On Saturday, I was a marshal for the first time. Mainly, this involved lots of standing, until my feet hurt (I should get Ex-prolonged standing) and some moving of heavy barricades.

Specifically, I was a gatekeeper of socks, checking people's bags for guns, grenades, condoms, deodourant, Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps, sanitary napkins, food and beverages (confiscating them so they'd have to buy the overpriced food from the kiosk at the top of the stadium).

We assembled at 9am, and fell out at 10pm. During that period of time, my reading materials were in my bag which was in some room. So as you can imagine, I was bored out of my mind.

The control room's idea of entertainment was setting Stefanie Sun Yanzi's rendition of "We Will Get There" on "loop" mode. For extended periods of time. Many times. If I hear that song again, the skin on the nape of my neck is going to start twitching violently, and I am going to start burning some flags.

In between piping the song, together with countless subliminal messages, they played a documentary on NDP 2002. I happened to hear, from my post, the interview with Jo'an Ow twice and she does seem just a touch ditzy - she was more excited about her hot hair balloon than any J1 girl has the right to be.

While we were moving things, one guy came to talk to Seetoh and me. Turns out he was from Obese BMT, and they wrongly posted him as a Scout. His PC said he'd be trained up, but after 2-3 months of daily 5km runs, his arches collapsed, and he's now a clerk.

Some Warrant Officers were using their measuring sticks as walking sticks and to pick things up from the drain. What a great honour they pay to the badge of their office.

There was a group of Red Cross girls who kept going to the toiler, so I was wondering whether they were incontinent, until Andrew pointed out that people go to toilet to allay boredom, and I remembered entry 41 in How Girls Waste Time:

41. Queuing for the toilet / Forever freshening up (often together with other girls in toilet outings, waiting for everyone to be done before leaving and doing dumb things like splashing water and mashing toilet paper to throw on the ceilings)

The CHIJ kiddies were wearing shirts and blouses over their disgusting dresses (all of which were at mid-thigh at the lowest), which meant it was more bearable to gaze upon them. However, I do hope they are wearing something underneath their costume - I was walking beside a staircase down which CHIJ girls were running, and I was afraid to look anywhere above my nose. But I think they've nothing to worry about - most people'd not want to look at most of them anyway.

The Navy Guard of Honour has quite a few females in it, all of whom seem to have long hair. The Police GOH, on the other hand, has some number of females but they are almost all malay and all have short hair. However, the Army and Air Force have no women in their Guard of Honour contingents.

The unisex toilet near my area had one of those cute dustbins in it, the ones to get rid of bloodstained material. It said, "For Disposal Of Sanitary Napkins Only". Which made me wonder about tampons - surely they're not flushed down the toilet bowl to clog the sewage system?

While other people carry M16s or SAR21s, the SCDF marching contingent gets to carry... water guns (Yes, I went to check with them). Well done.

Apparently there are reservists taking part in the parade - I saw some wizened, pitted faces, and some people with copious amounts of white hair, as well as some with the velcro nametags on their No 4s.

Sometime after lunch, Seetoh got to go to Khatib camp to do RT cover for reservists, and he probably reached home much earlier than us.

Looking for some variety, after lunch I went to visit one of the food kiosks in the Indoor Stadium. A hotdog and a 500ml bottle of Coke set me back by a hefty sum of $4.50! The hotdog had some slices of processed milk products (sliced cheap 'cheddar' cheese), which made it taste terrible, but at least the sausage was of higher quality than the normal ultra-cheap low quality chicken sausages.

After I'd brought my hotdog down to my area, 2 sniffer dogs were brought in by their handlers, who played with them from time to time. I swear one was eyeing my hotdog! The other, and English Spaniel, pawed my right leg and licked my wrist, and I petted its head. Yeh!

One of the fringe benefits of being at the Indoor Stadium: The Milo Van! It was as popular today as it always is at RI's Cross-Countries, and as usual people were filling their water bottles merrily despite a sign asking them not to.

Someone gave me some Hi-Chew sweets - essentially they're wads of chewing gum hat dissolve. So you get to pretend you're chewing real chewing gum, as the texture is exactly the same. I wonder how well Hi-Chew sells, exploiting the suppressed urges of Singaporeans.

I was at my post at the "Premier Entrance" on the ground floor of the Indoor Stadium when I was slapped on the back by my BMT sectionmate Joshua, who's marching for the Signallers for NDP. Too bad he had to run off.

