F1 - Out Of This World! (Part 2)

The Party

The first thing I did when I got into the suite was to break into a song and help paint the town red!
It was a hot day. A hot day was better than a rainy one. We needed some beer to quench our thirst. Here's the Tycoon and the Guru. Cheers all the way!


The Guru, the Chief - Dr. Lee and  the Drunken Master Adrian (he master the drunken).


Announcing the arrival of...the Towkay.
Awaiting for the action to start at the balcony where you can soak in all the atmosphere, smell the burnt tyres and hear the incredible decibels of noise from the eager roar of the engines.
These are what may help a little. Use the smaller ones and if not enough then the biggies or both. One thing is for sure, you won't need to dig your ears for a month or two as an internal avalanche would have taken place.


The Porsche race got started. It isn't easy using a normal camera or handheld phone camera to take a shot of the car race. I treated it like a computer game anticipating from when the car was advancing and estimating when it would get to the camera position and then hitting the shutter. It was a one-in three shot meaning you may get one out of three attempts and some times two. So "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad". Here's Meatloaf.

The VIPs came.


 The vintage cars were lining up.
The race drivers joined the parade.
The view of the Flyer as the sun sets painting a lovely silhouette.
Bernie Ecclestone came on.
So did Sir Richard Branson.

The racers getting ready. I've recorded a short video just to get the sound and the speed at the flag off but am not sure if I could use it here. 

It was fast and furious at blinding speed! I feel race car drivers deserved to be paid better than footballers.
It was spectacular!!!

I took a break and found that a certain bank provides river cruise for their guests.
The Fireworks

Just as the race ended, the fireworks took off and penetrated the lovely night sky.
A kaleidoscope unfolded.
There is something about fireworks that intrigued us without fail, young or old - all the time.
It is all about celebration and merriment. Well, I'm in the Merrytime industry. T'was a good fit.
This was an event that did not involved your taxes or you'll be terrified to see you taxes going up in smoke.
It was beautiful.
Slowing down and tapering off.
There was a few more bursts left.
Up went these streakers screaming to reach a final flourish.

The indefatigable man with boundless energy - Richard.
Loads of people went down to walk the circuit after the race was over to probably touch the tarmac, smell the air.....

or collect souvenirs and mementos like tyre bits or car parts. True F1 fans.

In the meantime, the party continues.....
It is not everywhere and often that folks downed champagne by bottoming up. One after another.

As some of us were leaving, we were greeted by hordes of students who came as ushers and they were raising their hands on both sides of the aisle screaming and cheering. By this hour, I too was in high spirit and I raised both hands and hi-five them all the way like a real hero and a future president.
There was a good performance going on. I wished it were Linking Park but they were at the Padang. I reckoned it would take me a very long time to walk a short distance there and I was right as 50,000 people were at the Linkin Park concert that night. They are one of my favourite modern rock bands. I was already getting numb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYiU_JCYtU (Numb). 

I needed somewhere to belong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsCD5XCu6CM (Somewhere I Belong) or is it a new divide?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysSxxIqKNN0 (New Divide)

So what have I done? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ (What I've Done)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTXPUF4Oz4 (In The End)

In the end, I took a train and then got a bus home. It was a good bus ride with few people on it. The air-conditioning was strong and I felt good, away from the sweltering heat and humidity.













It was a great F1! Probably the best in the world! Those who've been to other circuits told me that. Mark your calendar, come to the F1 and leave out all the rest during this time in September.


It was out of this world! You should try it at least once. It took my breath away.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEOem7U2LPE (Berlin)

Once again, I give credit to Singapore GP and F1 for bringing the event here.

 Special thanks to Dr. Lee, Neilson and Jeanna!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more