Friday, 10 August 2007
National Day was C.R.A.Z.Y!! Will never forget this one... / Friday, August 10, 2007
When i say crazy, i mean -crazy-
i met Hong Siew at Hougang Mall at 1pm. We went upstairs to Minitoons to search for her Elmo keychain. Asked her why Elmo of all soft toys, and guess what she said?
-She's Emo, Elmo's friend- =='' Lol
We took the mrt to Dhoby, then to City Hall. City Link was packed. Could see many families and people dressed in red and white. Could feel the "national day" atmosphere already.. Yeah.. love ppl-watching! lol
We walked to Marina Square. It was also crowded. Gosh, i was so excited bout NDP! I mean it's the first time it's held on water u know.. for the past years i dun even bother to watch the live telecast of NDP. Oh well, when i said i was excited bout NDP, my friends gave me the ~diao~ look =='' Hey.. i love S'pore cannot meh...
We hanged around shopping for HS's elmo, met up with Justina back at City Link, then came back to Marina Square, cos i couldn't decide on what type of earrings to buy, so i needed Justi's help. Next we hanged around, drank Slurpee and ate food. When it was around 4 plus, we made our way to the Esplanade. Spilt up with Justi cos she would be joining her jc friends.
The Esplanade waterfront promenade was very packed when we reached there. We couldn't see a thing. The entrance to the Esplanade Bridge was blocked off by the police. Crap. Guess they didn't allow more ppl on in case it became too overcrowded and ppl start falling off the bridge or a stampede breaks out. It was scary. First time in my life have i seen so many ppl. Some more they're in red and white. Snapped away at the people, scenery, and buildings.
And believe it or not, MY DIGI CAM DIED ON ME!! Huff, now i only got my hp cam. But thank God Hong Siew's with me. She's from Photography club in her sch, so she has this big professional cam with her Wahaha so lucky!
We were pissed with the policemen's attitudes. If they dun let us on the bridge, where do they expect us to stand to watch the parade? Ugh.. we got no choice. We came down the stairs under the bridge, and rushed to the other end of the Esplanade Bridge. Hope u can imagine the picture. Cos it's quite a distance. We went to the Merlion Park. It was super packed. A policeman handed me a few S'pore flags. Yeah... souvenir ^.^
o.O noticed the pub BabyFace was closed already. Sad! My family just went there last year same time for the opening, and now it's closed...
HS and i found a spot to stand. It was near Starbucks coffee house. Lots of ppl were seated on mats and eating and waiting. We snapped away with our cams. We can't see the floating platform from here. Darn. But with HS's super zoom cam, she got to take a few pics of the platform, though she kept complaining there was this lady's head which kept blocking her view. Hahaha
Ppl were beginning to line up behind us. Right behind us were a grp of Indian workers. Obviously we felt uncomfortable. We waited for a very long time, like about an hour plus. Imagine standing still w/o moving for an hour? Then HS told me she didn't feel well. At first i didn't take it seriously and thought maybe after she sat down and rest for a while, she'll be ok, but it was worse than i thought.
She looked very pale and that's when we started to move out of the crowd. It was a nightmare. I kept repeating 'Excuse me' all the way. We squeezed past ppl who were already seated down as well as those standing. See the ppl on the right in the pic?
We squeezed past them. I nearly fell on a woman. Not that she refused to make way, but just that there was really no space. the "lane" is big enough for only 3 ppl back to back, and then that's the glass wall already. Halfway through, my friend went limp and fell, and i freaked out. i grabbed her arm and another middle-aged lady held onto her. Thank God she was behind us to help us. That lady also kept asking the ppl around us to make way cos smone was fainting. My friend vomitted halfway. We tried to get out of that place as fast as possible.
Near the end, there was this malay family sitting on the mat taking up a large space and blocking the road. I had no choice but to step onto the map right in the middle, thus disrupting their game. Then they all started "oih...." Fine, i know. my bad. But my friend is fainting here and all u care about is your game?! Then this malay man, probably the father, kept staring at us and repeating "Never go school is it?" Gosh, what an insult! I really felt like slapping someone then.
