Happy National Day folks!

Several weeks ago, my aunt asked me if I'll be interested to join her, my uncle and my cousin, Eric to participate in the 25th National Day march past.

Without thinking twice, I agreed to join because it's special as Brunei is gonna celebrate 25 years of independence, which is simply the Silver Jubilee Celebration.

My aunt added that our group for the march past is actually representing the Wushu Association of Brunei, which is under the Chinese Community group.

Sounds complicated? I was confused too at first.

So, before the big day, I had trouble trying to sleep and woke up at roughly 4.30am next morning because I was too excited for the event! Not even counting sheeps would put me into a sleep that night.

Before heading to the National Stadium, we had to go pick up my cousin Eric's friend from his house.

It was around 5.45am already, and everywhere is still dark. Outside my cousin's friend's house, I saw this dog of theirs, locked inside a cage, barking at us madly.

I then took a picture of the dog with my flash on. The flash light hit straight to the eyes of the dog and I swear the dog was blinded for a few seconds!





But the funnier thing here, is that, the dog has lost it's voice.

So no matter how hard the dog tried to bark at us, we can barely hear anything!

Haha I didn't know that could happen!





Meanwhile, at 6 a.m., there's already a very long queue on the road to the stadium. That leaves us no choice but to park our car at somewhere in Pulaie, and had to walk to the meeting point for our group.

It was somewhere outside Orchid Garden Hotel. To my surprise, foods packed in polystyrene food-containers were already provided even though the sun has not even risen yet.

I expected the foods to be Nasi Lemak or Nasi Katok but out of all the foods I can possibly think of, they gave us fried chicken and burger from A. Ayam.





I chose to not eat it anyway, because I don't wanna risk troubling my stomach for the whole morning. I actually didn't even had my breakfast that morning.

Slowly, more and more people came.





From the picture, if you can see some people wearing white tees and black tracksuit, yeah, that's what I'm told to wear that morning before the "real attire" (jackets) for our group arrived.

When our jackets came, we're told to wear them throughout the whole march past. It was really hot, but at least it makes me feel 'rugged' with jackets. ^^

Those wearing bright baju kurungs are people from Majlis Wanita if I'm not mistaken.





And then again, after a while, the Chung Hwa Middle School group came, and I assume they're also under the group for Chinese Community.

Yeah, so now you see, the 'Chinese Community' group is divided into many sub-groups, all led by Pehin Kapitan China Lela Diraja Goh King Chin, and the real group I'm in was actually the Wushu group.





That's still okay, but in the end, out of all the ordinary, there came a big bunch of Filipinos, whom I then found out was also in our group.

They're lined up at the back of our group though.

The first thought that came into my mind was "What the heck???".

It took me quite a while to find out that they are actually workers and staffs of Liang Toon Departmental Store & A. Ayam Restaurant and were 'forced' to join the march past by their boss, and then somehow got situated and mixed with our group. Hmmm.. Wierd.

At least that explains where the fried chicken and burgers from A. Ayam came from.

And I could see some disatisfaction from their face, because some of them are unwilling to march 'properly' that they can't tell which foot to step when we say 'Kiri!' and which foot to step when we say 'Kanan!'.

How do I know? Well, because a police officer had to come and teach us again and again on how to march, when to wave your wage, when to look at the direction to our right, how to stop and so on.





Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be racist here. Everything that is being typed down are all according to my thoughts.

After waiting for how many hours, our turn for the march has finally came. I was trying to be careful on my steps, but I got confused along the way.

Prior to entering the stadium, I could hear cheers and enthusiam from the stands. (I suppose the cheers are not for our group)

Inside the tunnel, I hear very loud stamps on the wooden ramp, with everyone shouting "KIRI! KANAN! KIRI! KANAN! KIRI! KANAN! KIRI!".

"This is it," I thought.

Marching right onto the lane inside the stadium, I got confused with the steps again. Left has somehow become right to me. My other hand swung to the opposite direction. Everything went wrong.

Twenty-five seconds later, everything is over, and I found myself outside the stadium again.





"Argggh, that's a really bad performance", I keep saying to myself.

But I guess nobody would care, so I might as well just forget it.

I wanted to go up to the stands and watch the performances, but my uncle and aunt are reluctant as to avoid traffic jam after the show.





I saw some of my friends from school as well, but I didn't see Renzo. :'(

I'm not sure whether there'll be souvenirs for us, but at least I got my jacket, which is made by Aewon, for free.

It is also reversible, dark blue on one side, and sky blue on the other side.





Worth it?
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:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 4:40 PM |

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