Formula 1 in Singapore

Last week a good friend of mine sent me an invite to see the Formula 1 in Singapore. Great, a chance to go and see what it is all about. The whole downtown area is cordoned off for the seating and for the actual race roads, so getting in wasn’t easy. I took a train to the nearest train station from where I was and walked to my gate. After getting lost twice, I finally found my way in. They’ve build a temporary mini-city that could house a thousand people down there, and they’ve asphalted over the grassy areas next to the water to make it easy for a million people to trudge back and forth. I got there and the cars were already whizzing around the track making a high pitch blasting sound as they went. Got to the stand and found him and we tried to make small talk for a while, but it was a bit difficult to make conversation. I filmed cars whizzing around and spent the next few minutes trying to take a picture with a car in it. Got a few. After a while, we went off to get beers. Got a few, then headed back. A colleague of my friend’s invited us into the VIP booth and we went in and had some yummy food, some more beer, some champagne, and watched the cars whiz and whiz and whiz and whiz and whiz. We were across the road from the pit, so we could occasionally hear cars come in to get service, sounding a lot like single prop planes or hoverfoils or something like that (but not normal cars). They’d blast out of there and get back into the race, and off they’d go. Amazing. I still don’t understand what I saw, but it was fun nonetheless. Friday was the test day, Saturday was the qualifying, and Sunday was the finals. I wonder who won.

The rest of the weekend was anticlimactic. I spent Saturday sick, and doing a bit of work. Sunday I did a bit more work and we watched The Bourne Identity. Not a bad flick. Zen was also sick so he didn’t go to Japanese lessons, softball or swimming, but he did go to a party on Saturday night with Naoko while I stayed home and slept.

The Formula 1 track by the pit area. Very loud!!!
the Formula 1 track

That red blur is a car going by.
the blur of a car going by

Me giving it a try on the track after it shut down.
me giving it a try

The sights. The sounds. Just not the smells…

And now… the more accessible, family version of the Singapore F1

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