NUS Rag Day 09/10

August usually means Singapore for me and when I am down there this time of the year, I usually get to catch the very colourful NUS Rag Day celebrations. I am continuously in awe of how amazing all these floats turn out to be! The dances, the costumes and the minute details on their floats, simply brilliant.

The NUS Rag Day should be a freaking tourist attraction!

Sadly, this would be my last time witnessing the grand parade. Chee Kiang is now in his fourth year of pharmacy at NUS and will be graduating next year, just two months earlier than me. It is through him that I get snippets of how fun it is to live in Sheares Hall, all those games and strange posters everywhere and drinking sessions up on the balcony, looking out into the harbour… good times. 🙂 So fun right.

At least this time I get to have him with me! Unlike my first Rag Day back in 2007 when he was still a gung ho junior who was totally consumed with Rag duties.

I think this was the Medicine faculty! Heard some comments going around about how Medicine is much better this year. It’s usually the halls who will really wow the crowds and faculties usually come up with so-so floats due to lack of manpower. Plenty of juniors to enslave from hall.

The theme was corpse bride hence the coffins.

It’s kind of hot to see medicine boys dance. Like it’s brains and sexy moves… mmm. *licks lips* And white make-up does it for me.

Medicine girls were pretty good too!

Then some green goblins came in. I started to lose the plot at this point.

But just like every other rag performance, the acrobatics is something to watch out for.

I wonder how long they took to paint their entire body! Another very fun aspect of Rag is the entire get-up of the performers. They come in all colours and designs!

They even spin each other.

Oops chao kong.

The end! (of Medicine’s performance).

Check out the guy on the far left. DAMN RIPPLED RIGHT! 0_0 Some more so much of testerone like that, raging manliness and all.

Hmm.. for a bunch of engineers, they could have done far better than all the other students there. Like do something to make us talk about for years! Most of the other floats had one mechanical contraption or another going on. The theme was Saturday Night Fever, with songs from Grease, High School Musical, Hairspray and I think Enchanted. It reminds me of boxes my standard 3 teacher asked me to bring to school and wrap with coloured paper to make a ‘city’.

More effort could have been placed in the guys’ costumes. I mean I know it is Saturday Night Fever and all that, but if I was the designer, I’d be all disco balls and sparklier pants! Love the colour combo though. The idea is there! Hahhaa.. don’t mind me, I’m not trying to sound like some Rag expert, but I’m just giving my two cents.

The girls’ costumes were alright.

Notice the heart on the cupid’s chest? I like it coz it looks like a wound or a sunburn.

I can’t remember now but from the pictures, their dance moves seem pretty synchronized. So props for that! 😀

Hahaha.. this is so typical of dental students. Anytime we are allowed to get our hands on some paint and craft stuff, we start infusing dental elements into every piece of artwork.

The faculty of dentistry chose a pirate theme. So did the Law school. And a few other halls were doing something along the same lines. Plenty of the floats had something to with the sea, above and below.

Possibly a future colleague.

My favourite bit was the jellyfish! So pretty right?

For a small school, I thought their effort was pretty good. Maybe it’s dental student biasness, but it’s pretty good effort for a team of less than 50 people. At least that’s what they mentioned in their introduction. IMHO like quite bitter about their manpower like that. 😛

HAHAHHAA Starfish could possibly be my colleague too. Hello Starfish!

Chee Kiang was keeping track of all the Nemos on that day and Eusoff had the best Nemo, apparently.

Turtles! And the funniest creature present has GOT to be that crab at the back. LOL. It’s two people in a costume and their heads are the eyes. DAMN CUTE LAH. Go Dentistry!! Woohoo!

One of the great things about having an underwater theme as I had observed that day is the freedom to just go mad with colours on your face. All the performers were wonderfully made-up with colours and glitters. So up my alley!

LOL Another very typical dental student trait. -_-

Okay lah, so so for costumes. Good effort, better than Engine at least. But when you see Eusoff’ Halls costumes, you’ll be like “Wtf, those people should be doing it for a living.” I think they won best float.

