My Game of Life

Sunday, August 16, 2009

'Tis a saturday, and it feels weird to be at home and blogging. Doubly weird, because ive spent the whole of my saturdays for the past four months at NDP rehearsals (that's the National Day Parade for you), plus I haven't blogged for 1.5 times that period.

But matters of national importance preside all, so here I am brushing aside procrastination (YES, I KNOW THIS POST IS ALREADY ONE WEEK LATE), Chinese zuowens and even Prototype to chronicle this great moment in our nation's history.

And as all great moments go, the story begins a long, long time ago, with months of arduous training through which the hero gains extraordinary powers, while the readers get extremely bored in the process...

...Heck, let's skip straight to the day itself on 9 Aug.

1.15 pm - Arrival at Pek Kio CC, where Martial House participants are beginning to gather. As usual, we wait around for about 30 mins for the bus to arrive.

2.00 pm - The bus arrives at F1 Pit Building, our holding area. If you thought waiting half an hour for the bus to arrive was a bore, well, we'll be stoning here for the next five hours. This is where most of my past saturdays have gone. <_<

Good thing there's free food to keep us (and our stomachs) occupied. Yay!

Free Old Chang Kee, ice cream and Mr Bean. Hey, I'm doing product placement for our sponsors!
And then there's the cameras... and Yugioh cards... and the PSPs. But for the unfortunate ones who don't have the above, there's always the Singapore Flyer to chill at.

There's even a jungle to explore!
Not to forget the makeup, which we don't get because our head is in a retarded-looking box and because we're too busy queuing up to fix the wiring for the LEDs in our costumes anyway, which keeps on coming loose. Come on, you wouldn't want us to get electrocuted or something do you?

5.45 pm - Dinner is served, even though we're still pretty full from the free snacks and curry puffs. It's KFC for once, rather than the usual Pizza Hut or Singapore Food Industries (ugh). A good thing, too - I probably won't be touching Pizza Hut for a quite a looong time after this. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty glad (and surprised) that we actually got Pizza Hut, the slice of Hawaiian pizza plus three chicken drumlets and garlic bread beats Singapore Food Industries any time...

Food fit for but the bravest warriors who dare risk their lives on mushy cauliflower.
...But when you eat it for dinner twice a week for a couple of months straight, the cheese starts to taste a little like cardboard. Fermented cardboard. I hope it wasn't due to traces of the cardboard packaging stuck to the cheese though. D:

6.30 pm - Nearly 5 whole hours later, it's our turn! Time to get changed and get all hot and sweaty in the costume (because the costume's bloody hot, not anything else...) At least we get to enjoy the aerial fly-by and engage in complementary camwhoring outside the pit building before moving out.

7.15 pm - We begin our great journey, uh, little walk to the backstage of the floating platform. Everybody was amazingly calm and chatting normally with the occasional greeting of "jiayou!", despite this being the big show with millions watching on national TV and even online. I guess it's just that we've had so many rehearsals and pre-shows that we're already numbed to the nervousness. Oh, and we knew that in the slightest chance that we screw up, the cameras would quickly switch to another angle.

~ 7.40 pm - "今天...不回家..." The performance before ours starts, and soon it'll be our turn. I swear I can remember all the lyrics for their medley after hearing it with bated breath backstage for so many weeks, heh. And as it ends with a sharp burst of fireworks, the cuemaster held up a red lightstick, our signal to get ready.

~ 7.50 pm - Red... Orange... Green! The entrance panels slide open, and we're greeted by a gust of fresh air and a sea of red and white lights. Take it from me, the view of the seating gallery, packed with people waving those heart-shaped lights, looks really stunning from down on stage. Somewhere out there, in there, could be a friend, President Nathan or even Chuck Norris himself, but there's no time to contemplate that as we run to our positions, searching for the grid number "MO-32" or other while trying not to crash into someone else. All that, in the dark; but fortunately our weeks of practice paid off here.

The next five minutes went by in a blur of perfected moves, chanting of beats and a remix of classical Chinese and techno music. The only thing that I can remember clearly is the explosion of fireworks at the end and the audience erupting into cheers. And then we're scrambling off stage, shouting for joy that we did it, it's over as the show transits to the next chapter and the audience week-after-week predictably laughs at the innocent kid who goes "When I grow up... I want to be a PSP helper!" (He was probably paid to say that.) I sure hope the speakers were loud enough to cover up the din we were making, but it goes to show how elated everyone was.

