Duck Race 07

TOUCH Community Services was one of the beneficiaries of the SCS Duck Race 2007, held last Sunday 9 September 07. As such, some of our volunteers from TOUCH Seniors were down at the Singapore River on that fine Sunday afternoon to help out in manning a booth that TOUCH had set up.

Well, not really afternoon, we came down at 10am in the morning, and our dear lau ban niang was slightly tardy so we had a short morning jog from the MRT station to Singapore River. :-) At the river, the TOUCH volunteers briefed us on what they needed us to do that day. Basically, aside from the race that gives this event its name, there would be stage performances, photo-taking with the giant balloon duck, and funfair booths along the river, giving the whole event a carnival feeling while we waited for the race. TOUCH's booth was a games booth; for a token fee of $2, customers would try to win prizes by shooting down toy soldiers with a rubber-band gun. The guns were well-crafted wooden toy guns, capable of shooting rubber bands over quite long distances, but what impressed me most is that they were made by one of the elderly residents at the TOUCH center. I mean, I can't even tie a knot properly, and he can carve out a whole gun out of wood! I felt so 惭愧! (That's ashamed for our non-Chinese friends:-p)

So anyway, we manned the booth from 10am to 2pm, with occasional breaks in between to take photos with the giant duck, watch couples go and come, take more photos, play our booth games, have lunch, and look for helium balloons. Hmm, I think I'm quite blind, so many people were going around carrying balloons, but I couldn't find where the balloons were appearing from! I never got a balloon throughout the entire thing! So irritating... We became very good at shooting the toy soldiers, and even Jasmine could hit her target once in a while. :p And I made a fool of myself shouting "Two dollars for 5 tries! Got try got win! Sure win something one!" But my repertoire of soliciting phrases ends there. Ya, I know, I'm not cut out to be a fish market stallholder...

At about 1pm, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived! The duck race is on! Or rather, as I found out to my chagrin, the race and been on for quite some time, and we were just waiting for the ducks to float downriver. We were very lucky, because the finishing point of the race was just in front of our booth. So everyone rushed forward to the riverside to see the sight of hundreds and thousands of yellow ducks being carried by the river towards us. We even managed to catch a picture of the leading duck! :-)

We left Singapore River at 2pm, when people came to take over manning the booth. We were quite tired, but we did have fun at the same time, and we did manage to accomplish something. Look out for the photos soon!