National Day

I just felt I ought to reflect the fact that it's National Day somewhere in my blog. I can't own up to doing anything particularly National today. We were supposed to go watch the fireworks with T's cousin and some friends, but we begged off on account of our lingering hangovers.

That turned out to be a good thing, because my Canadian cousin Sam called after she was done at the National Day parade (she's in the country only once every couple of years and what's one of the first things she does --- attend the bloody parade) and we had a late dinner at Le Viet at Siglap, and Sam and her friend hung out here for a while, mostly to satiate their Internet withdrawal symptoms. She also said flattering things about T's photos and borrowed two of my books, and we made plans for dinner next week.

Sam is awesome. We were born in the same year, but eight months apart (i.e. her mom was just getting started on her pregnancy when my mom had me). We've lived in separate countries most of our lives, but there's still this cousinly click every time we get together, which is great. She's way cooler than me, though.

I watched bits of the parade today, just the parts where the marching contingents marched into the stadium, did their fancy drill stuff, had the guard-of-honour inspection for the President, and then marched out again. It wasn't as zesty as in the old days (i.e. the 1980s) when there were like fifty contingents involved and they marched in to traditional martial tunes. This year, the contingents actually sang along to some ditty as they entered. Where's the dignity?