Yay for dentistry! See the little tooth on the flag behind.

I think they were the ones who used the most fire extinguisher for their float.

Team spirit is very much a part of Rag Day. Deafening cheers can be heard from all corners of the venue.

They had plans for those balloons!

What an adorable play of words! Sea Beh as in sibeh sian. There was another cardboard boat with the phrase, “Sea Mee” You decipher that yourself. I’m not too familiar with Hokkien.

I noticed one thing too though. Some of the cheers were in Hokkien… I thought that would sort of ostracize non-Hokkien speakers and also non-Singaporeans. Malays and Indians included as well.

Ladders are carried around for the cheer leaders to do their thang. You can see them going all out super semangat one. Very entertaining.

This year, the NUS Flag Day manage to generate over SGD400,000+++ and the funds were distributed to various organizations. To show their thanks, the recipients sent reps over to showcase a few heartwarming performances.

I thought these kids did a pretty good rendition of “Good Morning Baltimore” which they changed to “I Love You Singapore.”

Kena cheated .. but very good drum-syncing going on there.

Okay, okay! Halls’ floats starting! *excited*

This was Temasek Hall’s performance. It had something to do with a scientist going back in time and meeting some ancient civilization. It was a performance to look out for because I was told that year in, year out, Temasek is known for their skimpy costumes, delighting boys all over the campus.

The cauldron is damn cute. There’s someone inside there, who was holding on to a string, which was attached to an orange cloth, that was placed on the ‘logs’. So when he tugs the string a few times, the orange cloth dances like a flickering flame.

See the details on the time machine!

Strange dance moves from the scientists.

What a happy scientist!

And then he went back in time. I also lost the plot somewhere here.

Nevermind, just look at the girls dance.

Chee Kiang and I were barely grasping the storyline at this point. Were they trying to eat the scientist?

These girls can still have a big smile on their faces as their falling down. I’ll have a super worried look on if it was me.

This part looks quite organized!

Prepare for some crazy shit from King Edward VII Hall! Look at the friggin’ whale la!
This side prop was spinning on its axis!

Would you look at the colours on that whale? I was told that most of it is made from corrugated cardboard. Amazing. Simply amazing..

Look at the colours and the details?!?!

And the tail freaking moves okay??!!?!?! Perhaps one of the best floats I’ve ever seen. But back in 2007 there was a Buddhism inspired float, with a gold Buddha with movable hands.

Fishes dancing. They made the costumes themselves too! Purple leggings, green leggings.. i love the colours so much.

And the body paint is awesome too.

The girl in the middle looks like Linda Chung, don’t you think?

*foams from mouth* This was the best dance number on that day. Hands down.

The colour combo is top notch, the bandana is a clever touch and the vest, gosh. I really can’t get over the make-up. It’s too good already. Disney can hire them to be kelefehs for the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Check them out up close!

I overheard some boy near me saying that the main dancer is the dancing king of KE7 Hall.

And as if their float is not great enough, the flaps on the whale lift up to reveal cannons that actually shoot out. It’s just the effect cleverly positioned fire extinguishers but still damn awesome la!

The only thing that I didn’t like from this float was the mermaid’s costume. What’s with those shells just plastered on the boobs? You guys were already astounding! Just go all the way and alter some bikinis and really make it shell bikinis! The Sticker Monster doesn’t approve of Shell Boob Stickers!

Body paint don’t survive sweaty armpits. Still very cool though!

I nearly choked on my drink when I Saw the skeletons dancing on top of the whale. It can actually support their weight.

The captain damn strong.

Beautiful colours. I love love love the skeleton’s blue vest so much.

Sheares Hall!! For them, their performers pretty much more than made up for the deficiency of their float and props. The clowns were a beautiful touch to the ensemble! Chee Kiang, or was it Jon or Karthik who told me that Sheares is known for their cute cute costumes. Love the big bow!

What a happy clown!

