Singapore Fireworks Festival 2007 - Team Spain

Singapore Fireworks Festival ~ 17th August 2007

The Singapore Fireworks Festival 2007 was part of the month long National Day 2007 celebrations and it was an event that many Singaporeans look foward to every year.

Initially, I wasn't able to obtain the ticket to the Marina Bay Floating Gallery and planned to set up my equipment along the Esplanade again. However, a few days before that, I received a pleasant suprise when Ah Long called me, informing me that he got me a spare ticket ! I was so happy and grateful.



After meeting my clients for lunch and tea, delivered goods to GESS, I met Ah Long, Cel and Dr X at the Esplanade and we proceed to Marina Bay Floating Gallery. There were lots of people and action, flea market, food stalls, children playground and buskers performing. We roamed around for a while before going up to our Green Zone seats.





We were seated slightly early, entertaining ourselves by taking photos. Soon, it was time to prepare my tripod and DSLR, tuning the setup and examing the angle of view for the background and height of the fireworks.

The fireworks on friday was by Team Spain and it was a wonderful display of pyrotechnics performance and musical cherography. An excellent 15 minutes of artistic fireworks display and I thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks festival, taking 142 photos of fireworks (although only a few would be "passed" suitable for display).

After the fireworks, we decided to stay back and explore the floating gallery, taking photos of the surroundings and we can see how busy the Esplanade was when the event was over. Went over to Marina Square for dinner before calling it a day. An exhausting day for me yet very happy overall, especially with my fireworks photos!





Look out soon for a dedicated Team Spain Fireworks photo display!

Dedicated to 85th Anniversary Dinner Commitee

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to dedicate this special posting to my 85th Anniversary Dinner Commitee members.

They comprised of Kevin Kung, SreeGanesh, Alex and Aixia.



During December 2006, I was invited by my Dragon Chapter Ex-Co Chairman, Thye San, to represent the Dragon Chapter in assisting Dragon Scout Group to help out in the planning/consultancy/project management for the 85th Anniversary Celebrations. It was a great honour to be working on our 85th Anniversary Celebrations (85th Campfire and 85th Dinner) because I was also involved in our 70th Anniversary in 1993 (when the founding year was based on 1923).

In our past few months of preparation and meetings, we had our fair share of fun, fatigue and crazy ideas. Nevertheless, we all managed to come together, combining our different eras of ideologies and working styles, and presenting an awesome, wonderful and unforgettable dinner celebration for all those related to the Dragon Scouting family and history.



Thank you all so much for this project management experience. Keep the Dragon Scouting Fire and the Spirit of the Red and Green burning forever.

DSG 85th Anniversary Dinner Celebrations ~ Spirit of the Red and Green

Gan Eng Seng Dragon Scout Group, with a proud, illustrious and rich history of 85 years, celebrated their 85th Anniversary celebrartions at the Riverwalk Tandoori Restaurant, celebrating the Spirit of the Red and Green.

Preparations for this wonderful event took place a few months back and the hard work paid off to make this dinner a wonderful night of fun, laughter, friendship and joy.





Dragon Scouts of the Past, Present and Future came together to mark an important date in the Dragon Scouting history. Our Guests-of-Honour, DSG Old Boy Cheng Kiong and Mr Victor Giam, GESS Head Coach were very kind to grace this wonderful occassion and being part of the fun and celebrations.

The event was packed with fun and activities. Specially designed bookmarks and pens were given to the attendees. 85 lucky draw prizes were made available for all attending this event and lucky draw prizes were drawn from pulling either a red or green balloon down and reading the number written on top. The Emcees of the night, Samantha, Arjun and Jie Sheng did a great job to keep the crowd entertained and lively.





Since it was our 85th Anniversary Celebrations, we specially ordered a birthday cake, that was produced from the 85th Anniversary Dragon Scout Group badge. Our guests-of-honour were invited to the front, along with Dragon Chapter Ex-Co Chairman, Thye San, GSL Hongliang and the youngest Sec 1 boy scout. Being 85 years old, there were quite a number of candles to blow off and there were 5 short candles that won't be blown off after many attempts. DSG Old Boy Cheng Kiong gave us his words of wisdom, "the flame will never die off and the spirit and fire of Dragon Scouting will burn forever".





While everybody was enjoying their sliced cake, GSL Hongliang took the time and opportunity to thank the following leaders for their contributions to Dragon Scout Group:

(1) Wei Yang (currently in Australia)

(2) Jonning


(3) Wei Liang


(4) Yong Kok


(5) SreeGanesh


Soon, it was time for the dinner to come to an end. We had our traditional group photo taking before wrapping up the 85th Anniversary Dinner.



Let us all celebrate the Spirit of the Red and Green, and keep the Dragon Scouting flame burning forever. Onward Dragon Scouts !

9th August 2007: 42nd National Day Parade @ Marina Bay

National Day 2007 @ Marina Bay will definitely be remembered by many Singaporeans as a special year of celebrations in its 42 years of history.

