Day 3 - Singapore (first day of F1 action)

The title of Usher's recent hit sums up the afternoon and evening of entertainment - OMG!

This was the scene at around 3:30...more on that soon.

This gives you an idea of the day view from my stand. Starting off the action on track was Formula BMW - nowhere near as fast as an F1 car but still makes a pretty good noise! They'd only just finished their first practice session when...

Don't worry, I did stay completely dry - I was underneath the grandstand while this happened.

It didn't take long for a waterfall to form on the stairs!

Out onto a soaked track went the Porsche Carrera Cup cars. Rear engined, rear wheel drive - fiendishly difficult to handle in wet conditions I'd imagine!

Would you believe it - this was the scene about an hour after the "waterfall" picture. Incredible...

And then the moment we'd all been waiting for...F1 first practice. Here's Mark Webber coming into my corner. A 90 minute session on a drying track was intriguing. Oh yeah and did I tell you that this was the first time they'd ever driven around the circuit in the wet? A session from the motocross trials riders was followed by Formula BMW qualifying, where two drivers were forced to park their cars right in front of us.The first was some kind of mechanical issue, but the second was clearer...

Look on the right rear side and you'll see the rear wing is lower on that side - it's because he hit the wall coming out of the previous corner!

F1 second practice was the drivers' first hit-out under the full night sky. Fernando Alonso also fell victim to what was becoming a bit of a minefield right in front of us, but his problem was unusual.
When he came up to us, he missed his braking point and drove straight on into the escape road.

But I don't think the track wasn't wide enough to do a "flick spin" - basically that just means they gas up the rear tyres and turn the car around deliberately. So he engaged reverse (not as easy as it sounds), got back to a position where he could re-join the track and then...he stalled. Sounds embarrassing for a twice world champion, but the anti-stall mechanism on his car didn't work properly.

This sounds stupid, but the driver cannot start the engine - F1 cars are not equipped with a starter because it's unnecessary weight. The mechanics do that with a gadget back in the pits.

Vettel and Webber in the Red Bulls were flying. Up to his incident, Alonso was the only one really challenging them. Don't be surprised if Mark ends up on the front row, the main question being which side? Now I didn't get any clear pictures of the cars under lights, because it was a tricky scene to shoot.

However, I did discover my camera has a video option...




Look out - I could be the next Cameraman Joe!

Day 2 - Singapore (it's a 2 for 1 deal today)

Got an unexpected surprise on my way to the Singapore Flyer. Stumbling through one of the many malls along the way, I came across this...

  

I could've died a happy man right there on the spot. A Ferrari F1 car, probably a replica but I don't care! And then there was something else intriguing...

This tyre was the front right on Rubens Barrichello's car when he won the Valencia race last year. It would be worth thousands to a memorabilia collector - and no I'm not kidding. I saw a Jordan wheel (tyre not included) about 10 years ago going for a thousand dollars!

I can't remember exactly which corner this is but the view with Marina Bay Sands in the background is incredible - and trust me, the lights look bright because they are!

Then I passed through Harvey Norman - I wish I was kidding but it's true. I do have a photo but it's better if I don't post it, I'd like to forget that encounter if at all possible!

And now I'm on the Flyer - in the above shot you're looking at the back of pit lane. On the far right hand side, you can see the tyres laid out at Red Bull - there's also a press conference going on there. Well I'd say so but I can't be 100% sure!

The name of the game is to get to that checkered flag first, but as Murray Walker always used to say, "To finish first, first you have to finish". Nice touch with "Singapore" written on the ripple strip on the outside of the final corner too - no coincidence they've chosen red and white considering they're the colours on Singapore's flag.

I did see something interesting just after this shot, but I wasn't quick enough to shoot it. A Lotus crew member walking up pit lane wheeling along one of those "clicker" things that clicks every metre to measure how long the pit lane is. Why do that? So they know how long it will take a driver to enter pit lane, make a pit stop and then get back on track. Very important for strategy purposes. These guys will look for any advantage over their rivals, so this demonstrates "the lengths they'll go to!"

In this shot you can see the pit straight and the first few corners of the lap. Turns 1, 2 & 3 are hidden by the overpass. Incidentally, we drove across the big part of that yesterday on the way in from the airport. My driver told me that anybody loitering up there for a free view on race day wouldn't last long - the police will clear them off in no time flat! Turn 4 is at the bottom left of the shot.

As you can see, this is how high you get up there - I believe that's the Ritz Carlton Hotel (but I could be wrong!) The ride goes up 165 metres, and boy did I feel it...I have to a fair degree conquered my fear of heights, but this was a test!

