Handbell Choirs & Fireworks

Dear Skyler,

On 22nd July, there were Handbell Choir performances organised by a Christian Japanese group and we decided to bring you to watch it. It was intriguing for Papa because it was the first time that Papa was attending something organised by the Japanese community in Singapore. The handbell performance is also something that interests Papa and Mama as Mama first knew about handbells from her school, Methodist Girls School, as they had a Handbell Choir. This MGS choir is quite well-known in Singapore and they get invited to perform very often in public. The performance was held in St Andrew’s Cathedral, our church, so it was convenient for us as well. We’d invited Grandma to join us.

The organisers had invited a well-known handbell choir performer to come to anchor the performance. He had studied overseas and has a university degree in music. He can perform a whole song using handbells by himself. They played a few pieces before inviting the younger members of the church who had practiced together for this occasion to play a couple of pieces of music. In the middle of the programme, a Japanese lady priest stood up to deliver a sermon. She had a translator who delivered an English translation. Papa kept on bringing you to the front to watch as you were too small to see the performers over the heads of the others in the audience. :D All-in-all, it was an interesting afternoon.

After that, we went for dinner with Grandma and we walked around the Marketplace in Raffles City. It had opened not too long before and it was the first time that you and Papa went there. Mama had visited it before with her friend. After we had walked around for a while, we had ice cream and then Grandma left.

Mama and Papa wanted to leave too but then we wondered if there was a National Day Parade rehearsal at the National Stadium. If there was one, we could watch the fireworks display from somewhere nearby. As we didn’t know, we decided that we would drive over anyway just to check since we were so close by.

We drove past the Stadium and found that it was quite empty with no road closures at all. (Usually, if there was a rehearsal, the roads around the Stadium would be closed so that the participants can leave without other people hindering them.) But as we drove past the car park, we saw a lot of buses so we decided that there had to be a rehearsal so we drove around to look for somewhere convenient to park and watch the fireworks.

We ended up near the Pebble Bay condominiums by the Kallang River. We had gone there a few years before to watch the National Day fireworks. There were several other people waiting for the fireworks as well. We waited for a bit and we were rewarded with a few bursts of fireworks. However, it was very few! :D We realised that probably it was an internal rehearsal not for public viewing so they used the minimum amount of fireworks that was necessary for the rehearsal. Oh well. =D

Love you lots, Baby Girl! We're so happy that we have you to share with us all these experiences.

Papa and Mama