MEL

Was at the National Stadium Tribute cum Closing on the 30th of June to bid it farewell. Kind of mixed feelings…

On one hand was sad to let this Old Dame who had served us so well in the past 3 to 4 decades go. It had held so many memories, good and bad. This was the place I had kind of grown up with, from the Malaysian Cup days where there were uncles going around carrying baskets and shouting, "Drinks, keropok, curry puff!" and buying things from them at reasonable prices till now where they just stay in their stores and charge exhorbitant prices. For the record, on that day curry puffs, which usually went for $1 only a year ago, were selling at $2.50 each! And the auntie had the cheek to tell me rather curtly, "No chilli lah!" even though she was charging such a high price!

This was also the place where I had watched my solitary experience of the National Day Preview eons ago;
where I had been there to catch the S League opening ceremony;
where I had been involved in the NPCC Marching Contingent in one of the SYF parades (including the many gruelling rehearsals);
where we had been providing medical cover for the Army Half Marathon during my NS days;
where I had caught those Tiger/ASEAN Cup games, from those first round matches when the away team was better represented in the number of supporters than our own team to the finals where I witnessed Indra Shahdan scored that goal against Indonesia to seal the Tiger Cup or that sardine-packed terrace which cheered the team on to the penalty-kick win against Malaysia in the semis;
where I had watched that famous 2-0 win against Iraq;
where I had caught those invitational teams in action, like Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspurs, Man United etc;
where i was there cheering my school on in the track and Field meets;
where I had seen true die-hard fans and fair-weathered "fans" alike
and the list goes on…

Of course there were not so happy memories as well like that infamous 4-0 thrashing…

However, sad as I was that it was going to be torn down in a few months, there was also some consolation that it was goping to be rebuilt with a new and hopefully better design. No more dirty toilets, creaky and soggy-when-wet wooden benches and, last i heard, it was going to have a roof! No more watching games in the rain! Well that is progress in our little nation for you. The merciless pushing aside of all things old no matter how much it meant to us, all in the name of progress. However we have to accept, I guess, that this is actually the best way forward because we have got very little resources so we have to make sure whatever we have are all very efficiently used. Those with small homes like me could probably understand that we have to get rid of old things which don’t work as well anymore so that there is space for new and better ones which come with better functions etc. We do not have the luxury of space to leave the old one there in its past glory and having the space to accomodate the new as well.

Oh wells this is getting kind of soppy and incoherent. I shall let my pictures say thousands of words. After all, in a few months these shall be all we have of the National Stadium in its past glory. Check them out in my photo albums!