Mission: CAPTURE the precious moments of our very first NDP on the floating stage (blah blah...)
Location: The biggest floating stage in SE Asia (blah blah...) at Marina Bay. Area within 50km from the floating stage was flooded with a sea of REDshirts. Bet anyone trying to navigate through the crowded wanted to be called Moses for just that day (go figure).
Bi~g baloons could be seen floating around the, erm, floating stage, just to create that atmosphere of a carnival, perhaps?
There's been reported sightings of this HUGE ferris wheel they're building... and you can see it from the stadium too!
And finally the stage itself, with our towering skyscrapers as a backdrop. What better way to celebrate our nation's prosperity?
Logistics: Everyone enlisted for this exercise had been given a Fun Pack, which contained mainly dried food supplies that can last you for quite some time, and perhaps to also add to the possibility of a sore throat, with all the screaming involved.
*Searches bag further*
...Ah, menthol candies and 2 bottles of NEWater to the rescue!
NDP 07 Fun Packs come in many colours! And the bags could be taken apart (they're joined together using zippers), which enables you to do a mix-&-match. Meaning you can not only make a bag of many colours, but also choose to use it as a shoebag one day and a shopping bag on the next.
I myself got an orange one...
...but by the end of the day my bag became an orange-white-green bag. Reminds me of some other country's flag... oops!
We were also given our own trash bags to bag our waste so as to keep the place litter-free. I've played my part, have you?
Nominal Roll: Our platoon is made up of
CPL Wang Weiquan, CPL Wei Yichuan, LCP Jonathan Soon, Ms Amanda (Jon's gf), Mr Keith (her brother)...
and LCP Kelvin Chong.
Despite being daunted by the immensity of the mission, we were quickly reassured upon seeing our comrades who were there for that same purpose.
Whoa that's a LOT of them!
Dear Diary,
Our mission began with a setback.
None of us brought umbrellas for that day (Awww... MAN!), and while the sky was Thank-God-it's-clear, the Sun was beating down harshly upon us in the initial wait-to-rush-rush-to-wait hours typical in any exercise.
The stunt bikers from Australia simply added to the heat, man! Not that we're complaining though.
In the early evening our reinforcements came.
Hope was clearly written on our faces as we watched our very own Red Lions do that Airborne thing. Down they came on parachutes trailing red smoke...
"Here they come here they come!!!"
Here come our troopers! The contingent was made up of people from all walks of life, ranging from grassroot organisations to Commandos! Look at Jon's face light up as he watched the Signallers march past! (Part of Jon's job scope in our unit was dealing with Signallers)
Forming up!
The rest of our re-inforcements arrived in the Dynamic Defence Display segment...
The Airforce!
The... guys jumping down the bridge on ropes?
"Tactical!"
Rescue at sea!
The naval crafts that could do donuts!
The Bionix!
Finally it's time for the show! This year the theme revolves around possibilities, but what impressed me the most was the display of marine life... the Jellyfish, in particular.
Oh don't they just look cute?
Another attention grabber was the Lambo (what the heck?) which was driven onto the stage during the segment on our city's growth in the digital age... I think.
A Lambo, and a white one at that!
Oh yes, the remote-controlled kites item was also one of the highlights! They're so fast, I couldn't even take a proper shot!
The core of our mission, or at least on my part, however, was to capture FIREWORKS SHOTS!!! And it just had to happen... Kelvin, Yichuan and I were apparently too busy taking photos of previous segments... our cameras were LOW BATT as we approached the end of the show. Worse still, The fireworks just didn't come! There were, like, 3 times throughout the whole performance when we thought the fireworks were going to be up (mainly because it's the end of a song), so I had to turn my camera on and off and on and off and on...
Before the sky went supernova.
Not added effects, just Yichuan waving his star-shaped clapper into sight haha.
Mmm.
Down came the DJs and it's time to party-
"What's party without booze, man?" --LCP Kelvin Chong
Alright let's go.
