What were you doing when F1 came to town?

Today is a public holiday in Singapore... Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all our Muslim friends who have just gone through a month of fasting during Ramadan.

So much has been goin' on since my last blog entry... Formula One madness in Singapore was just one of those things... the lead-up to the event was pretty nutz... so what was I doing on those 3 days when F1 was in town??

Let's see...

Day One, 26 Sep 2008

I was visiting a client's office at Suntec City and got to walk through the race track area... it was not yet super-crowded, but there were more people walking around than usual and I could hear the sounds of race car engines, but because I was walking past during "working hours", I didn't really take the time to actually stop and stare.

After work, I met with a friend who was also an ex-colleague of mine, and we went to Tong Shui Cafe at Liang Seah Street to have dinner. After dinner, we headed down to Carlton Hotel's Lobby Lounge for drinks and to listen to some 'live' music. There is a pretty decent duo performing there, Eric and Natasha. Natasha is from Indonesia, and Eric is from China. My friend and I share a love for music, and this isn't the first time she has brought me out to listen to music. We've also gone for karaoke together before.

Anyways, if you were to ask me what I thought of Natasha and Eric. I would say that I think Eric is further ahead in the game than Natasha, and it shows. He seems to have a wider repertoire and gives a more polished performance. My friend tells me that he's only been playing the keyboard for 3 years, but the way he was playing, he could have had me fooled!

Apparently, Eric is a pretty hardworking guy too, in the daytime he works in a music shop at Selegie and at night he performs at Carlton Hotel's Lobby Lounge. Not only that, but during their breaks between sets, Eric and Natasha would walk around and talk to people, my friend and I included. Here's where Eric impresses me once again, he has a warm, sociable and easygoing personality, and is easy to talk to... oh, and he's easy on the eyes too.

We could request songs, and when he sang Lee Hom's "Kiss Goodbye" at our request, I nearly died. His performance was decent, but I nearly died, because this is the first time that I am hearing anyone sing it 'live' and it is one of my most favourite Lee Hom songs... gosh, I'm sure that if Lee Hom sings it on 01 Nov during his Singapore concert, I will just melt in my seat... please don't get me wrong though... I do admire a lot of artists, but having been a performing musician myself at one time, I generally don't do "screaming fangirl" anymore... but hmmm, this November's Lee Hom concert just might be the exception to that rule... I'm making up for lost time here, so hmmm... LOL! :-)

But coming back to the whole F1 thing... while my friend and I were walking around Liang Seah Street and in the vicinity of Carlton Hotel, we could hear the sounds of the race cars... on her way to meet me, my friend had stopped to watch the race cars, and she's not an F1 fan (neither am I), but she said that it was still pretty exciting all the same to see the cars zipping past on the track... seeing it 'live' is just so much more exciting than watching it on TV.

Day Two, 27 Sep 2008

Not much to say about today... only that I watched the F1 qualifying rounds on TV today, and had spent the evening outdoors at East Coast Park with my Dad, who has sort of made himself my personal trainer recently. My Dad is a pretty fit guy. He looks like an Asian version of Elvis Presley (I kid you not!). Maybe when I can get a pic of him, I'll upload it here... though I'm not sure if he would want to have his mug shown off to the whole world... LOL! :-p

My Dad has always been an active person... in his younger days, he was trained in Tae Kwon Do under Korean instructors, and officially had a black belt presented to him by the Singapore Tae Kwon Do Association on 6 Jul 1969. He practised 7 hours a day in those days. This was before he was married to my Mom.

He used to take part in Tae Kwon Do tournaments, and brought down opponents with his swift and powerful kicks and punches. He used to be able to jump 10 feet high, breaking wooden planks held up in the air, and he used to be able to break bricks with his bare hands.

Recently, I watched a documentary on cable TV that was all about Tae Kwon Do, and found myself better able to relate to everything that my Dad had been telling me about the art all this time. Actually, now I'm wondering if maybe I ought to pick it up myself... just for what it offers in terms of fitness.

Tae Kwon Do wasn't his only sport though... before he took up Tae Kwon Do, during his primary school days, my Dad was captain of the Swim Team, and was lucky enough to have been trained with some of our nation's best swimmers at the Chinese Swimming Club, 'cos my grandma was working there at the time. My Dad is a strong swimmer, and till today, when we have family holidays at seaside resorts, he will swim out to sea and go "snorkeling" only with normal swimming goggles on and no snorkelling apparatus!

After my Dad married my Mom, and when we were born (me and my sis), my Dad stopped training in Tae Kwon Do, and started playing badminton instead. He would represent his company in tournaments, and has a few trophies at home to show for it. My Dad is now 63, but he's still a pretty fit guy for his age.

When we were kids, our usual Sunday would start with "Sesame Street" or watching the smurfs cartoons on TV, then ballet classes in the late morning for me and my sis, then my Dad would take us to East Coast Park for a swim, to cycle, or just to run around and have some fun, then we would end up having some munchies at McDonald's, or we would head down to the A&W's that used to be at Marine Parade Central for some yummy waffles with maple syrup.

My parents really did spend a lot of time with us when we were kids, they took us everywhere they went and they did not baby-talk with us, neither did they try to protect us from the world too much, but rather exposed us to things from an early age. So we grew up having a lot of freedom, running around speaking like little American kids (blame it on too much "Sesame Street" and too many Disney cartoons - haha!) and being rather open-minded people. They were not your typical Asian parents in a number of ways, and I'm sure they might have been criticised by their peers for bringing us up the way that they chose to. But that being said, they still did instil in us the traditional Asian values, so I guess we got the best of both worlds.

So yeah, Day Two was basically a family day for me, spending quality time with Mom in front of the TV and with Dad outdoors at East Coast Park.

Day Three, 28 Sep 2008

Today, I busied myself tying down loose ends for the Children's Day event that I was volunteering for on 29 Sep, and I went back to work to make sure that everything was alright for when my colleague comes back from his Reservist training. I've been so busy, not only because of Formula One madness, but also because my colleague had received the call from the nation to do his Reservist training in the month of Sep, so I've been covering for him and doing the work of 2 people for the past 3 weeks or so.

As it turns out, I missed all the action of the actual F1 race day, 'cos I only left the office after the race was already over. I was close to the race track area and could have just left things as they were and headed down there to enjoy the excitement and atmosphere, but I didn't. That's my Asian work ethic doing the talking there, so no F1 race for me.

Before I left the office though, I did check things out on Yahoo! News, and saw that F. Alonso had won the first ever F1 night race in Singapore, and that the evening had turned out to be one of thrills for Renault and spills for Ferrari. There had been some minor accidents resulting in injuries. But after a disappointing result during the qualifying round, F. Alonso was able to make a comeback on race day itself, and emerge the historic first champion of the Singapore GP and of F1's first ever night race.

Word now is that Bernie Ecclestone is pleased with the Singapore GP, and wants to encourage other countries to have their F1 races held at night too. The sight of F1 cars gleaming in the lights, against the impressive night-time backdrop of the Singapore city landscape makes for good TV. All I can say is thank goodness the weather held up, or it might have been quite a different story altogether!

At present, Singapore is slated to be on the F1 calendar for another 4 more years, and already there is talk of how to improve next year's F1 event.

So that's what I've been doing during the 3 days of F1 madness in Singapore.