We’re Counting Down to Singapore NDP 2007!

Oh, it’s 1st July 2007 & we’re 1 week nearer to NDP 2007!

I wanted to keep to the NDP theme but resisted because of an event which took place yesterday and it’s pretty relevant to NDP too!

I almost forgotten, thinking that it’s 31st June 2007.
Maybe I was still dazed by the event yesterday.

What event?

So you must be new to my blog eh? Or you must be infrequent here?

Anyway, it’s okay for me… like I’ve always said -
“The World Don’t Owe Me A Living“.

Okay, was there an event yesterday?

Why, Yes!

Unless you’ve been living under the rocks for the past few weeks.

No, no, no… I don’t mean iPhone (Apple’s latest product)! Although I love that baby a lot… but spending US$499 (4GB with subscription) is a financial bomb to me. Really, unless you’re pretty loaded, an extra power featured cell phone is always welcomed!

In case you’re wondering what it looks like, I’ve found a solid picture of this really cool gadget (by the way, there’s no such thing as iPhone Nano or iPhone Shuffle now so don’t waste time searching for it) :

You mean SAF day?

No, no, no… that’s 1st July again, and it’s today right?

I mean yesterday - that’s the final day for public access into the National Stadium. It an organized event to officiate the closing down ceremony of the 1st ever National Stadium of Singapore.

A little history…

The National Stadium of Singapore was officially declared opened in 1973 (34 years ago) by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, one of the former Prime Minister of Singapore.

Funny thing is, the closing ceremony was officiated by SR Nathan, the current (2007) President of Singapore. Personally, I think this was inappropriate (you know what I mean) but nevertheless, that was not up to you and I to have a say on this!

I made it just in time to the Stadium in time (5pm), and the special credit goes to Vincent who kindly drove me there!

I took some time to tour around the building before entering the South gate, and even took some pictures before the structure be torn down anytime.

Below are some of my snapshots:

A frontal view of East Gate and a mass crowd trying to enter the stadium.  This is where majority of the audience will fill the national stadium tonight.

That’s me!  It’s rather hard to take a picture of myself… but I guess it looks pretty okay here! 

On my way to the gates, I saw this “Lights out” party signboard.  It’s a party open to special ticker holders who would like to give in their own  last shot/stampde/destruction onto the poor grasses of the field for the last time.

Doesn’t make sense right?  Any sane man or woman should be sleep well under their blankets at this kind of hours.  Nevermind…

Oh, I literally walked pass this fine young man who was trying to make some fast cash selling a “Goodbye” T-shirt for the last time.  I thought I might like to take a picture of him holding one!  He was quite sporty and allowed me to take his pose. 

It says: “North Entrance”.  Not there yet.

This is the “West Entrance”.  A large part of this entrance leads to the VIP and sheltered seatings.  Noticed the “wave” structure of the roof?

I guess that’s the Southern entrance?  Can’t walk further right?  Otherwise I’ll be back to square one.

Took 2 shots of the signboard… but it turned out to be too reflective under the late afternoon sunlight.

I managed to find a comfortable seating at the exact center, South of the stadium.  Hey, this is the 2nd time I’ve set foot in the stadium and I wasn’t aware of it until I was looking straight at the center of the goal post!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that it would be disastrous for the goal post to be offset on the field for 2 international playoffs. 

Furthermore, you see this middle-aged man in the photo?  He looked like a team leader in this seating contingent, later to realized that I was sitting right at a reserved area for the “Die-Hard” Singapore soccer fans!  Luckily, he did not drive me off the grounds because I was sitting alone and it did not affect his arrangement too much.  Phweew!

More photos taken from around my seat:

Noticed the cauldron in the background?  A pity I couldn’t show you when it’s lighted up in the night.  Maybe I can find a picture posted by some other people on the Internet later.  Hmm… you may start asking - why?

I’ll explain in a short while…

The 1st playoff was a friendly match for the former Malaysia Cup players from Malaysia and Singapore.  Noticed they are getting ready for the 1st half.

Yes, the Singapore team lead by 1-0 before the 1st half ended.  Unfortunately, the Malaysia veterans quickly finishes the game at 1-1.  It was a really slow game in my opinion.  They players were literally walking instead of chasing after the ball.

I’m not a soccer fan back home, really… and if you hear this from me, then you’ve probably died waiting for a goal in this match. 

The photographer did not know that he was photographed. 

And that’s the 2nd half.

The best moment came at this time when…

The BATTERY in my camera DIED!!!

Well, it didn’t really DIED - it just got flattened out.

Hey, this isn’t my first time.  It was even showing full battery power while I was taking the shots!

Anyway…

peace was not restored until finally, I resigned to my fate to enjoy the rest of the show without the camera.  Hopefully, I might be able to pick up some interesting pictures or videos from the web, if there are such kind souls around. 

Anyway, the match continued…

and it was between Singapore Lions vs the Royal Australian Gold team.  The national team was brutally trashed in a 0-3 score.  The guests gave “no face” to the host.  Despite how hard the Lions ran, how much Kallang Waves and Kallang Roars made, it was a most memorable defeat to commemorate the closing of the facility.

If you would have been there as I did, you would have witnessed how the “Die-Hard” fans would have felt, the disappointments, the curses at the backseats…

The night ended with touching memories and display of some of Singapore’s finest athletes on the track.

As usual, when I was about to leave, I looked around my seating area and was astonished to see the amount of rubbish accumulated under the seatings.

Do Singaporeans behave this way when no one was watching?

Or is this a culture of any major celebrations like Christmas or New Year Eve elsewhere in the world?

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Okay, got to stop somewhere.  I guess has been a pretty long post.  Hope you like it and do let me hear your comments.