniker, is really quite amazing.


Happily milking the parade for what it's worth.

The Sights

I took this picture using digital lens, which accounts for the poor quality. But look at the number of people gathered across the river! Which is a really nice spot to perch (next to actually being a member of the audience, of course) to see a lot of the displays like the fireworks and showcase of the Navy's powerful toys.


A sea of colourful clappers. My favourite was the blue which, alas, I did not get.


A scene which warms the cockles of my heart. This, to me, was worth more than anything the parade could offer. Despite not actually wanting to work in any of these buildings, they nevertheless represent to me the "peace" and "prosperity" bit in our pledge. Mostly peace, but some prosperity too (though not mine). Oh, and the jellyfish are a nice touch. Too cute.


The Boyfriend and I fooling around with a silly hat (which incidentally all the ministers had to wear. Teehee.)