Saturday
My mum being the superwoman she is, got almost everything ready for the family gathering. I woke up at noon-ish.Whoops.The only thing i helped her with is to shift the tables and chairs to the side of the house.Oh.I didn’t do much too because i caught a cold.My nose was dripping like a spoilt tap. Didn’t want to contaminate the food and leave germs on the furnitures much see?
Gave the R1 outing a miss, just in case my mum needs help and to pacify her a bit.Went online and saw Sharmila on mrbrown.com.Hahaha.Whoots.
Anyway,the crowd started gathering around 6+pm.Hmm.Nothing much for me to do but sit around watching my cousins&nieces play and chatting to my other cousins.The other ladies are all married, so they are obliged to bring/make stuff to such gatherings from now on.Haha.I promised myself to buy cool stuff for everyone when i started work.It’s a normal family gathering,with the same traditional ‘I’m eating durian’ joke between awul and me.(He doesn’t eat durian,I tricked him once and it’s always like this ever since then).Everyone just chilling and watching tv,stuffing faces with food and the usual birthday celebration.This time round, nobody cuts the cake for everyone,thus,nobody eats the cake much.Haha.
The final crowd left home slightly after midnight.Man was i drained.I was sweaty and sticky, and didn’t have enough energy to shower and so I went to sleep. Gross I know, but I’m fully capable of that.XP.
Sunday-NDP
Well, woke up earlier than the usual weeks to meet the rest of the gang. Haha.Everyone seemed to be gathered at coffee and toast.Headed down to the meeting point and realised that only the red sector is there.Apparently we had to write cards for the people who had been taking care of us over the past few weeks. And adeline gave us a gift.Damn sweet.Oh sharmila gave us an envelope earlier too,but we told her to keep it for us first as we didn’t want it to get destroyed.
I dunno.I felt like the atmosphere was all like ‘OMG it’s the real day!!It’s the final day..I don’t want it to endddd’.Everyone ate lunch and got all geared up for the real deal.One final uniform check, icecream distribution and a group photo later, we were off to the floating platform.
Got oriented to our standing positions and went over to the PR&P’s office.Man.All 3 groups squeezed into the room for briefings.It got sooo stuffy that i felt a bit faint.You know how much i hate a crowded place.I managed to hang on till the end.Finally went off to the grandstand to start our duties.
If you think a VIP usher is just to stand there and direct them to their seats, you are wrong.We do much more than that.In the hot hot hot 2+ sun, we started inspecting the bags and putting in booklets and putting in batteries in the hearts.Some batteries play hide and seek with us,and some battery cover on the hearts are so darn hard to open. I used super strength on 2 and hurt my two thumbs opening the flaps.They’re still smarting now.Got burnt pretty bad.Oh.The creative director of ndp came over and asked what we were doing, and ivan,being ivan talked to him.Haha.
Apparently, they opened the gates early.Perhaps there was already a huge queue outside and they want to get over the security checks asap.Trust me, seats were filled up pretty quickly.But.Over at the red side, the business wasn’t that brisk.Haha.Drank chilled H20.Oh.Before that, I saw a creature jumped from one bush to another.Told someone about it, and apparently i wasn’t the only one who saw it.Scary ok.I thought that it was a lizard,but someone thought that it can’t be.So the other possibility is that it’s a rat.Informed adeline, and i think she informed chin yong who then informed some other people.Hahaa.As the other sectors are being filled, a bunch of guys were holding sticks and prodding the plants to look for the rat.Oh dear.So much trouble for one report of a rat sighting.I don’t think they managed to capture it.
Anyway, people started filling in the red side and boy was i kept busy.I talked until my throat felt sore and my arm ache.Haha.The photographers started to make life a bit harder for me and yu ling.Man.They are like hawks i tell you.Or is it vulture?Anyway.They crowded the little space the aisle has to get good shots of the members of parliament.All these while people are going up to their seats.Most of the guests are really nice when i greeted them.Some even tried to fan me and ask me to hang in there.Hahaha.Oh.One of the photographers like gave me a tidbit while a guest came up the aisle walking past us.He was like ‘That’s the ambassador of china to singapore”.Of course, he said that after he snapped shots of her.Cool.I saw a bunch of important people.Maybe next year red sector should like learn the names of ambassadors instead of the MPs.
Dinner was shift 2.Means i’ll miss the pretty pretty performances and watch most of the traditional parade.Oh wells.The marching song really nice.Hahaa.It gets stuck in my head reaaally easily.Lunch was KFC.Hmms.Haha.So not eating anymore fried chicken.Then again i was never a fried chicken person.Oh.My thumb hurts so bad that i had trouble tearing the chilli sauce packets.Grrr.And the oil from the chicken contantly reminded me that my thumb is wounded.Ouuch.
I really liked that song sung by Gayle Nerva and Kelvin Tan.It’s really pretty.That’d make a great ndp song.Nono.Just that opening bit.Didn’t like the medley a couple of minutes into the song as i can’t sing along coz it’s in chinese but when they switched back to english..whoohoo.Hahaha.
Loved the fireworks.They increased the amount of the golden sparkles so it looks sooo huge that it may consume us all.Ohh..I like the parts where the fireworks synchronised with the music.They should do that more often.Hearts.
Dispersal was a headache.The orange people wanted to go down the red aisle.The person at the corner looking really helpless against the crowd.But at least it was great.The people who were standing at the bottom were awesome for checking the passes.Everyone did awesome.Finally, our jobs were done.Gathered.Some people camwhored.Filled up survey form and then suddenly,CY came over and said something that made almost everyone scream.When i heard what it was about, I screamed too.Hahaha.AIRCOOONN.Went over to the ML and hang around.Boxes of snacks and drinks were delivered to us.More camwhored.Man it was nice to sit on the sofa.=D.
They gave out the certificate of appreciation out.I was tooo tired to be hyper already mann.hahaha.
Finally a final debrief and a biiigg group phototaking.R1 is still pretty high.Went onto the platform for group photos and some jump shots.I was all about ‘Can’t we go back now..I want to collect funpack and just leaveee’.Haha.But everyone was busy making a bit more memories together.Finally we scanned out and went off and took our funpacks.By sheer affinity,a whole bunch of us in R1 got green funpacks.haha.Or maybe green is such a common colour.Or we stood pretty alternately that we happened to be standing in line for green.Anyway it’s not blue so i was fine with it.
Headed back towards the mrt station one last time with the gang.Said our goodbyes and all.Sad.I really hope to see them again soon.They’re a really fun bunch to hang out with.Oh.Last year’s R3 too,but that’s a different story.I shall really miss this bunch of people.
Thing is..Next year, am I joining again?See hooww
