I had passes for all three days, but I only attended on Saturday and Sunday. The F1 event in Singapore is a huge thing and the atmosphere is amazing, both in and outside the circuit area.

I saw this DTM race car on display outside one of the gates. It was the meanest-looking Audi A4 I’ve ever seen in flesh.

The weather in Singapore throughout the event was perfect. I went around taking photos of different parts of the circuit, including this area where walkabout ticket holders are allowed to watch the race.

And then because I was holding a media pass, thanks to my friend, we had access to one of the VIP suites at Turn 1!

That’s one of the Ferraris accelerating out of the pits. Actually the view we had was excellent if you’re merely enjoying the experience and soaking in the atmosphere. I soon left that place to look for a good angle to take photos.

I needed to go to some place where the camera guys were stationed. I did alot of walking and there was no surprise why my heels ached for a few days after the race was over.

Instead of overlooking Turn 1 at an elevated platform, I went over to the other end of the Long Straight, where I could see the entrance into the pit lane. Also, to the uninitiated, the final turn into the Long Straight is usually a high-speed corner!

That’s Travis performing at the F1. Note that it wasn’t Fort Canning Park. Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, BEP and other big names performed at Fort Canning Park, whose tickets were sold separately because it was a separate concert altogether.

During the race itself I was standing at the same spot where I stood last year, at Turn 11, because compared to all the places I surveyed, I still preferred this spot. I arrived late and it was already jam packed with people.

After the race, Backstreet Boys took the stage at the Padang and as you can see, the crowd was huge there! We were particularly critical about their behaviour (lol); ie. when they sat on the floor, etc. We thought they might be tired. Hehe.

After BSB’s show we had the chance to visit the F1 paddock and see the teams pack up. I was actually worried about taking pictures there due to obvious reasons. I also saw David Coulthard talking to his team members.

Just right before we left the circuit, we bumped into Lewis Hamilton – winner of this year’s Singapore GP – and his father Anthony. There was already a small crowd asking for Lewis’ autograph.

This year’s Singapore GP was a different kind of experience for me because of the special passes that allowed me to visit different parts of the circuit. Let’s see what 2010 has in store for me. He he…

Note: All photos taken with either a 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 lens or a 70-200mm f2.8; and where the 70-200mm was used, only MF was possible so it was challenging and fun at the same time! ;D

We chatted for a while, before I proceeded to show my documents. After getting the forms stamped and signed, I realized I had left out another set of documents that needed verification. I decided I would settle that the following day. I could go either go back to him, or to another place. I therefore did not fix an appointment with him.

When I went to a nearby coffee shop for my lunch, I saw him again so I invited him to join me. Things became less formal. We talked about what I’d be doing in Australia and about life in general. And then he related that his daughter also graduated from Australia, and was currently working in Malaysia. He said he didn’t really understand his daughter (who was, btw, single) well, and asked me how do young people think.

I offered him my views, albeit briefly. It was after all, over lunch and inappropriate to speak about things at length I guess. So that was it, not a single indication that I’d see him again after that day. The following day I decided to go back to him again because it was convenient. He was very happy to see me, a warmer reception compared to the day before.

He knew why I was there so it saved me the trouble of explaining. After we were done, he charged me only a minimal sum, much less than what I should pay. Then came the interesting bit. He said something like this; “I see you look like a nice guy. Do you think you can do me a favor? Make friends with my daughter, or introduce some friends to her because she’s at home most of the time and I’m worried she’s no friends”.

He said if her daughter were to expand her circle of friends, it was better to do it through people that we know, rather than strangers. “I now know you already mah”, he added. I honestly didn’t know what to do. He didn’t charge me the full amount for his services, and now he was asking for a strange favor. He then handed me a piece of paper with his daughter’s name and email written on it. “Damn,” I thought, “want meh…”

He said there was no obligation to his favor, just try to make friends and see how it works out. I said I understood, and that I’d see what I could do. As I was about to leave, he stopped me and guess what, he showed me a photo of his daughter on his handphone! I felt it was not very right and for some reason I tried not to look at the picture. But of course, it was shown to me like that already, and I wasn’t blind, so I saw.

What do you think? Since he was willing to show me her pic, obviously she had to at least look ‘OK’ right. It was a photo of her with her pet dog. Quite cute also lah. Both the dog and her. Anyway I left the place and immediately sent my friend an SMS saying some guy just pimped me his daughter. But you know what, it’s been about a year now and I have not followed up with that ‘favor’.

Feeling guilty as I might (for accepting a discount), I certainly didn’t promise anything. It’s probably better to let that girl find and make her own friends. What if she found out her dad had been ‘helping’ her? Sometimes such help is indeed of no help at all. She was 2 years younger than me. I didn’t think her dad should be too alarmed about her still staying single.

Its superior camera is very much unrivalled even til today. After a couple of firmware updates, the phone (including the camera) still performs like new, which really leaves me with no valid reason to change to a new phone…;(

While everything on the inside is working perfectly fine, its outer body is beginning to age. Suffice to say the phone’s taken quite a bit of abuse during its lifetime ;-/

The battery cover now needs to be taped because the plastic latches securing it have all broken, and the battery would just fall off.

How cool is that? Of course the tape itself needs to be replaced every now and then too and a masking tape is not very hard to find.

I’m pretty sure the phone will not attract thieves. I’m now carrying a second phone for my other number but its features are nowhere as good as the N95. If only I could replace the phone’s casing with a new one, like how we used to do on our 3310 (you remember that don’t you?) during the stone age.

Let me know if I could somehow refurbish my phone ok. I don’t mind spending some money to restore its glitter.

