hello dudes! muahaha... haven been blogging regularly for the past few months cox of ndp loh! neh neh... that realli took up lots of our time lah... but i guess all was worth the while on the 9th of August 2005... seeing so many members of the public lining along the pavement all the way from beach road camp ( opposite raffles hotel) all the way to the junction before entering padang... woOT! that feeling is wooOOoot! hehe... they were cheering for you along the way... snapping pictures of you.. haha... feels like a moment of fame and stardom huh?! haha.. not forgetting the number of audience that lined up the whole column of hotels of swissotel that faces padang.. haha... we were feeling kindda excited.. so we waved at them before we marched in and they waved back! haha... and when it was our turn to enter the parade ground... man... my heart was beating real fast! im the second row entering the parade square... and for the past few rehearsals during the day.. we haven been able to halt on the spot! man... we didnt wanna disappoint our drill instructors and everyone watching the parade... and we gotta make it to the spot just in time! and YEAH! we DID IT! haha... guess the band which was infront of us when we marched in also felt relieve... haha... and we stood on the parade ground as 4 national day songs were sung... and i was perspiring like mad.. haha... and came "fire of joy"... woot... and that almost marks the end of the parade and we marched out of padang... after 4 months of training... we did indeed put up a good 30 minutes show... but thats not all! haha... so we gotta march from padang all the way back to beach road camp and we gotta pass by the new supreme court... the beach road aread... raffles city... and man! it was packed with people on both sides of the road and they were cheering as you march pass them! haha... and the crowd that gathered outside beach road camp was still there when we return! haha... so after casing of the colours ( there is a ceremony to uncase the flags and to case the flags back.. which simply means to remove the cover covering the flag and to put it back after the ceremoney).. we left for PA... and while we were on the bus... people were still waving to us and we wave back! haha... damn funny... and when we passed by kallang... we caught the fireworks while on the bus too! haha...
NDP 2005 is indeed a GREAT experience... man... those watching the parade and post parade segments at home.. you better appreciate all the hard work that every participants have put in! mind you! training started way way way back in march! and not forgetting those behind the scene helpers... those army personals that help mop (YES! they gotta clean up the mat on the padang ground after each rain pour cox of the water collected after each rainfall) the wet ground before each show... the combat engineers that help fix up the audience stand! yesh! i saw them fixing up the chairs! haha.. and all the road marshalls... the specialists from the army that acted as our mentor and guides... and many many more lah! haha...
Cheers to all!