We're overlooking the Marina in this shot. Right in the middle is the offshore stage they built which this weekend will be hosting freestyle motocross. Hope you land all those tricks guys or you'll need scuba gear! To the right of that is my grandstand. It doesn't show all that well how the track goes underneath it, but it does! And I'll be sitting right on top of that passageway...

And this is a bit of fun to finish off. I spotted this display underneath the Flyer - the Recycle Challenge. Local tertiary students were given the task of designing and building F1 car replicas using recycled materials or based on an environmentally-friendly theme. Very clever eh? Apparently the judging was done on Thursday, so I'll see if I can find out who won! I like the first one myself...

Better get to bed I think - it's now almost 1am on Friday, but the good news is I'm taking it easy in the morning. Off to the track at around 3pm for day 1 of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
The undoubted highlight will be 3 hours of Formula 1 practice.

Fingers crossed for some extra wings on Mark Webber's Red Bull!

Day 2 - Singapore

It's that time in the afternoon over here when the weather has built. We've had a bit of rain already...

I think it looks worse than it actually was!

Have you ever had noodles for breakfast? Well it was an option at the hotel's buffet so I basically said "Why the hell not?". Char kway teow is what it's called and if it's there tomorrow morning I'll have it again! Wikipedia it and you'll get a better explanation than what I can give.

Something I neglected to mention in yesterday's blog was that I had a pickup to do this morning...

Yep the race tickets - they're actual plastic cards and there's an individual one for each day (as you can no doubt see...) I just have to make sure I don't take the wrong day's pass with me each day!

After that, on the way back to the hotel I stopped at the 7-11 next door for my first taste of what groceries you can buy here. Apparently nearly all the dairy products that are consumed here come from Australia and New Zealand - one of the brands makes mention of "100% fresh, 100% Australian" in their advertising. All I can say is go you Aussie dairy farmers! Doing us proud on the world stage.

Prices of goods in the 7-11 were lower than in a convenience store in Australia, and when you add in the exchange rate of $1.15 Singapore for every Aussie dollar it makes things more affordable.

Take my next consumer experience as an example. "Wall Street 2", released only today in cinemas. I went and saw it for $8.50 in local money! It was a really good movie, as Molly Meldrum says "do yourself a favour" - go see it. Just make sure you watch the original flick first, otherwise the characters won't make complete sense. Some of the unanswered questions in the first one do get answered in the sequel, I can tell you that without spoiling the plot.

I had lunch at about 2:30 in one of the restaurants inside the shopping centre which houses the cinema I went to. Nothing remarkable about that, but the centre has something I haven't seen anywhere else. The food level is Level 4, so what did they build? An express travelator to go from the ground floor straight up to Level 4. Kind of the shopping centre equivalent of a freeway bypass I guess...

Read the part about the rain about the start so everything's in chronological sequence.

And now more dark clouds building. Fortunately I haven't got anything planned for another few hours until I head to the Singapore Flyer. I'll be taking my trusty sidekick Fuji Finepix along for the ride, so see tomorrow's post for a whole lot more photos than I've taken so far.

Quote of the day: "Money is a b***h who never sleeps, and if you don't keep an eye on her, then you wake up in the morning and she's gone." (I deliberately did that censoring because I'm not sure if they monitor these kinds of things over here - either way I'd rather not find out!)

Day 1 - Sydney to Singapore

I didn't post yesterday because I was still doing all those last minute things like packing my suitcase, making photocopies of all my documents etc. Didn't get to bed until 10:30...

Yikes it's been a long day!

Woke up at 3:30 this morning Aussie time for the drive down to Sydney Airport. Traffic's a whole lot easier when you drive through the Sydney Harbour Tunnel at 5am!

All went well at the airport, aside from having to pull my shoes off at Customs because they've got those metal clips on them. Perhaps I should've gone with my original plan of thongs...but after the walks through the terminals both here and in Sydney, I was glad I didn't.

Flight left on time, we did encounter some turbulence over western NSW & SA and then again over Java & Sumatra, but I have to say I've had much rougher rides when I've been driving.

The onboard GPS system was awesome! It doesn't feel fast on a jumbo jet...it certainly doesn't feel 900km/h! We were flying at 40,000 feet and what do you think the outside temperature is at that height? Give yourself a pat on the back if you said -55 degrees Celsius!

The reasonably new international terminal here in Singapore is massive. I said to the transfer bus driver that you could play cricket in there and he laughed...local authorities may not be amused if you decide to roll your arm over however!

Walk out the doors of the terminal and...ughhhhh. I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quickly but it is a shock to the system walking out into 32 degrees and humid.

Riding in on the main road from Changi Airport to my hotel in the city, there were a few things I noticed. Green and lush, that's pretty obvious! But they've planted masses of bougainvilleas in all sorts of colours. As my driver explained, it's a good first impression and a good last impression.

