FunTasia at Singapore's Chinese Gardens

Yesterday our graduate choir spent almost the entire day at the Chinese Gardens at Jurong to participate in the organized activities.

It was Funtasia to clelebrate Singapore Totalizator Board's 20th Anniversary & Singapore Pools' 40th Anniversary. Singapore Pools is one of the main benefactors of sports and arts in Singapore. Therefore our small contribution of singing in the open to mainly fellow Singaporeans and their families from near and far was quite appropriate.

Being a graduate choir, most of us belong to the "uncles" and "aunties" age group. Of course we like the oldies, musicals, classics, but we also sing popular Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian folk songs and even Mandarin pop numbers like Theresa Teng's songs. We will sing ABBA's compositions during our 10th Anniversary during in September this year. Yes we are 10 years' old this year.

Some pics of the event and scenery of the Chinese Gardens, which will be further improved soon.

 

No, it's 9th August, just about the beginning of the Bejing Olympics.

 

More pictures of Singapore Pool's FunTasia and some of my choir members:

 

Yes, it was a hot day last Saturday. And we should be thankful for it since rain would have dampened the spirits. It did rain last week.

May 1st is also a public holiday here, it being Labour Day. There will be celebrations by the Trades Union movement. I think the US celebrates Labour Day later. This is the event of the year.

But August 9th, our traditional National Day, will be a really big event celebrated by the entire nation. Each year gets better than before with many diverse groups taking part in the celebrations normally preceded by an official military parade with an inspection by the President and witnessed by the country's leaders in all fields. After the march past, an artistic and colourful display of music, song and dance, showmanship and other items will follow and this is the segment that the spectators at the venue and at home over the TV, normally enjoy the most. A fireworks display will round up the evenings' entertainment.

Tickets for the National Day show are in great demand. Now, to cut down the long queues which could form overnight, ballotting through internet has been adopted to great effect since about two to three years ago.

Last year's National Day celebrations were held for the first time on our open-air floating stage at Marina Bay. It was a drastic but welcome change from the enclosed walls of the National Stadium, traditionally the venue for the celebrations, although the Padang was also a historical venue.

This successful experiment of holding large events on a floating platform on water will definitely be replicated elsewhere for other events, especially on other water bodies like our reservoirs.