Stand Up For Singapore

Some things they won't tell you about the experience of watching the National Day Parade at the stadium:

1. There's a buzz from taking a train to the venue, and watching it fill slowly with people decked in red;
   
   
2. It's more exciting watching the proceedings without the sedate, formal commentary that accompanies the telecast;
   
   
3. The F16 fly-past is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair, while the paratroopers are a delight to watch (you can see them from the moment they appear as tiny red specks in the sky till their dramatic landing minutes later);
   
   
4. During the feu de joie, you can hear the movement of the fire as it runs from one end of the Guard-of-Honour formation to the other and back again;
   
   
5. The sight of a stadium full of people with their torches switched on in the dark is surreal and almost romantic (or maybe it’s just me);
   
   
6. The mass display segment is electrifying because it fills your entire field of vision, and never cuts away;
   
   
7. After the fireworks subside, you can smell the thick stench of gunpowder;
   
   
8. You learn the true meaning of 60,000 when you wait an hour for the crowd to disperse, and it still takes forever to walk back to Kallang MRT.

As something that began in 1976, NDPs held at the National Stadium are very much a thing of my generation, and I'm glad I finally had the chance to watch one in the flesh. Not a year too soon, either, as the stadium will be demolished in 2007. Well, if it's not one for the photo books, then it's certainly one for the children to hear about many years from now.