Lunchtime at Raffles Place is always an ideal time and place to publicize any event. The vicinity has been the financial, legal and administrative hub of modern Singapore for a long time.

Just across the street is the famous Boat Quay which straddles the Singapore River, the life source of Singapore's entreport trade of old and now completely transformed into a sparkling stream of water and still retains an enviable position as a waterway to Singapore's many tourist attractions on either side of the river.

So it is to Aviva's credit to take full advantage of Raffles Place to promote this year's Singapore Open. The office crowd cannot help but be attracted to the white Aviva tent in bright sunshine and to watch an enthusiastic queue wanting to try their hands on hitting the plastic bird with a toy plastic racket over a miniature net to land hopefully in one of the three baskets at the opposite end. If they are lucky to get one in out of five tries, they get an Aviva Open pen as prize. The top prize is a huge poster with the autographs of some star players.

In addition to publicizing the Open at Raffles Place, posters can be seen on the streets and in the trains, etc. Aviva is really making great attempts to ensure that this year's Open will be another hugh success. Hopefully the record one-day attendance of 8,000 at the 2005 Finals will be broken this year. Aviva deserves our support. :)

Here are some pictures:

Thanks for sharing LOH! See u there!

Hi Loh..... excellent write-up for the event.... and nice photos too. Thanks alot!!!!! :D

Anyway, after viewing all your past numerous badminton tournament photos...somehow.... think that u are the guy in the blue shirt right?? :p So did u manage to put the plastic birdie into the basket and won a prize??? Hehehehe.... :D

Edit: hahaha....i think u won right after refreshing my page and saw the pen photo....OOOppppss

Hi Loh..... excellent write-up for the event.... and nice photos too. Thanks alot!!!!! :D

Anyway, after viewing all your past numerous badminton tournament photos...somehow.... think that u are the guy in the blue shirt right?? :p So did u manage to put the plastic birdie into the basket and won a prize??? Hehehehe.... :D

Edit: hahaha....i think u won right after refreshing my page and saw the pen photo....OOOppppss

Thanks Slacker. Your eyes are really sharp! ;)

They took pity on me and gave me a pen plus a poster with the face of Lin Dan, Ronald Susilo (got to promote our own local hero!), Peter Gade, Taufik Hidayat, Chen Hong and Zhang Ning with autograph. I think the young man attending to this challenge competiton was rather happy that I took many pics of him. :)

Not to put shame on myself and on BC, I did manage to put a bird in the "wrong" basket! But wait till you try the toy racket....:crying:

Thanks Slacker. Your eyes are really sharp! ;)

They took pity on me and gave me a pen plus a poster with the face of Lin Dan, Ronald Susilo (got to promote our own local hero!), Peter Gade, Taufik Hidayat, Chen Hong and Zhang Ning with autograph. I think the young man attending to this challenge competiton was rather happy that I took many pics of him. :)

Not to put shame on myself and on BC, I did manage to put a bird in the "wrong" basket! But wait till you try the toy racket....:crying:

hahaha... the young man must have thought u are some journalist or magazine/newspaper reporter.... can get some unintended media exposure too. :p

Anyway, will look forward to your photos once again at the coming Aviva Open...... 2+weeks more!!!!! :D

Nice info and Pictures Loh!

Loh, thanks for sharing the pics...

yah, you are the one in the blue shirt, looking as comfortable as always...hehe;)

sigh, the pics really brought a lot of great memories from my trip last yr., as it was my first time spending some time inside S'pore...wait, did i try contacting you also last yr, don't recall?!?!..:p...

anyways, hope you and the rest of the BC members attending the tournament will have lots of fun..and don't forget to take lots of pics to share with us..:):cool:

Thanks so much for the info and wonderful pics, Loh
I did notice you were the one in blue as well :D
Hope those of you who are going to SO will enjoy it... :)

Loh, if you used the S-serve, you might have to return that nice pen! :D

-dave

I will be back in Singapore on the week of the Aviva Open. I will probably catch the quarter-final on Friday as my return flight to HK is scheduled on Saturday. If INA's players are in the semi-finals, I will probably postpone my flight to Sunday/Monday morning :D

... waaa Singapore is too Beautiful :eek:

Hi All

Thanks for your all your comments and compliments.

I think the SBA has found a good sponsor partner in Aviva. The publicity has been geared up quite effectively, and with the website already in place, badminton fans from all over the world will be able to logged in to the live scores at the appropriate times to obtain first hand news of their heroes' performance.

But I wish you could all be in Singapore, esp Syaoran Style who's so good with his wall papers ;) , and join us during the first week of June to sample a taste of Singapore's badminton hospitality as ctjcad did last year and it was quite a memorable experience for him. Our air-conditioned SIS, with over 10,000 very comforable refurbished seats, will be all decorated and ready to receive fans, supporters, players, tournament officials, the media, IBF officials, VIPs and everybody with open arms.

I'm happy that badMania will be back, though for a short period, to support his Indonesian stars. Unfortunately, I think Taufik will not be around to defend his crown, but I'm sure some of the other big names will compete. Anyway, the draw will most likely be next week, towards month-end. I still remembered coming face to face with badMania, mistaking him for a Singaporean, during the last Hong Kong Open when I was in the same queue with him at the ticket booth. :D We talked a little, but did not have a chance to meet up again for a game of baddy, which Chan Kong from Perth and I had with taneepak and friends at his Kowloon club.

This time Ants will have time for the Singapore Open but he will be so busy with his friends from the Philippines that I don't think he'll find much time for badminton, which Netasia (Michael) was hoping to arrange.. Hopefully, he could introduce us to our BC friend, Terry from KL. And hopefully I could meet up with him around Raffles Place or Suntec City for either a drink or lunch.