I saw one guy carrying a "Camelpaint" carton. Hehe.

The purpose of the black netting some of the girls, especially those in the Red Cross, put on to cover the part of their hair dangling at the back eludes me. As does a way to describe it lucidly. Have my descriptive skills really eroded that much?

I was checking the bag of a little girl, and her father said "rang4 uncle kan4". Sheesh, I feel old.

Around 5pm, people started coming to our gate with tickets for the parade. Apparently they thought it was to be held at the Indoor Stadium. Has it ever? Bah.

I don't know why people always get agitated whenever they see me take out my piece of paper to scribble down stuff. The 2 Indoor Stadium staff who were attached to us (rather, we were attached to them) yesterday kept mulling about what I was writing. Maybe people think I'm writing down their deepest secrets.

Andrew Tan tells me that "the western [Lindy Hop Ensemble] dancers keep screaming when it [glorified sparklers/mini-fireworks] goes off in front of them. every rehearsal. quite amusing. =)" Well both of us are affected by the pyrotechnics too - the heat and noise is rather intense. The two times I was nearby when they ignited, I didn't just blink - I jerked and recoiled, to the amusement of those around me.

I wonder why they always make brassards and armbands so tight - it's very hard to put them on and even then, they fall off very easily.

My lack of common sense continues to amaze me (or perhaps it shouldn't, after so long). When many participants were walking around, I ducked into a room to hide, and got chided by everyone. This brings to mind an incident on Wednesday, when we were languishing in the bunk after IPPT. Yiliang called up and asked what we were doing, and I said they were in the bunk playing Street Fighter. Alvin then commented that I had no "SA" - Situational Awareness. Hmm, I think that's one of the more lucid paragraphs in this post - the disadvantages of scribbling every mildly amusing thing down, and of blogging in the middle of the night.

As the Soka people were filing out of the Indoor Stadium to proceed to the National Stadium for the item, the "NKF" dancers (those dancing to the songs in each of the 4 national languages) were practicing their dance steps. Then as Vernon Cornelius crooned the chorus of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", the Soka men started singing along boisterously!

My suspicions were confirmed - some of the "boys" in Temasek Secondary's item are actually girls.

I got the chance to try Lucozade. It's terrible. Ugh.

I must congratulate the organisers. The fireworks display was the best that I've ever seen. Needless to say, it was also probably the most expensive. It was like a warzone, with bombs and grenades exploding over our heads, as the ground trembled. Some of the fireworks had very long lasting bursts, so the air was seemingly filled with gold dust, which slowly disappeared, fading into the cool night air.

Back in the Indoor Stadium, the motivators were being told, "If you leave a mess, the poor army officers will have to clean up again". Officers? Yeah right.

I think the motivators have been braiwnashed too well - as they were leaving the stadium, they were clapping and dancing along, Vegas style with linked shoulders, to some song played over the PA system.

When we finally fell out, it was 10pm - and that's with no post-parade party. Sigh. At least I got some mangosteens, left by a Soka lady by the door since they couldn't bring food in, but which she hadn't collected.


SMSes:

"[On "Kyrie Eleison"] who's kyrie?" (A Tan)

"pass the stadium everyday on the way home, the ns men always look so hilariously dejected" (...)

"i don't think the rc girls are incontinent- it's more in the nature of some sophisticated social ritual mere males could never get =P" (!@#$%^&*())


The brand of that stupid pill with the irritating commercial with the man stroking his fake beard is Beiklin! Shame.

Yaoi Girl has asked me to watch "Shoujo Kakumei Utena". Apparently it is a "ritualistic high action school flick with lesbians" and will drive me nuts. Bah, my prowess is greater than she thinks.

But a synopsis I found here doesn't make any sense. There seem to be Yaoi elements in it, as well as "Shoujo" / "Yuri" themes (I've learnt a new word - the former, today)


Haha this is ridiculous.

OCS SONG

We come from many places,
All across the land,
Of many different races
Together hand in hand.
United we stand
Divided we fall;
Ready to serve our nation's call

Chorus:
We come from OCS,
We are the very best
Leading with dignity and pride
Wherever we go
We will always know
Our spirit lives forever more,
Loyalty to country,
That's what we all believe;
To Lead, Excel and Overcome,
Is what we must achieve.
Forever strong and valiant,
We'll give our lives and more;
Never ceasing to serve Singapore