Sun Burnt At Central Park

...so the Singapore Day came and went and as low as our expectations were, I can safely say we had a very nice time. The glitches were many but hopefully, the organizers will have learnt from this one and conduct a smoother experiance for Singaporeans attending future similar events.

Saturday morning started out very slowly and a little painful after a night out with Boon, Alycia, Yishen and Julia at a small izakaya in the East Village called Kasadela. Three bottles of sake (bloody waitress warned the king 'your wife drank a lot' arrgh), some beer and a lot of food later (I suppose it beats her saying 'your fat wife ate a lot' lol), the king and I headed back to the hotel only to stop unexpectedly at Carnagie Deli. I don't think we were hungry - but Japanese drinking culture has trained our palettes to crave ramen after a late night out lol. Plus I had to take the biggest piss of my life. Yes, truly - it was THE biggest! ...and of course we couldn't leave without ordering an infamously big sandich. Hey - don't judge us! We were drunk - ok, I was drunk! ...and not used to drinking so much unfiltered and unpasturized sake. So after two bites into my awesome burger (with nothing but raw onion - the way I like my burgers) and a couple of fries, I was ready for bed. That was three in the morning.

I find myself standing under the shower at 6:10am... trying to wash the alcohol out of my brain with a really hot shower. It was not a hangover but I was literally still drunk then! The king got up shortly after I got dressed. We were tired already before the day began. Nothing a three shot espresso at Starbucks couldn't help lol. Gen, who lives in the city came to meet us at the hotel and the three of us, in full Singapore style, trotted out of our hotel way before 9am for the 10:30am event at central park; a short two block walk away from Le Parker Meridian.

It was the perfect day for an outdoor event. Blue skies, mild temperature (well, at 8 in the morning it was still pretty mild) and of course, the three of us got to Wollman Rink too early. The only people at the park were dog owners (and their dogs of course, DUH!), a bunch of security for the Singapore Day event and a bunch of young Singaporean helpers for the occasion in bright Sunkist orange tees who looked pretty lost themselves. It was slow and nobody - not even the friendly security guy - knew what was going on. We hung out for a little, killed some time at Starbucks in Trump Tower and by the time we got back at almost ten, there was a kind of line slowly forming. People huddled around the entrance but not really standing in line for fear of being called 'kiasu' - directly translated from hokkien (a Chinese dialect) - 'afraid of losing'. But. kiasu or not, we of course quickly found the most strategic line (there were about ten people in line) and people just followed behind us instantaneously. Before we knew it, this was what we saw when we turned around.

The event started 30 mins later then the predicted 10:30am but once it started moving, it was smooth and pretty uneventful. We all got stamped with a 'redeemed' stamp on our hands and a red 'I heart SG' being Singaporean and the king got the black version. It was most exciting... well, not really but the smell of food lured us around the corner into the real event space where an empty stage stood at one end and a good dozen stalls stood at another. The rest in the middle was empty concrete space. That's right, no chairs, no benches, no tables, nothing. But without much ado, the three of us hurried into the first line. The chwee kueh line. We each got one chwee kueh (yes ONE), got out of line, ate it and went on to the chicken rice line. These lines were so short we got spoiled very quickly. One thing we all noticed imediately, serviettes, chilli sambal, garnish and plastic-silverware were all free flow. WAH! How un-Singaporean-like lol! Even the king held on to his first set of chopsticks for fear of them running out. Bloody kiasu angmoh!! :D


Within an hour, the crowd multiplied by severel hundreds then thousands and the heat also multiplied in it's intensity. By the time the king had his mutton prata and we got our laksa, we were drained and sun burnt. Yes, it turned out that the king in all his ang moh style, got burnt on his forehead, nose and neck. I got burnt on my chest area (where else lol) and Gen who wore her little pretty ballerina flats now has feet that are shaped like she's wearing her shoes constantly. It was hilarious!

All in all, we had a nice time together; eating, standing in line, eating, standing in line... you get the idea. The sucky ass not-so-goody, goody bag was worst then I predicted lol! It was so lame it's the biggest joke among the Singaporeans who attended this day. Still, a bag of five stones, a pack of rubber bands to make yourself a ye-ye/zero point, some fridge magnets and a pack of mints in a big ass bag marked 'I heart Sg' was more sad then anything I could have imagine. But, there was a 20% discount off OSIM products (osim now owns Brookstone) and so... we got ourselves an isqueeze :D Something good actually came out of that bag - hard to imagine... lol!

I eagerly wait for the second Singapore Day - if there's gonna' be another one, that is. Must have cost Singapore tax payers a bunch! But hey, if they're trying to do everything to lure some of us back, well, they gotta' do a lot more than just twelve hawkers, Kit Chan or Hossan Leong - WE WANT SELENA TAN (inside joke)... and a much more luxurious goody bag hahahaha!