ann-dee-pee 2007 @ marina

well since shuwen asked for a summary i guess i will have to oblige, having been through like NDP 7 times. Although I only saw the show way back during the first combined rehearsal, so I can't really describe in full detail everything that happens. Liang Hong can fill you in though since he was up on the gallery (I think).

Essentially the novelty this year stemmed from the totally different surroundings, no more national stadium but a grand new spanking gallery seating 27000 directly beside esplanade, opposite ritz carlton and marina square. And the view from the gallery is really spectacular. And when evening comes it becomes very windy as well.

This year's wayang was divided into 4 segments: pre-parade, parade, 3d (die-namic dee-fence dee-splay) and finally the show. I only wished that I brought my camera to snap some pics with, but oh well...

So during pre-parade:

• Some extreme motorbike show involving aussie folks with a totally incomprehensible accent
• Singing and dancing
• More singing and dancing
• Yet more singing and dancing
• Sheikh Haikel rapping out malay folk songs
• TPJC and ACJC getting owned by Bukit Panjang Government High School in dragon boating. Get this, JCs getting owned by a secondary school. Goodness.
• The Red Lions doing their usual parachuting.

Parade:

• Hmm, same old same old. Only this year the secondary school uniformed groups marched out with umbrellas as though they were holding rifles
• The Guard of Honour this year (i.e. contingents from Army Airforce Navy and Police) formed up at Suntec City Convention centre for their final prep before marching all the way to the gallery. The state colours were also unveiled at Suntec before being brought to the gallery.
• The President inspected the whole parade this year, not just the guard of honour. Not that he's garang, he did it onboard the pickup truck all the way.
• Flypast by the 3 F15s was damn loud this year
• 21 gun salute by 20 SA was also damn loud this year. Unlike previous years where the NDP took place at National Stadium and the arty guns were placed near the Kallang River and all everyone could hear was a dull thud, this year it was really BOOM. And it stunned quite a lot of people when the first shot fired suddenly.

3D

• Commandos rappeling from Benjamin Shears. Some screwup happened this year whereby some sparklers were accidentally activated prematurely when they were rappeling.
  
• Lots of 'explosions' here and there.
• Infantry men from 3SIR wayang-ing down the steps of the gallery, among the audience with helmet LBV rifle HUGE goggles and some fancy equipment.
• Police SCDF and army showing off their vehicles. On a related sidenote the army's drivepast consisted of 2 Bionixes from my unit and 1 Primus (the tank with the freaking huge gun) from 21 SA also from my camp. While we get to stay out on Fridays and go to floating platform directly on Saturdays the people involved in the drivepast (the soldiers in SBO who pop out, the vehicle commanders and the drivers) stay in on Friday night, wake up early to draw arms, prep, low-load the BX, do their stuff at NDP, low-load it back after NDP, send arms then book out very very late after NDP.
• Naval divers diving into Marina Bay from a Chinook hovering very close to the water surface.
• Lots of boats doing donuts around Marina Bay.
• Apaches flying past as well.

Show segment

• Um I don't really care much. Lots of people moving around in fancy and impractical costumes with props, both which will no doubt find some sad end in some SAF storeroom never to be used again. I have to admit I fell asleep during the first combined rehearsal when the show started.
• You'll never guess the chaos below the gallery before the performers come out.
• There was these few guys dressed totally in red roller-skating around the platform in between segments spouting some very corny phrases. Apparently one of them fell down trying to skate up a ramp, and it was captured on national TV. I couldn't stop laughing when I watched the repeat.
  
• Well Soka seemed to provide most manpower for the shows.
• Kit Chan's makeup is seriously thick.
  
• The only interesting and novel thing about the show segment was the remote controlled kites by this local enthusiast kite group (www.goflykite.com). Made for a spectacular sight when the brightly lit kits flew around the platform at night.
• Heng I'm not 46 SAR who were the ones controlling the performers and the props and getting bullied, pushed around and taken advantage of by the performers.
  
• I seriously regret not taking my camera along. A picture really tells a thousand words here

And so that's NDP for ya. Same old same old NDP, just different location, different setting (much better, I think). On the actual day itself it didn't feel like NDP at all. It just felt like another combined rehearsal, just that this was the last one. And as a contingency task force which my unit is supposed to be we didn't get scrambled at all. So NDP and the rehearsals to us was just mainly waiting. We did a grand total of like 6 things during NDP and the rehearsals:

1. Sleep/ wait for our shift/ play some portable game console
2. Stand around
3. Eat
4. Go to toilet
5. Watch the parade and the performers and the guard of honour
6. Form human barricades.

That's SAF for ya.

erjian came, saw, blogged