I can tell you, June will be a hell of a time for sports fans. For me, it will be the Aviva Open, the (Soccer) World Cup (sleepless nights since Germany as host will be in a different time zone than Singapore's) and the Singapore Arts Festival. I have to miss visiting the other badminton tournaments around the region and be content with watching the proceedings over TV, if any. Hopefully, I could recover in July to become the same sane person I am. :rolleyes:

I'm happy that badMania will be back, though for a short period, to support his Indonesian stars. Unfortunately, I think Taufik will not be around to defend his crown, but I'm sure some of the other big names will compete. Anyway, the draw will most likely be next week, towards month-end. I still remembered coming face to face with badMania, mistaking him for a Singaporean, during the last Hong Kong Open when I was in the same queue with him at the ticket booth. :D We talked a little, but did not have a chance to meet up again for a game of baddy, which Chan Kong from Perth and I had with taneepak and friends at his Kowloon club.


I will definitely meet you for a cup of coffee before the games start at the Indoor Stadium. I remember the QF will start at 3pm on Friday? Just PM me your contact no. I still don't have a SG number at the moment...will be the first thing I get when I reach Changi. Haven't been back for a year...so...I will definitely enjoy the short mid-year break I have in SG.

BTW, since I grew up in SG, I always tell ppl that I am from SG :D

I will surely have time to meet up with you guys. :) Will msg you my number once i arrive in Spore. I think my Prepaid number i used last time has expired.

For info, all matches will be played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium (SIS). Free seating, so early birds will catch the fat worms. :D

The schedule as printed on my ticket:


Preliminary Rd - 7 & 8 June (Wed & Thu) 9 am
Q-Finals - 9 June (Fri) 3 pm
S-Finals - 10 June (Sat) 2 pm
Finals - 11 June (Sun) 1 pm


Qualifying Rd - FREE, 5 & 6 June (Mon & Tue)

Happy Badminton!:)

Loh, if you used the S-serve, you might have to return that nice pen! :D

-dave

I did meet Misbun Sidek, purportedly the inventor of the banned S-serve, many times in Singapore, KL and elsewhere, but each time I will only say hello to him. Never pluck up enough courage to ask him to teach me the 'notorious' serve to outwit my opponents! :rolleyes:

Yes my serve as shown in the pic will be faulted many times over. Anybody care to say WHY? :cool:

Hi Loh!

I won't comment on that serve...great pics though!

Have fun in your 'home' tournament! Have you been nominated as the official photographer for BC? :p

Maz

This time i will not take any pics.. will just bring my small digicam.M taking a break just want to watch and mingle around.

Wonder if I could get some pics with Reiko and Kumiko. :D

This time i will not take any pics.. will just bring my small digicam.M taking a break just want to watch and mingle around.

So this time you are going to really relax and enjoy the show plus sipping coffee with me and badMania. But don't worry too much about the pics as we will have quite a number of BC Singapore members ever ready and willing to try their hands on the camera. Leading the pack will obviously be Storkbill. ;)

So this time you are going to really relax and enjoy the show plus sipping coffee with me and badMania. But don't worry too much about the pics as we will have quite a number of BC Singapore members ever ready and willing to try their hands on the camera. Leading the pack will obviously be Storkbill. ;)

Warning: This is going to be non-badminton related. :D My digicam is now not functioning :crying: I am thinking of getting a new one before my trip back to SG next week. Can anyone recommend a good one? I have checked the problems (memory error) of my Canon digicam online and was suprised to see that many other users also face the same problems once they have used it for > 2 years. And the most troubling thing is it happens for nearly every model of Canon digicam...not only the one I am using currently.

I am thinking of getting a Sony T-series....rather pricey though (> 3000 HKD) :cool:

Q-Finals - 9 June (Fri) 3 pm
S-Finals - 10 June (Sat) 2 pm
Finals - 11 June (Sun) 1 pm


How much are the tickets for Q and S-final? I will definitely be going for the Q-Final...still not sure abt the S-Final though....

Come to think of it...HKD 20 for the Q-Final of the HK Open last year was super cheap...:D

I did meet Misbun Sidek, purportedly the inventor of the banned S-serve, many times in Singapore, KL and elsewhere, but each time I will only say hello to him. Never pluck up enough courage to ask him to teach me the 'notorious' serve to outwit my opponents! :rolleyes:

Yes my serve as shown in the pic will be faulted many times over. Anybody care to say WHY? :cool:

He probably already forgotten. It's like billion of years ago.

Hmmm maybe i will ask him about it.

How much are the tickets for Q and S-final? I will definitely be going for the Q-Final...still not sure abt the S-Final though....

Come to think of it...HKD 20 for the Q-Final of the HK Open last year was super cheap...:D


Tickets Charges - Aviva Open Singapore 2006

Premium Season Tickets $50* (10 April to 8 June 2006)

SEASON TICKETS

Category

Special Early Bird Period Normal Period
10 April to 10 May 2006 11 May to 8 June 2006

Adult $18 $28

Senior Citizen /
Student (13-18 yrs) $12 $18


SINGLE DAY TICKET

Dates

Adult Senior Citizens/Student (13-18 yrs) Child (2-12 yrs)

5 & 6 June - Qualifying Rounds Free Free Free
7 & 8 June - Preliminary Rounds $8 $4 Free
9 June - Quarter Finals $8 $4 Free
10 June - Semi Finals $10 $8 $2
11 June - Finals $10 $8 $2

Beautiful city and country!

Nice to see you again Loh. I guess you are still using your Nikon D70?

Nice to see you again Loh. I guess you are still using your Nikon D70?

Hdson, How nice to hear from you again! Hope you're keeping well. I thought you have left Singapore since I haven't seen your name here for a very long time! Yes I'm still using my good old camera, my constant companion. :D Hope you're watching this years SO. :)