Our National Day

August 9th, 2008 - that's Singapore's 43rd Birthday (*Cheer*)! And we celebrated it for the first time, outside of our home country, Singapore. The Sichuan Singapore Club (SSC) here in Chengdu has organized a Singapore National Day dinner! We were so excited when we first heard that. We thought we might get to meet some fellow Singaporeans and make some new friends, etc... It doesn't matter that we have to pay 280RMB (approx S$56)per person for the dinner, because it'll be at Sheraton Hotel, and we get to meet people.

So we dressed according to the invitation - Sportswear or jeans & T-shirt, and went happily to the hotel. The hotel was nice - it's Sheraton! But the dinner was not what we hoped it will be. It's like attending a wedding dinner of someone whom you don't really know, so your only companion is the person you came to the wedding dinner with..

Anyway, firstly, we noticed that the dress code was not that firmly adhered to. Who will consider dresses as sportswear?! Anyway,we arrived and saw that there are 2 tables for registration. One for walk-ins and the other for those who already had tickets. So we went to the table with a table stand that says 'Singaporean registration'. And the guy recognised Gary immediately from Caterpillar as he had called him to get the tickets. But what shocked me was that when we asked for our table number, he hesitated and erred, and arrhh.. and said that the tables are mostly bought by companies, which goes by the table so we can just find any empty seats and settle down.. blah blah blah... I mean come on! We paid for our seats and now had to settle for seats that are already paid for!?!?! That is ridiculous. (TIC) 

Anyhow, the lady-in-charge, whom is a Singaporean came and she said she will show us to a table. Halfway to the ballroom, she got waylaid and distracted by some guests (whom I believed are big shots as they looked older), until eventually she got carried away and left us standing at the entrance of the ballroom. I was irritated at the change of events, but I tried to calm myself down, finding excuses that she was busy and she need to entertain the big shots. After waiting about 5 to 10 mins for her to notice us again, which she didn't, I was downright pissed! 

So Gary suggested that we take a look at the layout plan outside to see if there're any tables in the ballroom that are not bought by any company. But all tables are taken! We decided to go back to the registration table where I (ahem, yours truly) assertively explained that we 'lost' the lady-in-charge and all tables are taken by companies so where are we supposed to sit? I think the guy was quite taken aback by my assertiveness and scrambled to find seats for us. Anyhow, we got our seats at a UOB table, hurray! (Right...)

Out of the 10 people seated at the UOB table, there're 2 Singaporeans (yours truly), 1 Singapore PR, and 1 Malaysian. The rest are local people. But I wondered how many Singaporeans are there exactly at this event. Everywhere I turned to, the people I see seems to be local. The lady-in-charge did say that as far as possible, they give priority to Singaporeans, but if Singaporean companies in Chengdu bought a table and there're local staff who attends the event, there's nothing they can do. 

The national anthem was played when they brought out a cake to celebrate the National Day, but nobody was singing it. (Probably because most of them are not Singaporeans.) Other than that, the items for the night was so-so - there were the usual speeches before we begin the buffet, some entertainment items during the dinner, some new companies' debuts, and finally the lucky draw.

So that explains our lack of enthusiasm to want to take any photos at the event to remind us of our disappointment. 

Anyway, Happy Birthday Singapore!