National Day Parade 2014

Happy National Day 2014! :)
This is my second NDP and the first I have attended at The Float@Marina Bay. :) My friend, Vanessa and I met up at 3pm at Raffles City, had tea before we slowly made our way over to The Float@Marina Bay. Along the way, we saw many people wearing red and white, presumably they must be attending the NDP too. :) I was in red and black lol. Didn't know the significance until my friend told me. :P Nothing was intended by my choice of colour except for practicality reason. :)  We picked up our funpack and proceeded to our Orange sector (mainly for ministry people) for seating by 4:15pm. We were early lol.

Wanted my green funpack :(

From my seat - 270 view (part i)

From my seat - 270 view (part ii)

From my seat - 270 view (part iii)

From my seat - 270 view (part iv)

From my seat - 270 view (part v)

Me being early at NDP 2014 :)

For a while, I was worried because dark clouds were forming. But thank goodness the weather held except for a drop or two. :) 

Dark clouds looming overhead

As the sun set, it became cooler with the sea breeze.The pre-parade activities started around 5:30pm with the hosts singing and leading us in old Singapore favourites such as Singapura, Chan Mali Chan, etc. This is nostalgic for me as these were the songs that I used to sing when I was in school! :)
Soon, a loud booming noise was heard overhead. Looking up into the sky, the Singapore Armed Forces Parachute Team - the Red Lions - parachuted from their helicopter to loud cheers from the crowd. With precision and skill, the 9 Red Lions, including the first female Red Lion 3WO Shirley Ng executed a free-fall jump and landed in front of the audience on the floating platform and the junior Red Lions joined them to salute the audience.

The Red Lions

Next came the Parade and Ceremony with a Military Tattoo which comprised of the band and SAF precision drill squad which exhilarated the audience. The singing of the national anthem started after the arrival of the president, followed by the president's inspection and the presidential gun salute. 

Singing of the national anthem

A total of 35 marching contingencies (including 14 non-uniformed contingencies and 15 social and economic organisations) participated in this year's parade. After that was the Dynamic Defence Display in which the Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force wowed the audience. I was busy snapping pictures of our military might lol. :P

The Unmanned Fire Fighting Machine (UFM) from SCDF

Caught this photo just before we got showered by the UFM :)

The show started close to 7:30pm with four different acts - Act 1: Celebrate it!, Act 2: Love it!, Act 3: Live it! and Act 4: Be it!. Love the fireworks at the end of each act and at the end of NDP 2014.

The end of a successful NDP 2014

The crowd streaming out

A selfie with my new Lumia 930 lol :P

Me and the iconic city backdrop :)

A little after 8pm, the NDP 2014 came to a close. As my friend and I waited for the crowd to thin before setting off on our way home, we were treated to an extra display of fireworks by the organisers who wanted to thank all the performers, volunteers, multimedia team, and everyone who has contributed in one way or another to make NDP 2014 a success. Bonus! :)  

Leaving The Float@Marina Bay

I finally reached home around 10pm after stopping at Raffles City for a dessert lol. :P

Everything I have in the funpack!

The beautiful city backdrop and skyline: Victoria Concert Hall, CBD, Fullerton Hotel

The CBD

Marina Bay Sands, the Helix Bridge (in red and white)

The Singapore Flyer, the Helix Bridge and the moon

I really enjoyed attending the NDP 2014 at The Float@Marina Bay. :) 
I am proud to be a Singaporean. Singapore has indeed come a long way but it still has a long way to go. We all need to play our part for we are Singapore. :)

Hari Raya Lunch

Today is the lunch that we waited once a year for! :) My friend, Rahidah always kindly invite us to her place for Hari Raya lunch. :) We had a good time catching up one another and eating all the Hari Raya food, goodies and kueh kuehs. :)

Thank you, Aunty Rahidah for the delicious lunch and the yummy goodies that you always packed for us to bring home. Happy Hari Raya!
Love, Marieann and Juliane. :)

"Tattooed"

Someone got a "tattoo".

