We were still in Oriental Hotel. You woke us up in time to watch the sunrise. As we wanted to go down for breakfast early, we decided to stay up. Then we went over to wake up Kow-fu and Kow-mo for breakfast as well. Since we were awake earlier, we went down first to get ourselves a table and they joined us later. We completely stuffed ourselves silly with the food. :D Breakfasts at hotels are always a highlight for Mama and Papa because of the variety and the fact that we can choose to eat a bit of everything that we want. We tried to feed you a bit of prune but you totally rejected it. You didn’t like it at all!
The whole restaurant was full! We think that the hotel was especially crowded with Singaporeans who had come to stay there the day before for the fireworks as well. It was the first time that we saw a long queue of people trying to get in for breakfast. Thank God we came down earlier!
After breakfast, we returned to our room to catch up on some more sleep as we were very tired. We simply slept until Kow-fu and Kow-mo had to leave to bring Por-por to the airport as she was flying off to Hongkong that afternoon.
When it was time for us to check-out (we had asked for a later check-out time) we quickly packed up and left. We had to rush to the airport as we wanted to see Por-por off as well. Por-por was going to miss you lots so we had to let her see you before she left or it would be terrible!
We managed to get to the airport half-an-hour before Por-por had to board the plane so we spent the time at one of the cafes in the Departure area. Then we wished her farewell.
We then came home to rest as we were still quite sleepy. :D
We woke up to watch to National Day Parade on TV later that evening. We had overslept slightly so we only started watching from the part where our Prime Minister arrived at the National Stadium.
This parade was extra special because this is the last time it will be held at the National Stadium as the stadium will be torn down and rebuilt. Papa has fond memories of the stadium as the place where he was introduced to soccer. When Papa was younger, his Papa and uncles would bring his cousins and him to the stadium to watch the Singapore National Soccer Team play in the Malaysian Cup – a soccer competition where the Singapore Team played against the State Teams of Malaysia. It was always very exciting. This was also the place that Papa was remembers Tetrapack drinks (shaped like pyramids) and curry puffs as people walked around the stadium selling these to the spectators. When Papa was older, he made his own way there with his friends to watch other soccer matches as well. One of the people that he went with is your Godpa! Papa also went there for other events like Singapore Youth Festival Opening Festivals and National Day Parades (Papa thinks he went there with his Pre-U Class for something like this). After the events were over, we would then have to fight against the crowds to get to our transport and home!
Anyway, the parade lasted until about 8.15 pm and throughout the broadcast, Mama kept on remarking that Papa was allowing you to watch TV for so long. But Papa felt that it was the National Day Parade and that it only took place once a year so he continued to let you watch the TV. But Papa has to agree that it was very long for you as you kept on getting distracted. You couldn’t watch it continuously.
Skyler, as a Singaporean, you must remember that National Day is very important, okay? It is the day that Singapore was made independent! Singapore was officially asked to leave the Federation of Malaysia and be on its own. It was a very scary period of time as everyone really thought that Singapore would perish as it had no resources whatsoever to fall back on for economic survival. Singapore had no armed forces to speak of except for a couple of battalions of infantry soldiers, no air force and only a few obsolete naval ships for sea defence. But the first independent government of Singapore led by our then Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, showed Singaporeans the way and our forefathers followed them! And now, we are what we are – a fairly prosperous nation known practically throughout the modern world with lots and lots of comforts of modern living. Papa will educate you about Singapore’s history in more detail when you’re older, okay?
We love you, Little Girl!
Papa and Mama
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