Also the cars here are quite new - not too many old ones driving around. It seems here you pay double in car tax if you have a car that's 10 years old or more.

And it would be remiss of me not to mention the weather again. Driving in you could see dark clouds over the city, but it hasn't really lived up to its potential so far...it is raining steadily but not heavily. I'm just glad we haven't had weather like over in Seoul the last day - 295mm according to CNN!

The road in from the airport takes you over the main straight of the F1 track. Looked like a bit of activity there in pit lane already, all the teams were there. That doesn't surprise me though, they like to get here a couple of days early and set everything up. Including the motorhomes...take a look at this photo I found on the net of McLaren's "Brand Centre". Keep in mind this is a temporary structure!

While I'm getting all photographic on you, this is the view I have of the city from my hotel room - nothing special, but hey I'm just over a block to Raffles. 20 odd bucks for a cocktail - no thanks!

Well it's raining a bit heavier now and I have no idea where I'm having dinner. One thing that is guaranteed - an early night! Life works on a different timetable here because of the constant heat, so I'll probably be out of step with everyone else!

Plans for tomorrow? The sequel of "Wall Street" starts in cinemas, so I'll try and find one nearby and beat the heat. I have a ticket on the Singapore flyer and I'll probably head over there at night for some spectacular photography. Heading to the Flyer will take me past the F1 track and also my grandstand, so look out for pics of those!

T minus 2 days and counting

Well a busy Friday and a long weekend visiting the folks and here I am - 2 days out.

Rain does amazing things to a rural area. Everyone I spoke to in Grenfell has that spring in their step, confidence is sky-high for a bumper harvest.

After the recent long drought, many out there had almost forgotten what a running creek or a full farm dam looked like.

I can imagine the region would be a stunning sight from the air, even from ground level it's quite impressive. The sheep and cattle paddocks are green and lush, the animals themselves are in prime condition and the canola crops are a bright golden yellow; in many places the plants are a metre high.

Just as well I was busy gallivanting about the countryside or I would've been thinking non-stop about the trip.

Did get a few things organised even though I was out of town. I've already checked in for Wednesday's flight and organised a better seat - I've managed to get a window seat in a row of two going over and I'm pretty happy about that because I'll have more storage space. While I was choosing, I found a really interesting website called Seatexpert that shows you where the good and bad seats are on a plane and why they're hit or miss.

The idea of checking in for an international flight from Grenfell seems rather ironic I have to say!

Mum bought me a laptop bag as an early birthday present and I also picked up a plastic poncho ("Poncho poncho man, he wants to be a poncho man"). Take a look at the Singapore forecast and you'll understand why...I don't fancy the idea of pina coladas and getting soaked in the rain.

Have promised Dad I'll get him one of the traditional Arab robes when I'm over in Dubai. Should be interesting to see a man who voted for Pauline Hanson dressed in the full Middle Eastern garb. I'm already getting one for myself so watch out for an appearance of "Sheikh bin al Adman".

Last minute prep tomorrow - getting some Singapore cash for starters, making photocopies of all my paperwork and then trying to get a full night's sleep. "Trying?" I hear you say - I'm sure my mind will be whirring as fast as an A380's engine. But there's another night between now and then...

T minus 6 days and counting

It would be a bit odd if a writer travelled overseas and didn't write anything about it. So the idea of this blog is to keep it as a journal of the mis-adventures I get up to during the trip. And none of you want to get copy and paste emails where I just change the names now do you?

I will have a camera handy throughout the trip, so it's not just going to be endless drivel. After all, a picture speaks 1000 words. Damn sight quicker to put together too.

I can't remember exactly when I originally came up with the idea to travel to Singapore and Dubai, but I think I was in the travel agent's office making the first arrangements about June. No, paperwork says I booked the flights on the 29th of May. Anyhow, what's a few days?

I knew I wanted to go to Singapore for the Formula 1 race, and anyone who knows me well knows that F1 is a powerful motivator in my life.

But that didn't seem enough. I actually wasn't that interested in much else in Singapore, so it would be something of a hit and run mission.

And going overseas for about 5 or 6 days seemed a waste - if you're going to do it, do it properly was my thought.

Then it hit me...Dubai. I'd seen a couple of episodes of The Amazing Race in Dubai and it bowled me over. How on earth could they build a skyscraper 800 metres tall? How on earth could they build an offshore island in the shape of a palm tree? How on earth could they build a place where you can snow ski indoors?

I've said to people since that the Dubai government obviously works on the "Field of Dreams principle" - if we build it, the tourists will come. Hey it's worked on me, so obviously they're onto something!

This trip seemed like a crazy dream at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it was possible.

And now it's drawing ever closer, I almost can't quite believe what I'm about to do. "One small step onto a plane; one giant leap into the future". And I can't wait.