Naional Day Parade - the real thing

Hi all,

The National Day Parade.

A total screw-up.

Here's the video for your "reference":

March-in:


I felt a little nervous at the start, felt a slight stomachache. The march-in was acceptable, though our arm-swing, etc. wasn't really what you'd call synchronize.

Anyway, our sedia and our dressing turned out to be quite fine - better than our previous rehearsals. That was comforting. Our baton drills, however, weren't very well finished - they weren't swift enough. There were stumbles in our contingent, but overall, it turned out to be average.

However, my fellow squadmate standing beside me - Chiran, felt unwell, and squatted down, as some of you might have observed. He later told me that he had felt a little 'giddy'. Dun know why the medics from St. John's, who were supposed to attend to Chiran, didn't do so.

We had to stand still for a long long long time while listening to the National Day Message. Fortunately, I hadn't had any flies or insects coming to me. The consequences would have been disastrous. The exact same thing happened during my earlier rehearsals.

Finally, the really screw-up part - the march-past:
March-past:


The starting of the march-past was ok. But I THOUGHT I heard the band playing at a different pace. Then I began to screw-up. I desperately tried to adjust to the pace, with my arms bent (I'm not supposed to bend my arms) I screwed up totally, causing the people behind me to screw-up too.

I remembered hearing the laughter and jeering from the rest of the school. Sigh. I felt really really bad.

Just hope that I won't screw up for future parades. It's a really bad experience. But it teaches me to remain steady in criticial situations, and to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, AND PRACTICE.

Cheers (ironic)
Zhu Cheng