Watch out London

I thought about titling this post as Youth Olympics. But I think the truth is that if I did, all of those of you who read this outside of Singapore would think it was some sort of school thing.

It isn't. No. This is the latest idea of Jacques Rogge, the IOC president. He felt that the 14-18 year olds needed their own version of the Olympics. Two years ago two cities were interested in bidding, and Singapore beat off the challenge of Moscow. 


For me, the concept is slightly flawed in the first place if the aim is to show off the world's best sport talene. The sports fall into two categories, those where the peak is reached in the mid-twenties to early thirties (athletics, swimming, sailing etc) and those where the last 3 Olympics were won by people aged 12 and below (gymnastics). So, by having something for 14-18 year olds you either get sportsmen before or after their peak. That's beyond trying to squeeze another sporting event into a calendar that this year includes the World Cup and Commonwealth Games.


Nonetheless, Singapore put on an opening ceremony as extravagant as any (I daresay a little more extravagant than London's will be, and certainly a lot more slick and rehearsed). And so let the festival of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) start. Er no - not really. I mean that I've not been to any of the sports - but it is hardly the talk of the town. Frankly, it's more the WHY OG?


So, we don't get the great sport, we don't get the buzz. What do we get? Well - if I'm brutal, we get the nuisance. In South Africa they changed laws so that it became a criminal offence to wear anything with a logo bigger than an ant. So in other words - something that quite frankly ought to be no more than a civil offence rectifiable by damages. Over here, we have WhyOG lanes. In them, you have to give way to WhyOG vehicles. I've no idea what happens to you if you don't - but they do seem to be quite clear. (I hear London is doing something similar - who cares - none of you reading this drive in London).

Still - I will give the WhyOG a chance - probably by going and watching some sailing this weekend. I can do this from the beach, so the worst case scenario is a walk along the, er beach. I doubt that it will be as good as standing on the bank of the Cam during a Gale. I doubt that I will be able to hear the crack of splitting wood combined with the scream of anguish, and the flow of four letter words. Not that I suspect the children are too angelic - just too far away. 

(Actually, I note that over here, swearing doesn't quite happen so much.  And it tends to get a better reaction when you do swear)


Whilst I doubt that London's Olympics will be quite such an Own Goal as the Why OG have, I'm sure that they will be even more along the lines of... well Olympic lines, and laws.

Menu Tasting

So The Dodgess and I aren't exactly foodies. I remember once talking to a certain English cousin who, when I suggested that I'd splashed out and spent £60 for dinner she was staggered that I'd spent that for two of us - she had spent 50% more than that - per person. 

Once in a while however, we do make an effort in terms of dinner. I remember meals in Salisbury, and a hotel in South Wales the day after we got engaged. Another couple in the same class was a Thai restaurant in Lincoln, and our engagement party in Boston - that food was fabulous. In the past month I've had two such meals. (Incidently, I daresay at some point I will fill a post with the opposite - the most awful meals ever).

The first was my birtday meal - at a hotel on the Waterfront in Singapore. All the more surprising perhaps, because it was a buffet. But not any ordinary buffet. I think I had food from just about every country between England and Japan. And most of it the best that I've tasted. I also had things that I would never normally dream of - my starter consisted of clams, scallops, lobster, crab and oyster... not a bad little platter. Then a series of taster courses prepared pretty much in front of our eyes. To end was a sponge cake that had I breathed a little harder would have taken off.


And this evening, the Dodgess and I had our wedding banquet - or at least the tasting session for it. I have to say that I'd have been delighted with probably 7 of the 8 courses. We started with the chinese version of a cold cut platter, and ended with mango mousse, by way of pork noodles, chicken, garoupa, shark fin soup, sea cucumber, and scallops. At the end the chef came and talked things through with us. Apparently he knows that sometimes the garoupa isn't great - it comes from farmed rather than fresh stock. A couple of little changes to the menu, and all is good, I hope.


But the really really remarkable thing about most of these nights is, although I know that the food was awesome, I can't really remember the food in detail. The truth is, even on the two nights I've just eulogised about, the food has only been a side attraction.

National Day

In the past few days I've been asked quite often whether Britain had a National Day. And, somewhat awkwardly, I say not really. It's quite truthful - we don't really. I mean, we have Saint's Days for each country, which are sort of celebrated. And we have the Queen's official birthday celebrations - which has some form of national celebration in it. But none of them really make a proper Nation Day along the lines of Bastille Day, Independence Day, or Singapore's National Day.

Over here we are given the day off - always good. The main event is a military parade following by a show. This year, as a five year 1 off, they paraded their tanks and other military equipment as well.

The military parade is quite sweet - in addition to the Guards of Honour from the armed forces, the police, and even scouts and girl guides are involved, and culminates in a fly past of various planes and helicopters.

The show is probably best analogised to an opening ceremony at the Olympics - full of symbolism, this time for Singapore's flag. It is quite impressive - very colourful, very slick, all very impressive. I have a feeling that if we tried it in the UK, it would just look a bit twee.


25000 people get to watch the parade each year, and for those who didn't get tickets in the ballot, you can watch on tv. In fact, if you want to watch on tv, it's hard not watch it - it is shown in parallel on 4 different channels, with what I suspect is the same scripted commentary in each of the 4 main languages here.


Overall the whole thing is incredibly slick and impressive - they use the best Singapore has to offer - starting in sunshine (there are rumours that they seed the clouds) and then the sunsets to allow better colours and fireworks. It is located in the equivalent of the Mall - which also happens to be overlooked by Singapore's most impressive architecture.


Of course - this level of choreography does not happen without rehearsal. For the past 6 saturdays the road past work has been closed as it is the staging area. Apparently the rehearsals have even included the fireworks displays... Also - when I've not been struggling to get passed the road blocks at work, the fly past preparations have gone passed my flat. And not only have they been practicing for 6 weeks, but the whole country has hung flags. There must be tens of thousands that appear up to a month before. I can see about a dozen from my window.


As an outsider it would be very easy to sneer at this. Several would interpret the whole thing as propoganda. However, for someone whose country doesn't really have a complete National Day, it actually comes accross as a celebration of the country.

The largest Singaporean flag in the world - carried to town along East Coast Park.

The helicopter guard of honour gathering, also above East Coast Park