Our NDP was celebrated at the Marina Bay for the first time and there was a floating platform for the parade and performances, besides that, there were also many interesting events around the Marina Bay, making National Day celebrations 1 month long instead of just the actual day itself.

I joined my colleague Karen and her friends at the Esplanade Promenade, watching the parade and fireworks segments, soaking in with many many people around the Marina Bay area. It was a great atmosphere and there were quite a number of people who went there early to get a good location to watch the parade segment and fireworks.

We waited there for a few hours (Karen and her group was there much earlier) and got ourselves enjoying the hot sun, talking away and relaxing. When evening approaches, we prepared for the parade action proper to take place.

The pre-parade segment started and the adventure began:

Super Puma dropping off the Red Lions Parachuters


We are in the middle of the sky!


Arrival of the Chinnok carrying our National Flag , escorted by 4 Apaches


F16s saluting the Nation


Our Chinnok blessing the viewers with "holy water"


Floating lanterns


Fireworks!!


My fireworks taken on NDP 2007 was not really up to my standards, disappointed with the photos taken, needs to maintain a better consistency and improvements on taking fireworks. Do drop by my flickr home page and take a look at more photos!

At the end of the day, it was great fun and Happy National Day !

Courageous, Flying High & Proud

On 9th August 2007, it was Singapore's National Day Parade and celebrations. I was there with my colleague and her friends to watch the National Day Parade from the Esplanade. When I arrived, there were already a huge crowd of people waiting to watch the Parade.

There was something in the sky that caught the attention of the people around the Esplanade. It is courageous, flying high and proud, wanting to be part of the bird's eye view of the NDP 2007 @ Marina Bay.



It is a brahimny kite identified by my old friend Zhigang.

Coming up soon, my reportage of NDP 2007 @ Marina Bay.

Night Sceneries ~ Singapore River

Singapore River, the heart where the financial hub of Singapore is located alongside. A river of great significance and importance in our history.

Chim Chim & Housen - Japanese Buskers

As part of National Day Festival 2007, a whole range of activities were planned for the whole month of August. One of highlights of the festival was the
Variete! Street Theatre by an All-Japanese street performers outside of Japan on 8th and 9th of August 2007.

It had been some time since international buskers came to Singapore and perform. I started to admire and like buskering performaces during my uni days in University of Queensland, Australia. Therefore, when I read about the Japanese buskers coming to Singapore, I was looking foward to it.

There were a number of performers lined up for the 2 days event but I only managed to catch Chim Chim and Housen in action. Profiles of the performers can be found on their website. I wasn't able to watch all the different Japanese buskers during the 2 days and I hope they would bring them again to Singapore.

Chim Chim


Housen


I really had a great time watching the 2 different performers. Here are some of my photographs that I captured during their performance stint. If you like watching buskers in action, hope you like the photographs !

Baybeats 2007 -> Esplanade -> NDP 2007 @ Marina Bay

Counting down to 9th August, NDP@Marina Bay 2007

Standing tall, proud and shining bright


Our new stadium and it floats!


Music and Passion

Bon Voyage, Hawaiian friends ! Till we meet again very soon!

1st August 2007

It was time, that is, the time for our Hawaiian friends to say goodbye to Singapore and head back home to Hawaii, although they would be stopping over at Hong Kong for a few days before actually reaching home.

I met them at Hotel Phoenix lobby and helped to liase their check-out was smooth, coordinated with the coach driver with my other 2 liason members, Xiao Tian and Kevin. It was also of special significance that on 1st August 2007, the day of their departure, it was also Hotel Phoenix's last day of operation. There were press photographers and videographers at the lobby and some of our Hawaiian friends were "featured" inside Straits Times Online Multimedia: Hotel Phoenix says Goodbye for the last time.

Once everybody was ready, our coach came into the hotel pick-up/drop-off point and our of us tried to squeeze the huge luggages and bags into the coach compartment, some luggages had to be brought up onto the seats. Soon, we were on our way to Changi Airport Terminal 1.





On the coach, we started chatting with the parents about their own travel adventures and experiences. The boys were really tired as they were quiet throughout the ride to the airport. Upon arrival, we were a little bit early but it was alright, especially for group travel.

There were some hiccups but it was really not a big fuss, the Scoutmasters would know the issues we were talking about. Nevertheless, A Scout must always "Be Prepared", our motto, any inconveniences/situations were handled without any hassles. After the luggages were checked-in, we make our way for lunch. Our Dragon Scout Group contingent came soon after that and joined in the lunch and chat with the Hawaiian party.





As the time passes so fast without everybody knowing, our Hawaiian friends had to check-in and clear the immigrations segment before proceeding to their boarding gate. There were last minute photo taking and everybody hugging and making fun of one another, handshakes and goodbye kisses.



Hosting the Hawaiian friends was really a great honour, even though I could only be with you folks for the few days. Dragon Scout Group definitely had some of their most memorable adventures/experiences in our rich 85 years of Dragon Scouting, hosting our brother scouts from Hawaiian Scout Troop 42.

Thank you Hawaiian Scout Troop 42 for the wonderful experiences!