Together with other bloggers, we are invited to the Chingay Parade 2010 by Singapore Tourism Board. The theme for this year parade is ImaginEast (东方奇想). This is also the very first time Chingay is paraded in the F1 Pit Building, beside Singapore Flyer. I thought the Pit Building is a good venue choice because it is near the sea, it gets breezes blowing to the land in the night. The Pit Building is divided into 3 sections, with parade starting from blue to red and lastly yellow. Spectators should also come dress according to the color section they are seated in.

A little background on Chingay Parade. This year is the 37th consecutive year Chingay has been run. Chingay used to be a celebration in Penang during Lunar New Year season, with men carrying Chinese decorated floats on their shoulders, dancers, jugglers and magicians entertain the crowd. It celebrates a beginning to a new year. But Chingay is introduced to Singapore in the 1972 as an substitute activity for the banned firecrackers during the festive season.

Most of the crowd walk by foot from Suntec and Marina Square to the F1 Pit Building. There isn’t much way-finding signs sadly, only ushers nearer to the event venue. Spectators are to be seated by 7pm and the recording will start from 8.15pm. Did I not say that Chingay Parade will be filmed and telecast on the following evening. Hmm…

Anyway, this is our first time watching Chingay live. I can’t tell you how great the experience is. You are immersed into a whole experiential performance with themes, exploding colors, extravagance costumes, beautifully composed music and spectacular performers. Watching TV is a sure no kick.

Chingay Parade 2010 is choreographed into 6 segments: Opening, Legendary Tales, Cultures of the East, Singapore Samba, Yellow River and Finale. Each presenting Asia in the most wondrous imagination.

There are a few highlights for the night. (1) Real firecrackers are lit with furious Chinese dragons and lions dances. You never know how ear deafening and smoky the firecrackers are unless you are there. But it makes a memorable opening for the parade. (2) We have Go Fly Kite participating in the Butterfly Lovers’ float. Their LEDs decorated butterflies fly up the air as the story progresses. (3) Egyptians from Joseph & his Multi-Coloured Coat throw bags of rice to the spectators. (4) MPs from Tampines GRC and HDB waved their hands from the HDB float. (5) Tallest and largest dream catcher follow suit. (6) Extremely long Yellow River scene is collaborated with Singapore renowned pianist, Mr Ong Lip Tat. (7) All kids favorite, float from Universal Studios Singapore. Parade ended with fireworks.

So which color section do you sit matter? I think it does. There are some positions where the floats make a complete stop, section like the red one where VIPs are sitting. These are excellent spots for photo taking. Else, most of the floats usually pass by very quickly.

We are looking forward to the Universal Studios float when the host announces at the start of the parade. But to our disappointment, the fireworks come just before the Universal Studios float, drawing all our attention to the fireworks. The Universal Studios float only stop by the red section and accelerates when it reaches our. I only manage to capture a few shots of it.

After the Chingay Parade, all spectators have to clear the spectator stands. A music party is prepared which lasted through 4am the next morning.

As a tradition, these Chingay floats will parade to our heartland HDB areas too. Check out the Chingay Heartlands schedule to get a closer proximity with them.

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This year Singapore Christmas light-up is themed “A Christmas All Decked Out”. Three Christmas icons namely Santa, reindeers and snowmen are given designers makeovers and all decked out in haute couture. The first Christmas light-up started in 1984 (the year I was born). So this is the 26th year running.

The decoration in Orchard road is divided into three zones, the blue zone covering from Tanglin Mall all the way to Shaw Center, the orange zone covers from Ion Orchard all the way to Heeren and lastly the red zone covers from Orchard Building till the end of Orchard Road.

Blue Zone

Orange Zone

Red Zone

Some trivia, the Christmas light-up launch mechanism was constructed from recycled wood panels with crystal ornaments from previous years Christmas decorations.

Personally I think the this year decoration is better than last year, my personally favorite is the “snowing effect” simulating by white LED lights.

Visit Singapore

For more information, check out Celebrate 2009 and for more pictures check out my Facebook Gallery: A Christmas All Decked Out.

Thanks to Benjamin from STB for the invite =D

The outcome of my Are You Being Served? Mission has been posted on the Are You Being Served? website, check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service!

Here is a snippet of the post:

We approached one of the staff, nearer to us, and ask him to take the product down for us. He is wearing an orange color t-shirt which is significantly different from the rest of the staff there (they wore black) and he do not bear a name tag but just the word “Promoter” so we assumed he might be a part time staff working on the weekends.

Judging from his reply stated on top, he is not very sure of the product himself either. To make matter worst, he has problem communicating with us. He seems to have problem understanding our English and his replies in English to us are often very short.

Check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service for the full glory details!

I always complain that the service level in Singapore is lousy and now with the Are You Being Served? platform, I will see whether what I complain holds true.

Things I hate the most:

• When you ask “Do you have this product in store”, they will answer, “all the things are displayed on the shelves”.
• When you ask “Do you have the other model”, they will answer, “No”.
• Tai-Chi-ing you around. When you ask Person A, Person A ask you to ask Person B, when you ask Person B, Person B ask you to ask back Person A.
• With the influx of FT in Singapore, it is not uncommon to find sales personnel from China. Some of them do not even understand basic English which makes communication difficult and that begs the question, are we suppose to blend into them by speaking Mandarin or are they suppose to blend into us by learning English. This is really getting out of control.

Technically they did not answer wrongly but it is their attitude that pisses you off. For example, instead of answering “No”, they answer “Sorry, we do not have it”. Wouldn’t it make you feel better than saying a no and brushes you off after that?

Anyway, back to topic, following up on my Are You Being Served?‘s blog post 3 weeks ago, my mission is suppose to commence on the 28th September 2009 and here are my mission details:

• I will be targeting the retail industry, in particularly the electronics portion.
• I am intending to get the Sony iPod Dock Clock Radio ICF-C1IPMK2 to replace my analog alarm clock while it charges my iPhone 3GS.
• I will be getting it from a local electronics store in VivoCity because it is the cheapest with member’s discount.
• I will be going together with Li Xiang and let her ask all the questions, while I observed the sales personnel.
• I will be observing his/her patience, attitude, product knowledge and most importantly will he go the extra mile to serve us.

PS: I can’t explicitly named the store to prevent unnecessary lawsuit.

24seven will be giving away 3 pairs of F1 Bay Grandstand tickets to watch the F1 races!

This what you have to do:

• Tweet the following “Win F1 Rocks & F1 Bay Grandstand tickets at http://pea.to/f1R. Contest ends 21st September 2009. #f1 #f1rocks”
• Fill in the form at http://pea.to/f1R and two lucky winners will win a pair of Bay Grandstand tickets for the race on 25th (Friday) or 26th (Saturday) September 2009.

If you participated in the F1 Rocks Tickets Contest, one of you will win a pair of F1 Bay Grandstand tickets for the final race day on Sunday, 27th September 2009.