Juliane came home after their school's National Day celebration (half day school) with a Singapore flag "tattoo" on her face. She proudly went out in the afternoon with me to run an errand with the tattoo still on her face lol.

Invited

My MFA friend  has an extra ticket and invited me to attend the National Day Parade (NDP) 2014. :) The last and only time I was at NDP was back when my friend's late grandfather was the President of Singapore! That NDP was held at the Padang. NDP 2014 will be held at The Float@Marina Bay. Apparently this will be the last NDP against the iconic city backdrop. I am excited! :)

My New Phone II

It is almost a week now since I bought my new Nokia Lumia 930 phone. Still trying to get used to the size. Lumia 930 is relatively bigger than my previous Lumia 800 which fits nicely in my palm. I almost dropped my new phone twice because I didn't get a good grip. My hand cramped up too when I spoke for over 20 minutes and needed the other hand to hold up the phone. Looks kinda ridiculous. :( I don't like using the ear piece so I may have to limit the duration of my phone calls, no more than 10 minutes!
For me, size does matter and it is the smaller the better for mobile phones! :P  

Passed!

Juliane passed her first physical fitness test! :) But she passed her 1.6km only on her second attempt. Her first attempt was 25 minutes! Her buddy who was telling her how many laps to go told Juliane her timing was ok. To have my child fail 1.6km run, especially when I ran 2.4km in 10 minutes, it was such a shock. 
Thank goodness, she passed on her second attempt and ran 1.6km in 12 minutes. Now I wonder what she was doing in her first attempt, walked?! She has gotten a Bronze for her first fitness test. Not a bad achievement. Hopefully she will get fitter for her next physical fitness test. :)

Convocation 2014

Today I attended the convocation of 6 colleagues/ friends' convocation at NTU. I feel so proud as I have known four of them since 2004 (10 years!!) and we all started doing our PhDs around the same time in 2005/ 2006. However, I graduated with my PhD 2 years earlier in 2012. :P Otherwise it would have been wonderful to have a photo of all of us wearing our PhD gowns, hoods and bonnets! :) 
Seeing my friends in the auditorium brings back fond memories for me. It is hard to believe that I was in their shoes two years ago. I could relive and relish that proud moment now as it was a blur for me then lol. 
Congrats to Drs Dennis Kwek, Melvin Chan, Tan Teck Kiang, Redzuan, Zhang Limei and Lee Ai Noi. :)

The four amigos that I have known since 2004! :)

We were all in the same project 2004-2007/2008

Irrational "fear"

Marieann has developed an irrational "fear" of airplanes! She asked me today if I had booked the flights and/ or the accommodations in Bali for our end of year trip. When I said no, she was happy and announced that she no longer wants to go away at the end of the year. She wants to stay in Singapore. What?
After further probing, she said that she is scared of airplanes because of the 3 airplane crashes within a week. WHAT?! 
Statistically car crashes happen much, MUCH MORE frequently than airplane crashes! Sigh. I will give her some time, maybe after a while she will forget about the airplane crashes and lose her irrational "fear" of airplanes.

New Adventures Needed

I need new adventures! To read!! :)
I finished reading 8 books in the Event Group Adventure series by David Goleman in one and a half month. There is a 9th Event Group book but I can anticipate that I will finish it no time. I need to find other thriller/ adventure series to read. Ok, James Rollins has a new book out, The 6th Extinction but I still need new series to read so that I can be occupied while waiting for the new release(s) from my favourite series. :P

My New Phone

I would have continued with using my Lumia 800 if the power button did not get jammed. Repair would cost me at least $150 which is not worth it. After a day of consideration, I decided to get a new phone. After a second of consideration, I decided to stick with my Nokia. :) I got Lumia 930. Alas, the shop didn't have the green so I had to go with the classic black.
I am a Nokia girl. I just could not do without a Windows phone! :)