Blackout Drill!

Its been ages since I've done guard duty (HAHAHA YESSS ORD LO!!!)
but I still remember the infamous blackout drill.

Anyway, I'm referring to the 1 hour blackout all over the world to celebrate (?) Earth Hour, in case it wasn't already supremely obvious.

So while the world poised their fingers on their light switches, I was milling about Esplanade Park where Alpha Biofuels had their booth, fooling around and generally not making myself very useful except to entertain some foreign kids with McD french fries. And a particularly shy Spiderman-bag carrying kid (boss's nephew). What were we doing there? The generator was running on Biodiesel of course!

Oh, and filling my stomach with free Old Chang Kee, Coke Zero and Starbucks (diluted) coffee. Like a particularly greedy person said, our booth was in a very nice position (next to Starbucks).

It was a rather small scale event, with a few booths (including some no-link brands like POLAR and Chipster) and a small stage. There was a surprising large crowd at the event, though the proportion of foreigners was high. It says a lot about their environmental consciousness. Like one of them mentioned, "We have Biodiesel in Europe too!". Nothing much happened before lights out except a few cultural performances. I can understand the percussion troupe using recycled bins, but a lion dance?!? Maybe the lion was made up of recycled newspapers or something =x

I met up with XJ for dinner just in time to catch the lights out at Marina Square foodcourt. It wasn't very concerted, but visually stunning all the same. First went Maybank and their nice decorative strips of light. Then slowly the tall office buildings in the CBD turned off their lights, followed by the Esplanade's twin domes. Even the Fullerton and Merlion went dark. The only cold water pourers were the IR constructions sites. Their spotlights totally spoilt the whole scene. Once the blackout was completed, the party started, with bands taking to the stage (yes, in darkness!) and picnickers lighting up their candles.

So for that 1 hour, it was just about sitting on the grass, listening to music, staring at the relatively dark cityline, enjoying the light of the candles, the company of friends and contemplating our impact on the environment. Ok the last point was probably the last thing on everyone's mind, but still I'm sure the message got across.

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In retrospect I think the candle burning probably released more CO2 than leaving the lights on, but what the heck.

At least it wasn't about 1 hour of non-stop lights ablazing, amplifiers blasting, all-over-the-world rock concerts.