SG50 Golden Jubilee Weekend

For the first time in our short national history, we had a 4-day long Jubilee Weekend from 7 - 10 August 2015 to celebrate our 50th year of independence.

2015 is the year when you see the SG50 logo and term everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE in CAPZ. Discounts, promotions, campaigns, events and the likes are all held in the name of SG50. The term was so overused that someone (either in annoyance or in jest) created the Singlish hashtag #SimiSaiAlsoSG50 which loosely translates to "whatever shit also SG50".

Well, this 4-day long weekend was the best SimiSaiAlsoSG50 event that all Singaporeans welcome. It was certainly a well-deserved break for me.



[Photo taken by my friend, Paul Christian]


~*Jubilee Weekend Day 1*~

The first thing I did during the Jubilee weekend was to replenish my sleep. I went home that Thursday night and slept like a koala drunk from eucalyptus juice till the afternoon and had late lunch with the hubz at Chock Full of Beans the next day.

Oh yes, I painted my nails with the Singapore flag theme in mind but failed miserably.




We were feeling patriotic and were all decked out in our national colour - red and white! My red was not the right shade but I was saving the top with the right shade for National Day itself.




After having a 3D kitty drink on my own the other time at CFOB, I was excited to choose another character for my mocha. I requested for Totoro from the options that the server gave. I had expected a melancholic Totoro but this Totoro looked kinda like he was high on drugs.




From our prior experience, we assumed that the limit of only one 3D latte foam art per table still held and that the rest of the art would be random. Hence, the hubz did not bother stating any character preference. Imagine my utter amusement when the server came with My Melody for him!

The hubz wasn't very amused as you could see. I had the time of my life making fun of him the next few minutes. To be honest, we felt that the server should have had higher situational awareness. If the lady of the table requested for Totoro, the server should have told the barista that the other order belonged to the man of the table and to choose a character suitable for a guy.




As usual, The Destroyer loved to destroy art...
As for me, my Totoro self destructed. ie, it fell apart before I could even snap 473047336 pictures of it.




Ultimate Swiss Rosti!




At our new home...
You know what our interior designer friend told me about our inbuilt wardrobe?
"Tell your friends that you have a walk-in wardrobe. You open the sliding door and you simply walk into your wardrobe. There, a walk-in wardrobe."




I ended the day with bullying my BIL's cat.




~*Jubilee Weekend Day 2*~

I ended the previous day with bullying The Cat and started the next day with The Cat bullying me. She photobombed me when I was trying to take a picture of my Asics.

Just so that I don't embarrass myself on social media by revealing the fact that I was bullied by The Cat, the caption for this on Instagram was:
"You could tell that the focus was really The Cat 🐱 who was photobombed by the shoes 👟👟."




The sky was overcast and perfect for running even when it was approaching noon. But once I started jogging, the sun beams peered through the grey clouds announcing their arrival. Then, the dam in my nose called Sinus started leaking and by the 15th minute, my chest was hurting from sucking in too much. I can't run for nutz but I try my best to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm no longer that girl who loved to run back in school. I'm the middle-age lady who struggles with a 15-minute run and with Silver Peanut.

I can't believe how patriotic I am. Even my running attire is in red and white, or rather white and red.





~*Jubilee Weekend Day 3*~

National Day falls on this day, 9 August. Happy birthday, Singapore! I'm all decked in red and white again and this time with the right shade of red.




As usual, the hubz would be involved in National Day. Instead of squeezing with the millions outside on this day, I had arranged to go back to my family home to watch the National Day Parade (NDP) on TV with my parents.




I brought my work laptop with me to finish up some work while watching the NDP.

I simply love my parents' cooking! Simple, delicious and healthy. Somehow, the lotus root was in the shape of a heart that day.




Since we are on the topic of food, here are some favourite local dishes that we ate over the weekend.

Nasi Lemak -- My favourite local dish back in school!




Otah!  Love it when the whiff of otah permeates through the air and lulls me to the direction of the makeshift otah stand. Often, they smell better than they taste so when they taste just like they smell, those are really ho eh (good)!




Adopting the SimiSaiAlsoSG50 mentality, I handed these to my parents. This must be the most #SimiSaiAlsoSG50 "bonus" that they would gladly welcome.