The theme was something about Thomas Edison and a theme park. Everything was light bulb themed. There was a lot of potential with the ideas they had and the obvious talents. Only problem would be the scale of one prop to another. The ferris wheel was just as tall as the carousel! The moving carousel saved the entire float. Later that night, Chee Kiang and I saw some girls giggling while sitting on the horses and having a good time camwhoring. 🙂

Hahaha the guy in green is too adorable.

Something from Thomas Edison’s era. The costumes are simply gorgeous! Props to the costume designer! Not easy to source such outfits or even make them!

Nice, I like. Got the right attitude going on there!

See the mini Ferris wheel or not?

Sheares Hall had the best acrobatic performances!

Like damn light like that.

And then the people of Sheares released their helium balloons.

Raffles Hall! There was some technical glitch as they began. Pity, it was a really nice upbeat they were dancing to. The nice organizers allowed them to have another go. I totally blurred from the beginning. I didn’t get the float at all but all I know is that the costumes are classy and eccentric. Sexy, in fact.

Another Angel. *blur*

I think the Angel was a leader, he was briefing them after the technical glitch.

Oozing maximum gaya!

Even the Angel is cooler than the first Angel. This one is more ‘fallen angel’ type. Oh wait, the other one was a cupid. Different, different.

CONFUSED!

This is really nice. If only I knew what was going on. Or maybe I forgot and didn’t hear the emcee give the introduction. But those are some mad skills there.

More balloons. Would be nice if they had more!

These are a few of my favourite things~~~!

Just admire the body paint okay!

More costumes for your visual pleasure.

Kent Ridge Hall’s residences bringing out their super elaborate float! A tea party!

Honestly, I can’t remember which float belongs to which float so I had to google the halls’ names and check out the photos. I came across this blog about a couple bringing their kids to watch the parade. The couple stayed at Kent Ridge when they were studying at NUS. In a way it’s quite heart warming. 🙂 I wish Chee Kiang and I can do that too one day. 🙂

I kind of regret not going nearer to check out the floats. Looking at it from a distance is probably not good enough.

Ants carrying sugar! Damn cute right. 🙂

I love the silver body paint too. It makes them look like real performers.

Wonder what were the backsides made of? A pillow?

Pixies? Lost the plot again.

Posing pixies!

I simply adore the Hansel and Gretel-esque costumes! And the make up is damn cute lah. Very doll like!

More of the cute costumes!

It’s like they have rubber backs or something.

All the colours just go so well together!

Can you see the cup in the background? The blue cloth is ‘water’ and it actually ‘flows’ from cup to cup. The same cloth gets pulled from cup to cup!

Candy!! Damn cute.

When they took this out I was enthralled by the blueness of it all but mostly it’s from the glitter particles on the blue cloth. Can you see it?

This is the magnificient Eusoff Hall’s float. Instead of corrugated cardboard, they used some kind of sponge to create the float.

So the blue cloth is used to simulate waves.

A bunch of scuba divers opened their performance. I thought this was different! I mean most of them are in elaborate costumes and these are just..scuba divers.

And they were super funny at that!

Their expressions are so cute! I didn’t know Scuba divers can be sexy! My next costume for Chee Kiang to wear!

Check out the ‘fishes’. Instead of copying exactly the anatomy of a fish, the extremely talented costume designer took elements from various fishes and made the outfit. I don’t know if they actually made it or rented it, but this is some mind blowing costume they got there.

Caught fishes?

Jelly fish and Swordfish!

The octopus is damn cute! The big fish and octopus are made from sponge and cardboard which is why it was quite light.

They even thought of this. They totally deserved the winner’s title.

A school of swordfishes.

Seahorses i think?

I just love the colours in this one!

You see the yellow fins? Those were made from straighened out clothes hanger. And they moooove.

Pretty waves!

Sort of reminds me of a chinese dance though. But another very beautiful and elaborate costume.

I think the yellow sea horse in the middle is super cute. Look at the way she smiles!

Happy jelly fish / mermaid?

Happy winners!

The view from the bus stop. We didn’t want to stay on after the halls finished performing.

🙂