GE2011 Results at Hougang Stadium (Photo post)

Short montage of footage I happened to catch while there with my camera to shoot some photos. Also, shitty sound quality, just FYI.

Now. Pictures.

Number of people around 10PM. The crowd grew bigger as the night drew on.

Of course, I eventually had to write a kaypoh GE2011 post.

Am I particularly well-informed in the sphere of politics? No. Politically apathetic? Hard to be in the current political climate.

For over 40 years, soccer and American politics have been far more interesting for Singaporeans to discuss than our stagnant and immovable PAPlitical scene. But there’s a whiff of change in the air, and regardless of whether the 2011 elections will bring in actual tides of change, it is undeniable that something has cracked in the veneer of a peaceful and contented society that the PAP has tried desperately to mask for the past decade. This little tear in the fabric has now morphed into an fast evolving monster that the PAP is clueless in handling.

I’m no expert, and I’m not going to pretend to be. But there are just a few things I’d like to point out.

Chingay 2011.

So Derek and I received free tickets to Chingay from @visitsingapore on Twitter (courtesy of our boss @claudia10 who volunteered us for tickets). It was an interesting experience to watch Chingay as an adult (according to Derek, the last time he watched it live he was 80cm high… so he says).

Derek’s working on our Chingay entry for rediscover.sg now so do look out for it.

In the meantime, here’s some of my own pictures from the event. I was on the 70-200mm f2.8 L IS markII… it is a freaking amazing lens my friends, and so definitely the next major purchase I’m going to make. (Rented it this time around). Derek was on his 24-70mm f2.8 and doing video, because he said I was bullying him with my big lens.

Our seats weren’t great, we were behind the staircase rail and at the second last row from the back. Our footage and photos are hence pretty limited by the little silver of space we were standing in and trying our best not to capture too many humans from the rows in front in our shots (with limited success).

But otherwise, it was a nice experience, one I haven’t had in a long, long time, a little bit like watching NDP. There were lots of tourists enjoying the festivities and pretty fireworks too.

Fight ah!

Excited kid.

The lights on the red section (more expensive tickets), where the main bulk of the action took place. We were in the yellow section.

Another excited angmoh kid!

And another one!

What I liked: Enthusiastic participants! Even though Singaporean audiences are generally a passive lot, there are some performers whom you really don’t mind sharing a smile with.

Not sure where this particular group of dancers were from, they were one of the earlier ones.

A ‘Stingray’ from the Resorts World contingent.

I think this is from Segment 2, Thiruvizha Melam.

The National Danish Performance Team members were doing flips and flips and more flips!

There were quite a few belly dancing groups too.

Think this is probably a group from NUS or SIM. Nice energy and smiles!

This grandma was in her evening best and carrying herself very elegantly.

Mexican contingent!

Malay community performing arts. Love it when performers really bring you in with their high energy and smiles.

What I liked the most: This particular, super high energy Jap contingent! Not sure if they were really Jap, but if you told me they were I’d believe it because the energy in their item was many times that of every other group that went past. Budo, presented by Nippon Damannaka Festival.

Outfits that (almost) knocked my socks off: Some of the outfits that were insanely aunty/crazy.

Edna Mod gone wrong?

Not a flattering fit!

Harley girls… But well, they ARE Harley girls you know, so I cannot comment.

This one, honestly, was a little bit scary in many ways.

I admire this grandma for prancing around in that outfit, but she didn’t smile once. Nope.

Erm…

Outfits that were pretty funky: The animals! Somehow the seahorse cracked me up because I couldn’t imagine walking around in it.

Didn’t your momma ever teach you not to touch animals with rabid glowing eyes?

Zebra with a lot of stripes.

The seahorsies they do not look too pleased.

O hai Singapore Garrison: 501st Legion! You guys seem to be everywhere!

And yep, that’s my summary of the night’s festivities. There were fireworks too.

No great pictures of the fireworks because my 70-200mm was too close to capture anything wide. (And also I wasn’t expecting them, didn’t know there’d be fireworks!) Apart from the fireworks, they also released a whole bunch of balloon lanterns that seemed to be very Tangled inspired (for the non Disney fans, yes I am talking about the latest Disney animated remake of Rapunzel). But it was either a last minute addition or not well co-ordinated because the performers seemed a little unsure about when and whether they were supposed to release the balloon lanterns at all.

If you want to see more pictures of Chingay 2011, they’re up on my Facebook album.

Till the next entry, which I hope won’t be too long from now.

Signing out!
Lizzy.

The cutest cousin. (Yes I’m back!)

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddd I’m back. Hello everyone.

Yes the undeclared hiatus is over.

I have started taking out my Nikon again.

—

So, the cutest and youngest cousin turned FIVE last Saturday. She is totally adorable and a miracle. Almost immediately after she was born, we found out rather dramatically that she has a medical condition where her body cannot break down proteins. (Her mom found her unconscious and couldn’t wake her up and panicked, there were many tiring months for everyone as doctors hummed and hawed trying to figure out what was wrong and how to deal with it.)

She mostly just eats carbs and avoids most yummy foods that we all take for granted. Even at her own birthday party she mostly ate potato wedges the whole time even though my aunt specifically requested for other protein-free food for her. But that’s where she’s such a mature darling for her age. I guess when you’ve been educated to know that you could die just by simply putting the wrong food in your mouth you become a lot more aware and conscious of your surroundings. (And hence she refused the veggie only spring rolls because she was afraid that ‘there would be something bad inside’.)

Five years have come and gone so quickly and now she is this beautiful 5 year toddler who is extremely smart and bold and likes to headbutt me in the stomach.

More photos of her and some of the really adooooorable kids who were at the party.

I totally love her Noah’s Ark cake.

Om nom nom.

She can smile.

She can pout.

She can look tickled and gleeful to get balloons. There’s boyfriend working on his daddy skills.

Handing out cake.

Her bestie’s little sister (as though they couldn’t get any smaller and cuter). Her daddy took out her socks so she won’t fall down, but she tried valiantly to put them back on and failed.

So adorbz.

If I ever have a son, HE MUST BE AT LEAST THIS CUTE.

Natalie having, literally, a ball of a time.