Tuesday, August 09, 2005
If life is a rollercoaster ride, boy, is that statement so darn right. Life was pretty low yesterday, with all those sway things happening to me in one day. But the day wrapped up on a good note when i helped this old Malay lady with these two heavy plastic bags she was carrying from the bus stop to the HDB apartment block lift landing. Being able to help her wasnt the thing which end my day right. It was the lady herself who was interesting. She is a Malay lady whose Bahasa Melayu i couldnt understand fully, nor is my 华文 decipherable by her. She asked me whether i could understand Malay(with my half-baked Malay knowledge) and i told i understood a little. Then i started throwing all my Malay words at her. Satu, duer, tiker, umpat, lima. One to five, in Bahasa Melayu, was all i dared to say. i didnt want to embarrase myself further. She continued to speak in her ultra-fluent mother tongue which i tried to comprehend. Halfway here and there, i thought i heard her speaking some Hokkien words. i was right. She was mixing some of them in her conversation. i asked her, "li eh hiao tak hokkien wey?" and she said yes. In the end, i communicated with her using Hokkien. Too bad, we had reached the lift landing by this time. She is definitely one interesting lady whom i can communicate with my other half-baked language, or dialect for that matter. But my Hokkien is definitely better than my Malay. i believe my kawans will agree with me.
Happy 40th Birthday, Singapore. It is our nation's birthday today. There was nothing very much different for this year's celebration. The usual pre-parade activities. The march-in by the SAF, Guard-of-Honours, flag bearers and other numerous societies and associations. Nationalistic(quite la) songs. Blah blah blah. But there were some things different this year. Held at Padang, it was closer to my home. This means that i got to watch the fireworks at a closer proximity this year as compared to the past few years. i must say the view was magnificent. i am so glad that i am living at where i am living right now. i get to be treated to a feast of pyrotechnical display at least once a year. Once on the real day itself, several times on rehearsals, and other times on other occasions.
Other than the fireworks display, i was treated to another feast. If you watched the Parade, do you remember the march pass by the vehicles belonging to SAF and SCDF? After the march pass beneath Nathan's nose, they were splitted into three groups and headed for Jurong East, Tampines and Yishun. One of the groups passed by the road in front of my place.
Here's some of them:
BRONCO (All-Terrain Tracked Carrier)
ARTHUR (Weapon Location System)
BIONIX LAUNCHED BRIDGE
PRIMUS (Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer 1)
MOBILE VENTILATOR
Well, it is not everyday you get to see these vehicles driving down that lane which you travel on daily. So, i caught a few glimpses of them while i could. Also, there was this fire engine moving down the road while one of its onboard fireman shouting 'Happy National Day' to the loudhailer on the vehicle. Very cute.
Anyway, it was just another mediocre celebration. There were some parts which were worst off than the celebrations of yesteryears, and these were mentioned on Daryl's blog. i couldnt agree with him more on the 'Nationalistic' songs. The incorporation of techno beats with some drags at the end of almost every line made me feel more disgusted than when i am listening to some feel-good, false-impression songs. Yes, i understand that they(remixed songs) are aimed at the young, with some funk and spunk element injected, but i must say that they had failed terribly. i still prefer the original good ole 'One People, One Nation, One Singapore' and 'Munaeru Valiba'. Isnt retro the 'in' thing now? Just give me the originals. i dont want the remix version.
