I could become a fan of the F1...

I spent the weekend in Singapore. I was there for the first F1 in Singapore, which was also the first F1 night race. The thought of going did not actually appeal to me, until about a fortnight ago, when a friend offered to sell his extra tickets at a discount. Fortunately, I have family in Singapore, so the exhorbitant price of accommodation (if there were any left!) at a time like this, and at such short notice, was not a concern. And so I decided that I would go, with my older brother and, as was settled a bit later, a friend of another friend.

It turned out to be a great weekend, with awesome awesome company (that's not a typo). Made a few new friends who are already planning a trip up to KL at the end of the year. More to look forward to in the next 2-3 months!!

On Saturday, I caught the AFL Grand Final match of Geelong v Hawthorn at Hog's Breath Cafe at Chijmes with Jeremy and Alistair, and was introduced to Garry and Anthony there. It was a close game, and it felt great to watch it with people who knew the game. Garry was the only one whose team was playing (Cats), the rest of us picked a team to barrack for during the game. In the end, the Cats' failure to convert their hard work into goals gave the Hawks (and more specifically, Shane Crawford) their long-awaited premiership. For lunch, I had a margarita lime mocktail, nachos and burger. Was so full.

After the game, Garry, Jeremy and I headed to the F1 track. We saw a little bit of the Porsche practice rounds, had dinner, then watched the F1 qualifying rounds. To be honest, the qualifying rounds were nothing too special, and it was fairly annoying to have other spectators walking past all the time, most stopping to take pictures and block the view of other spectators. And leaving the track with thousands of others was an experience most people would not have regretted missing out on. Granted, I think people were exceptionally irritable because it was, by then, half past 11. Hot + tired + sweaty + stinky + crowded rarely = good natured or happy people. :) It was so tempting to just not go the following night, because we were wondering if it was worth it.

But on the same time on Sunday night, having witnessed the race proper, I began to understand what the hype is about. Having had lunch with my brother, Garry, Jeremy, and 2 others that I met that day: Mabel and Ash, Garry and I decided to forgo the amateur races in favour of hanging out with the rest and only headed to the track at 6pm for the 8pm race. And the events of the night had the crowd on the edge of their seats. Nelson Piquet crashed his car on the straight near our seats, and that was the first of a series of unrelated events which culminated in Fernando Alonso winning the first ever F1 night race (coincidentally, I was wearing my Spain Euro 2008 jersey that night. I will probably continue supporting Alonso now...). Alonso had started 15th on the grid on Sunday after his car engine failed during qualifiers the previous night, and was extremely lucky that his pitting strategy suited the circumstances as the night unfolded. Nico Rosberg, who placed 3rd in the Australian leg in Melbourne earlier this year, improved his best standing to second when he finished behind Alonso in Singapore. Also a coincidence is the fact that this year's Australian GP is the first that I took enough of an interest in to watch a part of. At the end of the race, we got to walk along the track and snapped lots of photos of worn curbs, scrapped walls, and debris. Whoever thought that worn curbs and speed bumps could be so fascinating! We took our time leaving so that most of the crowd left before us.

All in all, if we were to go again next year, we would only get tickets for the final day. It was, to us, the most worth-it. It was an unforgettable experience, made more so by the fact that I got to meet great people. Oh, and Liverpool won, and Torres scored both goals!