Weekend Roundup
Had a seriously great weekend which kickstarted with a half day on Friday. I spent the afternoon packing for my overnight crop at MWL and then headed on down to PS where I left my car in the carpark, my scrap stuff in the scrap lab, and took myself off to the first practice session at the Marina Bay circuit.
P1 had started by time I got there, and there was this rather hilarious interlude with a bunch of French chaps on the way there, but that's a story for another time. Located our seats, which I discovered to be 5th row of the grandstand and almost at the corner where the cars turn under the grandstand, and marvelled at how great these seats were in comparison to the year before. Sat and watched P1 (all alone! sob sob, with hubby still in Korea) and one thing I noticed right off was that the Maclaren engine sounded much smoother in the braking corner compared to the other car engines. It purred, the rest sputtered. And I'm no Maclaren fan....
Scooted off to PS after P1 ended and met up with my crop buddies. The overnight crop at MWL was a blast! I can't believe that I went without a single wink of sleep and was still awake enough at 6am to answer questions on a F1 pop quiz! It felt good to be able to get so much scrapping done at one time, and for once I'd had so much planned to do that I even at times felt just a little bit irritated at the interruptions caused by the shopping specials... yes, me!
Went with a couple of friends for a quick brekkie in Macs the next morning before heading home to send Natalie to ballet class. Brought my computer to her ballet class and so could surf through it, and then it was home again where I got into bed and zonked out till about 2pm in the afternoon. After that, hubby came back and I just couldn't get to sleep again so I lounged about till it was time to get back to the circuit.
We were kinda late for P3 and only got into the park when it'd already started. Hubby wanted to get the Kangaroo TV and so we meandered our way through the Padang area and by time we'd rented the unit and checked out the action on the Esplanade bridge, P3 was close to an end. So we didn't bother heading to our grandstand but quickly popped into one of the Jap restaurants at the Esplanade instead. Turned out to be a good move as the crowd came streaming in shortly after. Had a yummy meal and only then did we head on over to our grandstand.
Qualifying was not an absolute disaster, but it came close. Kimi stunned hubby and I both with a couple of fantastic laps in Q1 and Q2, but we were sad that he got relegated after Q2. The Kangaroo TV turned out to be a great investment, even though the rental was a tad pricey at 75euros for 2 days! But it was well worth it with all the stats, and team radio updates and views from the cars... Essentially all the feeds that the commentators get I think when they sit where they are...
Headed home after that for some really good shuteye and slept about 10 hours straight... pretty decent considering the fact I'd had no sleep the night before at all....
As for Sunday, we sent Chris to piano class and then put him together with our helper and Natalie into a taxi for home before going on to the race track again. Stopped to buy dinner on our way into the park and then went on over to our grandstand in plenty of time to see the drivers parade. Got some really great shots!
The race itself was rather boring... save for some exciting parts where there were incidents and the safety car unleashed. My heart went out to Vettel when he was served with his drive through penalty, and despite all our fervent wishes for more excitement involving a certain car at the head of the pack, alas it was not to be and the race ended, well, with the one driver I dislike the most on the top step of the podium. Sigh.
A few interesting things I noticed tonight -- firstly, after last night's qualifying result, all the Maclaren fans came crawling out of the woodwork. They were everywhere tonight in their awful neon Vodafone Maclaren orange t-shirts!! Secondly, a good number of the Ferrari fans left when it became clear on the last lap that miracles, though fervently prayed for, were not about to happen. Ferrari just had no pace at all this weekend. Sad, but true. All I can say is that they'd better have a better car in 2010 to show for all their efforts -- they've basically made the decision to cut their losses and forfeit a disastrous season, and have therefore stopped all development on the F60 in favour of next year's car. Tough on Kimi, though, having to drive out this season knowing that there might not be a seat for him in next year's lineup, and at the same time having to perform his best (so that he can get a drive with some other team next year if push comes to shove) in a serioualy shitty car.
Ah well, there's always next year. Perhaps it will rain!
P1 had started by time I got there, and there was this rather hilarious interlude with a bunch of French chaps on the way there, but that's a story for another time. Located our seats, which I discovered to be 5th row of the grandstand and almost at the corner where the cars turn under the grandstand, and marvelled at how great these seats were in comparison to the year before. Sat and watched P1 (all alone! sob sob, with hubby still in Korea) and one thing I noticed right off was that the Maclaren engine sounded much smoother in the braking corner compared to the other car engines. It purred, the rest sputtered. And I'm no Maclaren fan....
Scooted off to PS after P1 ended and met up with my crop buddies. The overnight crop at MWL was a blast! I can't believe that I went without a single wink of sleep and was still awake enough at 6am to answer questions on a F1 pop quiz! It felt good to be able to get so much scrapping done at one time, and for once I'd had so much planned to do that I even at times felt just a little bit irritated at the interruptions caused by the shopping specials... yes, me!
Went with a couple of friends for a quick brekkie in Macs the next morning before heading home to send Natalie to ballet class. Brought my computer to her ballet class and so could surf through it, and then it was home again where I got into bed and zonked out till about 2pm in the afternoon. After that, hubby came back and I just couldn't get to sleep again so I lounged about till it was time to get back to the circuit.
We were kinda late for P3 and only got into the park when it'd already started. Hubby wanted to get the Kangaroo TV and so we meandered our way through the Padang area and by time we'd rented the unit and checked out the action on the Esplanade bridge, P3 was close to an end. So we didn't bother heading to our grandstand but quickly popped into one of the Jap restaurants at the Esplanade instead. Turned out to be a good move as the crowd came streaming in shortly after. Had a yummy meal and only then did we head on over to our grandstand.
Qualifying was not an absolute disaster, but it came close. Kimi stunned hubby and I both with a couple of fantastic laps in Q1 and Q2, but we were sad that he got relegated after Q2. The Kangaroo TV turned out to be a great investment, even though the rental was a tad pricey at 75euros for 2 days! But it was well worth it with all the stats, and team radio updates and views from the cars... Essentially all the feeds that the commentators get I think when they sit where they are...
Headed home after that for some really good shuteye and slept about 10 hours straight... pretty decent considering the fact I'd had no sleep the night before at all....
As for Sunday, we sent Chris to piano class and then put him together with our helper and Natalie into a taxi for home before going on to the race track again. Stopped to buy dinner on our way into the park and then went on over to our grandstand in plenty of time to see the drivers parade. Got some really great shots!
The race itself was rather boring... save for some exciting parts where there were incidents and the safety car unleashed. My heart went out to Vettel when he was served with his drive through penalty, and despite all our fervent wishes for more excitement involving a certain car at the head of the pack, alas it was not to be and the race ended, well, with the one driver I dislike the most on the top step of the podium. Sigh.
A few interesting things I noticed tonight -- firstly, after last night's qualifying result, all the Maclaren fans came crawling out of the woodwork. They were everywhere tonight in their awful neon Vodafone Maclaren orange t-shirts!! Secondly, a good number of the Ferrari fans left when it became clear on the last lap that miracles, though fervently prayed for, were not about to happen. Ferrari just had no pace at all this weekend. Sad, but true. All I can say is that they'd better have a better car in 2010 to show for all their efforts -- they've basically made the decision to cut their losses and forfeit a disastrous season, and have therefore stopped all development on the F60 in favour of next year's car. Tough on Kimi, though, having to drive out this season knowing that there might not be a seat for him in next year's lineup, and at the same time having to perform his best (so that he can get a drive with some other team next year if push comes to shove) in a serioualy shitty car.
Ah well, there's always next year. Perhaps it will rain!