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When once the flag flew me

Flags for sale

Once, during NS, me and two other guys were made the battalion’s flag raising party for one of many early morning parades.

This task entailed picking up the flags from the Regimental Sergeant Major’s office, checking the cords to make sure nothing was frayed, and rehearsing our marching to the flag poles at the top of the parade square, and then doing it for real during the actual parade, complete with raising the national flag and the Army flag.

We were told several times to check and make sure that the loops for the flags were attached properly before raising the flag during the national anthem, and told in no uncertain terms, on pain of pain, that we should never, ever, raise the flag upside down.

To our horror, as the anthem played, the white portion of the national flag appeared to creep up the pole as we hoped against hope that the flag was merely impossibly crumpled and would unfurl itself soon enough.

It didn’t, and it was the longest Majulah Singapura I had ever heard. Our lives flashed before our eyes as we contemplated a long stint in detention, and we felt the ridicule and then the pity heaped on our backs from our battalion mates standing in parade behind us, as we raised the upside down flag the best we knew, and only took it down once the parade was over.

Article: 44 things you may not know about Singapore

The nation turns 44 this week. That’s an inauspicious number to some, but there’s always a way to turn that around and make it a little more positive. My mother-in-law tells me you could say it’s 4 + 4 = 8, and that, to the superstitious optimist, says something to the effect of “die die also prosperous”.

Prosperous or not, you could also say, “every National Day, die die sure have articles on the number of things about Singapore based on the number of years of independence”.

So, here it is – 44 things about Singapore you may not know about, or didn’t see it that way.

1. We fought independence, and independence won.
If Lee Kuan Yew is to be believed, then we are probably the only country that gained nationhood by not wanting it. Of course, the other founding fellows have been quoted as saying that leaving the Federation (of Malaysia) was the “best thing that ever happened to Singapore”….

Read on at Insing.com

Local bloggers immortalised on Singapore Grand Prix street circuit!


From I.Z.:

In February, Today newspaper held its Name That Turn contest and invited everyone to come up with unique names for turns 1, 7 and 10 of Formula 1’s historic night race in the heart of the Lion City! Today, I can provide you with this exclusive, direct from the folks from Today newspaper and the Singapore Grand Prix organisers. They have decided to name all 24 turns after local bloggers!

Leonard Thomas who is one of the judges says, “Initially we called for suggestions to name only three of the turns but we were overwhelmed by the response so we thought we should name all 24 turns instead. One of the suggestions was to name them after local bloggers. We thought it’s a great idea and decided to scrap the contest all together and we will name the turns after these bloggers ourselves. I can reveal to you three of the turns will be named after I.Z. Reloaded, Mr Brown and Miyagi. We will announce other names soon.”

F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone says, “Naming all the turns and corners at the Marina Bay circuit after these popular Singapore bloggers is good for the Singapore Grand Prix and the worldwide television audience. People like to identify exciting corners and we are extremely happy with these name choices.”

Busy busy busy

English style what?

No, I’m not on blogging hiatus or anything like that. I thought I’d better blog a bit so that I’ll meet whatever blogging criteria put up by the Association of Singapore Bloggers or whatever it is they’re called.

Because I might want to join up before they implode.

It’s just that it’s been an unbelievably busy fortnight of CNY obligations. Naomi and I have just only recently been able to put our feet up and relax for a couple of hours.

Regular programming should be back soon. Promise.