Wow what a festival that was...the just concluded 28th South East Asian (SEA) Games! We live just a bridge across the Iconic Indoor Stadium. We have been following this gigantic monument ever since its inception, well almost. Because my husband's Company was involved in the engineering of this Super-dome. We remember fondly when the Stadium was thrown open to the public of Singapore, with people thronging to it dressed in Red. We took a tour around, we participated in the numerous sports and fitness events like Zumba, Kick-boxing, and other sports for kids too.
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| The National Stadium...Iconic |
The festive atmosphere was evident around the Stadium, which was the main venue for the events. What with the mushrooming of kids' stalls for "Walking on water", Climbing walls, Trampolines , Laser Tag and such. It being the Holidays for local schools, the queues were long, but the kids patient. The evenings were resplendent with stage shows, and we even had our Desi Bhangra show once.
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| Go child! Scale great heights!! |
In spite of the ticket sales being advertised months ago, we did not have the foresight to book tickets to our favourite sports, and a fortnight before the Games began, I desperately scanned the websites, looking for tickets for Swimming, Gymnastics....Anything...but they teasingly said 'Sold Out".
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| Nila the Mascot waiting for the next day's events |
We followed the opulent Opening Ceremony on the telly. We ran to the kids' bedroom to catch the fireworks on various nights, including the trials. We only sighed and discussed with friends how come they are so cool even with no tickets...
And then one fine evening, we did land up at the Stadium, where we watched the Hurdles, Heptathlon and cheered hoarse at the Relay Races! The last time I remember watching a tournament was during school days when my beloved mother played Table Tennis for CFTRI! Relived those memories with the kids...munched potato chips, took photographs, and came home.
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| May the flags of friendship fly high... |
As the winners were announced, and their National anthems played, their tears ran down their cheeks and it was all I could do to control my tears too! The names of the winners? All are listed in the official website.I remember Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia vying for the medals that evening.
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| It ain't Diwali yet...the bridge near the Stadium is lit up |
And the real winner is...this ultra smart camera!!!
Of course, we had to catch the scintillating Closing ceremony on TV too.
And just when I thought maybe next time we will be prompt in buying tickets in advance, I saw that the next SEA Games are going to be hosted by Malaysia...
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