So we have been looking forward to the date at Marina Bay floating stage for a long time. Though it's only the preview, it's still as nice. All we missed were the actual VIPs to the parade. Those appearances were simulated by people. Haha.
We met up for lunch at Marina Square so as to beat the crowd. And guess who or what we saw at Cityhall mrt station?
It's some UOB Elephant! Haha. I love elephants! (long story). Too bad this picture is blur. :( But its still cute. :)
We had lunch at this Old Hongkong Tea House within Marina Square Food Court. I thought the food were so-so only. Baked chicken chop rice and fish pasta. Didn't really feel very comfortable when I saw how dirty the cutlery were when we took them. Just have to make do and clean them ourselves.
Finally when it's time to enter the floating plaform! I still thought it was early but everyone was already making their way there! It was already easily half filled with spectators at abt 4.15pm. There was a very strict searching process before we could enter. Our belongings had to be put through the security scan. Not only must we walk through the security "door", we had to be lift our arms up to let the police officers scan manually. Once we got in, we just followed the signs to collect the goodie bags (Dear got red while I got yellow) and to the blue platform to our seats. The seats were rather cramped but at least we got the corner seats so it's not too bad.
Us happily at our seats. Hee.
The goodie bags were really fun! They kept us entertained for much of the time before the actual programme began. Hee.
First was tattoos time!
And boy, these tattoos were so hard to washed off! We basically had to rubbed damn hard to make them totally off. Lucky I never put any on my face! Poor Dear! Lol.
Next we took photos with the Flag and some cute head masks. Haha.
The Lion & the Fish! (To the tune of "The Pinky & the Brain")
The Singapore Flyer. It's gonna open next year Valentine's Day. I wish we could go then...But it will be damn ex. Haha. Nvm, we'll go for the London Eye next year!
We had quite a number of rounds of Marina Waves and some performances before the parade officially started. Seeing the contingents marching in really reminds me of my Guides NDP days. I loved the Parade part more than the later performance part. It's just so cool to see the various uniformed groups marching out in honor and pride to the parade round. Every contingent is important, not only the Guards of Honor. Haha. Hence, I love it that this year, President Nathan went to view all of them in the military car. But it's quite weird to see them waving back at him in their stationary positions. Haha.
The SAF contingents formed the words "NDP 07" and later "NS 40" while the supporting contingents formed the word "Singapore" at the back. So nice. But I am quite sure the word "Singapore" wasn't formed during the preview unlike the actual day.
We got a professional photographer to take this shot for us. It's by far my favorite shot for the day. Haha. Though a bit blur due to my sensitive sony T3.
This year's parade got a special SAF display of sea, land n air defense possessions. Haha, I really dunno what's the right word to use. It's quite cool, but they were really too fast for us to take really good photos on my camera. Hee.
The helicopters, flag n the beautiful skyscrapers.
My "Harry Potter" scene for the night. Haha. The yellow balls are actually jellyfishes.
The River of Dreams
The stage before the sky turned totally dark
The animals that symbolises the neighbouring countries. Haha. I thought they look cute.
The stars in Heaven, on Earth and those in your eyes...and now those big ones in our hands! Hehe.
The finale. It's just so beautiful. It's a real effort to put together NDP every year. Really appreciate the efforts of the organizers and the participants!
Finally, it came to the an end with a generous display of pretty fireworks! But my camera ain't really good at capturing such quick succession shots. Here are some of the better shots. Hehe.
It was a really wonderful experience to watch NDP live from the spectator stand. I hope we could ballot for the actual day tickets next year! :)
