Happy National Day, Singapore!

Dear Diary,

Oh… how I miss the freedom of just waking up late! Switched “on” my mobile phone at 11am today and there was a flurry of SMS. One of them read, “Help, where are the keys to your pharmacy? Who is the locum yesterday evening?” However, shortly… another SMS came in, “Never-mind, found it, haha..”

Guess what I replied? “Oops, sorry… just woke up. Glad you found it. Have a nice day!” Well… along that line and suddenly I realised… hey, how the other guy must have felt. Waking up so late in the morning??? Hahaha… Checked out the Prime Minister’s National Day speech on television in the morning. To be honest, he could have done much better by not running out of view from the camera and changing his standing locations so often.

After watching that, I went for a haircut and goodness…. Such a long queue! I decided to find some remote barber and got my haircut there. Maybe because it was “remote”, that barber really took his time to cut my hair. Thought that haircut was about 45 minutes long? His hair-styling skill isn’t that superb (okay, now I look like a nerd), but the way he gently cut and caress my hair with such tenderness and respect… really enjoyed that whole process. =)

In the afternoon, decided to accompany Dad to the museums. Hadn’t really visited the museums (National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Arts Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum and Singapore Philatelic Museum) for quite a long while… haha… So Dad and I went to the National Museum of Singapore. The colonial building now has a new modern extension to it! There were many people in the museum and there was a snaking queue just outside a hall. We later learnt that we would probably have to queue for an hour just to get into that new state-of-art “History Gallery”! We decided not to wait. So we toured around… nothing much… just a gallery of plastic models of Asian food??? There was also a gallery of old photos and cameras that we visited. Nothing exciting.

Then we had some food at the SMU food court before proceeding to Singapore Art Museum (the former Saint Joseph Institution building). The Arts Museum was much less rowdy and crowded. I enjoyed the huge spaces and actually found many of the artworks very interesting. Somehow, I am a little amazed that I could seem to appreciate many of the drawings and sculptures and artistic arrangements… Went from drawing to drawing, art form to art form… Nice. Even watched some video clips of some “interesting” behavioural experiments? However, there was one pretty bafflingly atrocious artwork. It is a coffee-stained table with a broken-down radio tuner set on it. Placed at a corner… I thought it was a place for the museum security guard to sit, until I realised that it is an art piece!!! Goodness gracious me. Maybe I can’t see the meaning behind it but it looks ridiculous, haha… Saw the chapel and walked through the fourteen stations-of-the-cross with Dad. Looking up at the Christ who from standing before Pilate, eventually was taken down from the cross to be buried. Good that they still keep the chapel in the museum to remind us of the origin of this building which was previously home to one of the most outstanding Christian mission schools in Singapore. I, ironically, never attended a Christian mission school. If I ever get married and have kids... I am sure to give them a mission school education, haha...

Then they had this survey which they asked me to fill up. Gave me a souvenir and I was happy because I thought it was a commemorative cash card. Turned out that it is not even a coaster. Just a cardboard with a print of the façade of the Arts Museum. Chey… Haha… Did not visit the other two museums. Later in the evening, caught National Day Parade (NDP) on television and it is our nation’s 42nd birthday! Yeah! The first time they held it at the Marina Bay on that huge floating platform stage. The performance and the visuals were excellent. =)

Okay, anyway… tomorrow seems exciting too! Going to Botanical Gardens with dad and my two dear sisters early morning. Haven’t walk in there for quite a while. Good to take in some fresh air, look at the greeneries and the ponds... Will I still see those swans around? Haha... Then… maybe catch up with some university friends in the evening. Probably “pub”… take some alcohol in a lounge? Can try to “chill out” (you need to be in a freezer to chill out, haha). Remember the previous blog entry… the 19th characteristic of a “cathedral” guy? Yeah, we can be fun too, haha… Good decent fun though, haha...

Okay, got to go now. Goodnight! =)

God Bless,

Andrew