This is truly one day where I completely felt patriotic, especially when we all sang the Majulah Singapura, recite the national pledge and goosebumps instantaneously stood up when the kiddos sang along to a familiar national day song. Plus the fact that I do get a holiday - two days to be exact - for this special occasion.

Many people will no doubt have many misgivings and complaints about this sunny island. Firstly, what is with the fuss of the pronunciation of 'Espla-nard' and 'Espla -nade'? Or about the white elephant LRT station Buangkok, conveniently located near the IMH? Or about the increase in GST? Or the increasing power of netizens declaring their stands and takes on matters of the nation? Or (okie, this one really gets to me) the tagline for our dear Tourism Board's promotion for the nation titled 'Uniquely Singapore'? Shouldn't it be "Uniquely SingaporEAN'? Or if you insist, 'Unique Singapore' and drop the 'ly' at the end. What happened to the 4 master teachers who evade our papers every weekend to complain about falling standards of English and the common errors we Singaporeans make daily? Shouldn't they stand up to say something about such a glaring mistake?

However, whenever I consider the relatively clean and non-potholed roads we have, the natural shelter from sunny weather planted almost every two three steps apart along the roads, the regular workers in neon vests digging or resurfacing roads which I remember to have perfectly no problems, free tissue packets given as advertisement flyers, free music from buskers awaiting you as you waltz into the train stations, free newspapers to entertain you on your almost seamless train rides, people scrambling for National Day tickets and even offering high bids for them, donating a few coins in exchange for a sticker to avoid pesky flag students...the list goes on, I thank God for this little red dot where we really have been immensely blessed.

Yes, I belong to the group of people who feel the fireworks is the best and only worthy item of the entire parade. That tearing down the National Stadium is really a sad but inevitable end - who can forget the ammonia scented walkways in the labyrinth of steps and stairs? That the older national day songs like Stand Up for Singapore, We are Singapore etc are still the best songs ever composed to stir up national pride. I wouldn't want to be in another place, though I have not seen much of the world out there but enough for me to feel at home right here.

Hmm..on second thoughts, if only we start to pay teachers more since it is the most overworked and underpaid profession around, and start appreciating and showing them respect. Now that will be really ho seh!