The Day the Town was painted Red

“Will all persons wearing the colour red, please step off the MRT now.” I imagined the announcement being made at Kallang MRT when I stepped off the train. An unimaginable number of passengers in red tops were getting off at the one stop closest to the mega event of the day – NDP 2006. Can’t blame them for being openly patriotic, most of them were attending the parade, and more ever it’s hard to find an excuse to put on a bright red T-shirt after Chinese New Year.

Unlike them, I had no tickets but decided to hang around outside the stadium to practice shooting with the new camera. How often do you get to take shots of people from upclose without them giving you the stare.

Outside the Stadium’s East entrance, people were already in an upbeat mood. There were clowns on stilts, face painters, balloon sculptors and ice-cream sellers deployed to create a party atmosphere outside the stadium. There were also many people like me who decided to enjoy the celebrations from the outside. I guessed many were mainly staying for the fireworks, but the rest of the 2 hours before that were probably spent anticipating the events that were taking place inside the stadium. Pretty sad ah, considering the people at home were watching the events live on TV comfortably on their couch.

For all my effort to capture the fireworks, I had to choose to position my camera at an area just below where the fireworks were being fired (Yes, the debris from the fireworks do fall on us). What’s the problem with that? Well, I didn’t have prior knowledge of this piece of logistical info, so my camera was sitting on the tripod and being aimed at the stadium. So when finally the fireworks were set off, all I could see were the bright sparks exploding overhead and tree branches blocking my view. I left fuming at my luck. At the end of the display, I trudged off with the other thousands of spectators towards the MRT. Oh well, there’ll be other chances, but this will be the last at the Kallang Stadium.