chervalier

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

Singapore Flag

Today was a victory for Singapore in some ways, I believe. We had the most entertaining and extravagant National Day Parade yet. We made it into Twitter’s trending topics, putting Singapore on the map for a very dubious reason (Singapore Idol 09). So yes, those were some small victories. In my opinion we’ve also seen the best batch of Idol hopefuls this year, so that’s another small victory.

We did, however, see some EPIC FAILs during the National Day Parade. SM Goh’s listless waving when the camera panned to him, President Nathan’s ever stony face.. The utter irrelevance of the “chapters” to the content of each chapter.. The SOKA performance literally had their performers unable to think out of the box with their odd box-enclosures for their performers’ heads.. The list goes on.

Yet despite all these fails, I found this year’s NDP highly entertaining and so much more engaging than any I’ve ever seen. The location was breathtaking (especially as night fell) and the integration of water features (lighted boats! gorgeous!) made for a fresh take on the usual Parade.

I’d long wanted to blog about how perfect Singapore is to me. What a better time to do so than *checks clock* oh crap. The last 14minutes of my country’s 44th birthday?

After having been overseas many many times, I have arrived at a conclusion. Singapore might not be a place I want to live all my life, but it is definitely my home. Where else can I find everything I need? I realized this about a month or so ago when I fell in love with 书剑恩仇录 (shu jian en chou lu), a television drama based on a novel by Chinese wuxia (martial artis) novelist Louis Cha, again. When I scoured the Internet for episodes from the show, my searches yielded disappointing results.

The only efficient-loading videos of the version of the show I wanted was dubbed in Vietnamese! No offence but hearing my favorite characters speak in a foreign and strange-sounding language really grated my ears. In a desperate bid to satisfy my longing (this sounds soooo wrong), I rushed out of the house to the mall nearby and headed for the VCD/DVD store.. The emotions of gratitude, relief and utter euphoria that welled up in me the moment I saw the box made me so giddy that I hugged onto the box for dear life.

Not only did they have the version I was looking for, they were selling it at only S$19.90!!! Can you say cheap!?!??? The new version of the show was going for about S$29 (special offer, too) but I wasn’t so interested in the newer version (since I could get good quality versions of it online =P)

After making my purchase, I floated out of the store on a cloud of sheer happiness. And that’s when it hit me. If I had been living in the States like I had planned to, this moment of happiness would never have happened. (Oh please pardon my OTT style of writing here. I NEED to exaggerate how I felt because I truly felt indescribably happy). I highly doubt there would have been a single vendor in the States that would have had copies of this version of the show, especially so long after it had aired on television.

That led me to think about what other things I would never have been able to find in the States easily if I had needed to. And I came up with a pretty long list. Nim Jiom Pei Pa Gao (i love!), Salon Pas(i know this from experience), Roti Prata, all sorts of bizarre Singaporean food cravings, cheap electronics from Sim Lim, cheap nail cutters or other knick knacks from Pasar Malams… I think I might have killed myself if all these needs presented themselves at the same time when I was there.

It opened my eyes to how unique Singapore is, and how so many of her strengths lie in the little nooks and crannies of Singapore’s society. It’s not the big things that make Singapore beautiful (like excellent healthcare or efficient public transport).. It’s the small, delicately precious things like the cobbler at the nearby MRT station (who scolded the crap out of me for ruining my shoe), or the aunties pushing their market trollies home after a trip to the wet market.

It’s the mwah chee that I love from Pasar Malams, and the aunties who run the small news stands beside MRT stations. It’s knowing I can go see the Chinese doctor when I sprain my ankle or catch a Jack Neo movie anytime I want. It’s everyone speaking Singlish, it’s the funny ah bengs and their hokkien jokes.. It’s so many things I love that can’t be found anywhere else.

On top of everything else, it’s being with my family and seeing my aunties and uncles stand and recite the pledge, making us kids stand and sing the National Anthem. It’s trying to recite the Chinese National Pledge in Cantonese and laughing a lot while we’re at it. It’s making fun of Singapore Idol Auditions and laughing at the parade.

And so, as the clock strikes twelve on your birthday, I wanna say, for everything you are I love you, my sweet Singapore =)

Popularity: 26% [?]