EVS Marshal Validation Exercise - Bishan Stadium

Two tiring days are finally over. I switched from the second shift to the first shift as I wanted attend the annual event at Kong Meng San Phor Khak See Monastry. I know how bad the feeling is to miss this annual event.

The venue orientation was held a day before the event and we got to famaliarise ourselves with the place. We got our uniform and accreditation pass. The feeling of getting the long awaited uniform was great!

I was posted to the last zone. Just like Chingay 2010, I have to walk all the way to the first zone to take attendance and walk all the way to the last zone to carry out my duty. Well, it's alright. Good spot I guess. I get to watch the competitions and my position was near the finishing line. Great!

Reaching there at 6.30am sharp on my first day, I was made to walk back and forth a few times due to some conflicting instructions given. A good warm-up I guess. I was brought to walk through the field of play. It was rare chance.

The organisers were a little late. It took them a very long time to open the gate that I was in-charged of. My partners and I waited for quite some time till the event starts. The first race was the 10000m Women brisk-walk. There were only three participants.

As there were not any rules and restricction, I took pictures. It was a rainy day and things were rather slack. I even had time to take a pictures with my partners. It was coincidently that there was a sign board indicating the sponsor of this validation exercise. It was actually meant for the media to take picture for the atheletes with that as the background. It was however not a very good idea to put it near the exit.

Being bored, David went to look for food. He brought back three boxes of breakfast for himself, Yulina and me. I was a little surprised as we were told that lunch was provided instead of lunch. Oh well. Budget.

During our free time, the three of us had lots of chat. Yulina is working in the LTA while David works is a manager for a company that helps people to do checks. Recently, he just got a project to check the structure of airplanes. He uses x-ray and ultrasound to do that. Cool! I never knew that this diagnostic equipments can actually be used in the aerial industry too!

After we got the instructions to step-down, we went for a debrief. Kind of disappointed that there were not chairs prepared for us. The volunteers' spirits?

I accompanied Yulina to wait for her husband to drive her before walking to the roadside to wait for Auntie's Mui car. I was so hungry and was looking forward to a warm and nice lunch at Grandma House.

I reached at six plus on the second day. I think I was the first person to reach as Anthony was sitting lonely at Zone one, waiting for the volunteers to report to him. After taking my attendance, he asked me to hang around there. I chose to proceed to my position first as I felt rather awkward. I gave an excuse that I wanted to see the sunrise.

Anyway, I reached my position and prepare the chairs before my partner arrives. Yulina will be my only partner for the day as David was not able to make it.

We get to have some time to chats. I took more photos than the first day. We however did not have time to take a picture with that sign board.

It was a sunny day. The sun was shining very brightly. It took a while for the sun to rise a little higher to allow some shade to be produced at my position. The first event of the day was 20000m Men brisk-walk. There was a water station that provide water for the atheletes during the long walk. There were only four competitors this round. The girl that won the first place on the first day came to help the guy to warm-up. How nice. Both of them were from the same country.

There was one more person that came to chat with us too. He was a photographer. It was quite nice of him though the chat was not a lot.

The race on the second day was more happening. There were more "fast-paced" races and more events as compared to the first day.

There were more Singapore competitors too. Some people who thinks so highly of themselves are really disgusting. Some atheletes hopes to be served while some people holding some passes expect me to let them pass just because they are "big". Sometimes I really do not understand why is this job that I liked so much is looked down by so many people. Myopic I would say.

Well, my shift concluded with a debrief. Took a ride home on Yulina's husband's car as they were heading towards the expressway. Really thank her a lot so that I would not have to make the 30-min walk home under the scotching sun. That 5-min ride really helped my hungry stomach.

This two-day event has allowed me to see a lot of things. Though there was "nothing much", I have gained some knowledge. One of which would be the advancement of the equipments used for the competitions. The organisation on the field of play was quite good too. Last but not least, the type of people that I interacted with has showed me some new variety.