Day 2
The day began with a mild sense of excitement. The President of Singapore was to arrive at the show to take part in the Opening Ceremony. His arrival was preceded by a troop of hand drummers in ceremonial dress before the President accompanied by his Minister, Mr Tay (President of the FIAP) and Mr Tan among others. Click here to view the video. A traditional dance was performed on stage, before the light hearted and slightly cheesy official opening. Each VIP placed “stamps” on to the envelope printed on the back wall before the President cancelled the stamps with an explosion of confetti. I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched on. His walk around the show concluded with a visit to the Court of Honour but unfortunately the mass of people around him didn’t direct him our way.
Excitement over, the day was indeed busier than the day before. I’m not sure what was going on in the stage area, but lots of screaming children and bagpipes was an unusual concoction on the ears… More VIPs were out in force with several turning up to our launch of Pradip Jain’s book about the 1948 Gandhi issue which we were pleased to edit and publish. Nothing as fancy as Spink’s launch of a banknote book later that day but our more intimate scenario was well received. The day dragged on somewhat and my feet were aching by the time the show closed at 8pm.