~ 8.10 pm - Our ecstasy carried on into the finale, when everybody was dancing and hollering as we all ran back on stage for the closing chapter. From all the excitement and how high everyone was, you'd think Singapore just won the World Cup because the Brazilian players were down with H1N1 or something.

You can't really tell from the photos, but for once nobody minded being gay and jumping around and hugging each other.
And when the fireworks come on just as the music hits "Stand up if you're Singaporean... Stand up if you're Singaporean!", it's as though the seating gallery explodes into fireworks as well. First it's the orange flashes, and then the gallery's filled with flashes of bright white light - camera flashes, that is. And as the night sky behind us is illuminated with bursts of sparkling light and the scent of smoke wafts down to the stage, I can't help but think: Wow, how beautiful.

Surprisingly, I'm never bored by the fireworks display even though I watch them every other week during the rehearsals. Getting up that close to them, it's a completely different experience from watching them on the TV screen at home. The latter reminds me of all the mind-numbing explosions and boom-boom-pow in Transformers; even Megan Fox starts getting more interesting after a while.

Heck, I think the last time I watched a live fireworks display was during the NDP Preview in Primary 5, and even then I don't remember being so dazzled by them. Then again, they were fired from behind us since NDP was still at the National Stadium then, so we all had to stand up and crane our necks just to catch a glimpse of them. And of course, I wasn't standing directly below them at that time, whereas being on stage makes all the difference.

Can you spot the guy waving the green lightsticks on the roof of the control HQ? He's actually there to guide us through the movements for the medley of songs in the finale. I'm not kidding, how do you think they managed to synchronise the movements of all the 1,500 performers on stage? ...No, the government hasn't figured out how to implant microchips in our brains yet.
8.22 pm - The Pledge Moment. When you see everyone in the stands rising up and reciting the pledge (yes, even the old uncles and those people in white shirts sitting in the VIP area), it's one of those rare moments you truly feel the spirit of the nation. It's pretty infectious, and you even feel motivated to tag along and repeat those age-old words that everybody daos during morning assembly. I swear this is the loudest time I've heard the pledge being said - or was it just the speakers playing the pre-recorded version really loud? For once, I'm quite sure it's the former, although I gotta say it sounded louder during the National Education shows for the primary school kids than on the actual NDP itself. Talk about how effective the National Education ~~propaganda~~ lessons are eh.

8.30 pm - Gurmit Singh yells "It's time to party!" after the last burst of fireworks illuminates the Marina skyline. As the crowds begin to disperse, a young guy who looks like he's an NS man takes over, announcing that he's "the host for the after-party!" We're treated to a short video montage, after which the head honchos go up on the second level of the stage to thank everyone, cut some cake and pop some champagne. And promptly spray it all over each other. Not much of a party, though I guess we didn't need one to keep up the zi-high atmosphere anyway. xD

~ 9.15 pm - "Martial House, you are dismissed." We're usually one of the last to go and we'd always be b*tching about that for past rehearsals, but this time I didn't actually want to leave. It's that sense of knowing it's all finally over but not wanting it to be, knowing that that might be the last time you see those newfound friends that you've stoned, performed and talked cock with for the past few months, and that you won't be getting free Old Chang Kee again anytime soon. Damn, I hate it when people get sentimental, but this is unfortunately one of those times.

That night, after we all had supper together and sat around chatting so long that the Burger King staff had to shoo us out, we barely managed to make it for the last train home. The chaos at City Hall MRT when the announcer goes "The last train to Jurong East is approaching. Please proceed to Platform A." is something I won't forget.

Just like how I won't be forgetting my experience in NDP '09 anytime soon. A fitting end to the blur of faces and rehearsals over the past few months, I suppose.

Thanks for all the fish, NDP '09.

For questions such as "Any regrets joining NDP?", "Is Gurmit Singh's mustache fake?", "Are you gay?" and other such deep philosophical musings, stay tuned for the next post!

'Twas teh winnar at 12:43 pm.