We finally moved out of the mosh pit. We took a rest at a ulu stairs. HS drank water and cleaned up, and she looked better, not as pale as before. We rested for quite a while, then got up to search for another spot. We heck care bout the parade already. We just wanted to see the fireworks.
We kind of dunno where to go next, so we went up the stairs. There was a huge crowd waiting at the traffic lights. Opposite at Fullerton Hotel, there was already a crowd. The crowd here isn't moving, so i guessed it's another police blockade at the Esplanade Bridge again.
It's quite scary, being in the middle of such a huge crowd. U don't know what will happen cos u feel vulnerable.. I've seen those tv shows like The World's Most Amazing Videos, and anything can happen. Maybe it's my first time in such a situation, that's why i feel this way. Choi choi..
Ok, finally the crowd moved. The police opened the barricades by letting only like 2 persons past each time, then slowly removing the barricades totally. On the bridge, policemen were crazy. There was one (below) shouting at the people to walk and not run.
This particular guy very funny lah. He later used the loudhailer and the siren sound to make people come down from the railings. And the funny thing is, he kept refering to the railings as the "pillar" Like wth hahaha. He can be harsh when shouting but when talking to ppl nearby, he'll smile and go "Mdm can u pls.." Very cute lah.. haha He was our entertainment of the day, and we kept taking pics of his stupid hero poses LOL!
Waited long for the parade to start. I wun describe to u how the parade went, cos we couldn't see a thing. We couldn't even see the floating platform. That's all we see, in the picture above, the highway side bushes and people's heads. lol
Halfway through the parade, we met Jiamin, Emily and Jenny, our old school and classmates in sec sch. I think someone also fell or fainted near where we stood, cos there were lots of commotion there. HS sat on the railings and took pics with her pro camera, while i stood on the ground and took videos.
We missed out taking pics of the fireworks atop the bank bldgs cos it happened so fast we couldn't anticipate it. But we got the video and pics for the big one. The finale one. ^-^ So niceee....
After the parade, there was human jam everywhere. The crowd at the escalator to the mrt station was scary. HS and i sat at the stairs in front of the Esplanade and waited. Police blocked the underground escalator from the Esplanade to City Link, so we were forced to come up and walk the long way through Suntec City.
Wah.. feeling so tired and smelly. Escalators were off, so we had to take the stairs. We finally got on a train to Dhoby. When we reached Dhoby, i called Rach cos she's working at Plaza Sing, so i tot of visiting her. She was working at a roadshow in the middle of PS. Saw her and her SP senior Darren. They were packing up already. Saw Rach's colleague from Acer also. It was quite late already, and rach was going for supper with her senior, so Hong Siew and i went off first.
Really enjoyed the parade, i mean the fireworks and plane displays and all. The whole atmosphere was really warm and joyous. Other than the nasty people experience, i had a great time. I will come again next yr, though i'll probably get NDP tix rather than watch from bridges or sth. =)
Happy B'day and Sweet 42, Singapore! ^-^
~Ber~
We know life's hard, truth is hard, lies are hard, they are all hard to accept when they have been
found out, and i'm rushing history homework on the Abyissian Crisis about Italy and Abyssia going into war and that the League Of Nations cannot stop this from happening, and beacuse they are formed by means to stop war and
peace-keep the countries together, they have thus failed to achieve that. I think i tend to hold a class for history instead of telling you about me, i'm basically a what subject-realted lover (humanities) and thus
I am more analytical and critical about things, and likes to study about dead people, haha. lol. it's history what can you expect and also geography, it amazes me. I really like it alot, so what have you? Again to find this answer
you need to enter into your own reality and reflect
it's amazing. amzing how people change the way of things, like how I used to hate outdoors in Band
felt it was a complete waste of time, i've acquired to like it more, i guess people change, their thereotical means and applications in life just goes on into a new direction, and see things in another perspective, i guess- it's
all in the mind. It really amazes me how these comes into action, from someone so pessimistic has changed his own view of things, and thus my friend is scoring much better, being more optimisitc and not think of his old way of suicidal
thoughts, which are pretty daunting. and thus we need to see things, in another light, another perspective and another new way, to enable us to open up our minds, and make more new things, the new way it is. 