After the screening of the NDP, I met up with Tiffany and Paul for some post NDP fun around the whole Marina Bay area. This arrangement was so spontaneous and I'm so glad she managed to convince me to go out. I had lots of fun imbibing the post National Day late-night revels.




Acting stupid since 1989... Wait was that when we first knew each other?



We had wanted to do a 50 years of Singapore History walk around the whole Marina Bay area. What better way to start the night with old school wafer ice cream! So we had chocolate mint, nata de coco and chocolate chips but they all tasted like durian!!!

Let our ice cream sandwiches powers combine!




As part of the effort to light up Marina Bay, there were 50 specially designed light-installations around the Bay, taking the shape of the numerals 1 to 50. Each had a panel of contents that highlighted the major historical event of that year. Our main agenda that night was to discover these 50 light-installations. We started from 50 and walked down memory lane. The whole walk took about 2 hours and it was certainly good work out!




We had to shift barricades and sneak in through metal gates just to get some shots (since it was late and closed to public) but the mini adventure (and chasing away by securities) was well worth it.




There were lots of road closures and we had fun standing in the middle of the road to snap a picture with Fullerton Hotel. We also managed to catch the start of the 8-minute long music and visual display right when we reached the front of the hotel.




Entitled “A Celebration of Our Heritage”, the spectacular show showcased iconic moments that took place at the Fullerton Square and would play every night from 1 - 9 Aug. Tiffany and I were glad gto have caught this on the last night! This is an anigif I made. You could watch the whole video here.

"The spectacular show will showcase significant moments in Singapore’s history, taking viewers through decades of our nation’s triumphs and tribulations on the façade of our well-loved landmark. Taking place on the evenings from 1 to 9 August 2015, watch history unfold in fabulous 3D detail – tracing the early days of The Fullerton Building as the General Post Office, through a 50-year walk down memory lane as told through postage stamps, before culminating with a dramatic finish to mark Singapore’s 50th birthday." - Fullerton Hotel website




























After all the acts kindness displayed from Singaporeans from all walks of lives during the last time majority of Singaporeans gathered together, we were surprised to see volunteers handing out free bottled waters to the revellers by the bay.




The Merlion was spewing booze after a night of wild merrymaking.




The Singapore flag light display from the Fullerton Hotel continued to stand out amongst the towering skyscrapers of the financial district.




It was the first time we walked on this portion of the The Float @ Marina Bay. As I walked, I pretended to be waving to the audience as Tiff shot me an "I dunno why am I hanging out with you" expression.






Call me suaku but that was the first time I stepped onto the Helix Bridge.




We completed the walk!




Paul was nicely booted out from the picture so that we could have a photo of the full Dragon Playground. My fondest childhood memory of one of the dragon playgrounds was when my cousins and I used it as our base to fight the mean neighbourhood kids. My older male cousins gave my younger female cousin and me pebbles to throw at the kids while we hid in the covers of the dragon's body. Yeah, that sounds mean but they were even meaner to us.




We celebrated the end of National Day by indulging in unhealthy local cuisine like Maggie Goreng and Roti Prata.






~*Jubilee Weekend Day 4*~

I spent the last day of the Jubilee Weekend bawling my eyes out as I was hit my the realization that the 4 days had whizzed by just like that.





~*Post Jubilee Weekend Outing*~

That Tuesday after the Jubilee weekend, Tiff and I caught The LKY Musical.




It was a rather last minute buy and we were seated right on top. What drew me the most initially was the wonderful multifaceted set and then after that Adrian Pang blew me away. From where we were sitting, it was difficult to make out facial features. Adrian Pang certainly do not resemble LKY physically but I swear I could see a young LKY on stage. He managed to capture the speech and gravitas of LKY almost to perfection. I particularly love this review a lot as it articulates my exact sentiments.




After the musical, we hung out at High Society for some tea and cakes... and coffee.




This rose cake is phenomenal!





Totally decadent!




Tiffany looked so good in her red lipstick while besties being besties, that's the best photo she snapped of me!




And then after that week, all jubilant feelings came to a halt as I picked up speed on other busy areas of my life. I've been drowning in the sea of "God knows what I'm busy with" recently! Catch up with you peeps soon!