National Day

We won't be in Singapore for this year's National Day, which is a shame really, as it's a big event. I've mentioned before in the blog how much I think Singapore punches above its weight, and it's a fiercely proud nation/city/island/country - take your pick. This pride is much in evidence on National Day, and the effort that goes into rehearsal. National Day is celebrated on 9th August, the date Singapore gained its independence from Malaysia in 1965.

The National Day Parade is the grandest national event in Singapore. The celebrations finish with an amazing firework display and feature all sorts of exhibitions, including Singapore's equivalent of the Red Arrows, who practice their stuff for months in advance of the parade - mostly outside the windows of our apartment block it would appear.

For those of you who are regular readers, here are some facts about Singapore:

Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.

Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world.

The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent.

The largest fountain in the world is located in Singapore at Suntec City. It cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997 (and it is very ugly, by the way!).

In 2003, Singapore's Changi Airport won the award for "Best Airport Worldwide" for the 16th consecutive year from the UK/Europe edition of the Business Traveller magazine.

The record for the biggest ever game of pass-the-parcel was set in Singapore on 28 February 1998. It involved 3,918 students removing 2,200 wrappers from a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 m parcel.

British pop violinist Vanessa Mae Nicholson was born in Singapore and moved to England when she was four.

The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.

8 in 10 people in Singapore own cell phones. In fact, telecom companies issue new numbers at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 per month.

Singapore's best showing in the Olympic Games ever was a silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in Rome in 1960. Maybe they will have better luck in Beijing!