Thinking that it was one of those seasonal attacks, she was taken to our family doctor where she was given antibiotics and other meds for her persistent cough. When her condition did not improve, she was brought to a nearby hospital for an X-ray. The doctor there suspected that she had bronchitis, which startled me, who was 300km away from home at that time of course.

My family never had such medical history! How did this bronchitis even come about? I later learned that the hospital (medical center, hospital, same, no?) did not have anymore rooms for Sis, especially the single ones because her condition was contagious. An attempt at warding her in another neighbourhood private hospital was futile because it was also full house. Luckily a third attempt paid off – a private facility which was not too far away from home.

Because of the fever that came along, we were told that it could be dengue. The various diagnosis that cropped up in a span of just 3 days began to worry me. Then suddenly I received an update saying her fever had subsided. Thinking that she was already warded and that she’d have sufficient medical attention, I actually heaved a sigh of relief. And then the next day came the bombshell. ‘Pneumonia’ was by no means a small word! A quick check on Google with keywords ‘pneumonia’ and ‘h1n1′ only returned frightening results.

In view of the escalating numbers of H1N1 infections reported by the papers, not to mention the number of fatalities, I was worried sick. Within 3 hours after receiving that phone call, I hopped onto the next available MAS plane home, the last of the day, and the most expensive I had ever taken, plagued by anxiety and, believe it or not, fear. I was actually very afraid. I had never been that scared in my life before.

I applied for an emergency leave, and spent the remainder of the week shuttling between home and the hospital where Sis was warded. By then it had dawned upon us that it was actually H1N1 that we were dealing with, but since her infectious period was already over, the question of quarantine did not arise. She responded well to the treatment and the (mild) pneumonia that was detected earlier had gone.

And the fever did not return throughout that period. Her condition improved. By the 10th day or so she was allowed to return home. But because of her weak immunity she was given a further 1-week M.C. to recuperate. Thinking back, I was pretty sure god heard me when I said my silent prayers in my flight seat the night I flew home. Sis has now fully recovered, and everyone else in the family is as healthy as a bull.

“Actually I would prefer the window seat” I heard myself say today, instead of the usual “I’d like to have the seat near the emergency doors”. I traded off legroom for window seat today ;) I don’t usually carry much when commuting between Changi and KLIA, and I’m glad that airline companies recognize this. I paid a ‘Lite’ fare – a return Jetstar that cost a little more than a return Aeroline – where I can’t have check-in baggages. Today was particularly nice because I hadn’t felt this good about coming home in a long time. Important dates are over, the major stresses are gone and I really need a break. Even the lady at the immigration officer was being nice to me. She smiled and looked at my passport, did some stuff and wished me a nice weekend before clearing me. (Btw it’s common to have your occupation and company name written in your passport when you’re a working foreigner). I wished her the same and left for the departure hall.

I realized that everytime I walked through that metal detector I would expect the buzzer to go off. Today was no exception. I can never understand why sometimes the buzzer goes off, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve even tried removing my watch and wallet but I’d still trigger the detector. But today, even the metal detector ‘gantry’ (Singaporean’s most dreaded word) was ‘wishing’ me a nice trip home. I held my breath as I walked through it and when nothing was heard, I smiled at the officer in relief. He smiled too. My pleasant homecoming didn’t end there… I was typing away on my laptop (gotta love the wifi) when a hottie came and sat next to me. She was in a dressed-to-kill combo of white silk dress and heels. Looked like she was headed for some ball or something. The True Fitness backpack looked a little out of place but it was cute nonetheless. Turned out she sat right behind me on the plane. Naw no exchanges took place ;).

And my seat? No I didn’t suffer a muscle cramp. But it was tight sqeeze. Anyway I wouldn’t have sacrificed my legroom if it wasn’t a short flight ;) Have a fantastic weekend, you!

Shorttalk: Narrowband is to answer a call of duty tomorrow, for his sister’s graduation ceremony. Guess? Free labour!

I, for one, don’t do that. I always want to get the max out of my bedtime so I don’t like to be interrupted until I really have to get up. I’m also a light sleeper, so usually the first ring (which is also the lowest volume) will be enough to get me up and moving. So if I need to get up at, say, 0715 am, my first ring shall be at 0715 itself.

In my lifetime I have seen people who’re very much the opposite. They prefer to set the alarm to ring 15-30 minutes before the time when they would actually get up. There’d be a couple of snoozes. I look at that as a 15-30 minutes loss of quality sleep time. Why’d anyone wanna wake up and press a button (snooze) and only to go back to sleep again?

According to a friend, we can actually set a few alarms on a Nokia phone. Some people would utilize this feature and set alarms to ring 10-15 minutes apart. How does your body recognize if it’s time to wake up, then? If it isn’t the first ring, would it be the second? Do you keep count (in your sleep) how many times the alarm has rung?

Interesting isn’t it. Efforts should be made by scientists to study this behaviour and explain the cause and ways to overcome the problem. By the way, would or wouldn’t you call this a ‘problem’?

P/s. After 15 weeks of hardwork, stress and swollen eyes, it all came to an end with three important days. Don’t know how well I did yet, but I’m very relieved anyway! ;)

I’m supposed to be studying for an exam, lol. Til then, updates will be scarce.

Psst: Love the simplicity of this theme ;p

Music is my favorite remedy for stress. Never regretted flying my guitar down. (She had to be checked-in as an ‘odd-sized cargo’, something like that). Requested for ‘Fragile’ to be pasted all over. That said, I wouldn’t have thought of bringing it with me if I didn’t have a good hard casing to protect it. (Am thinking of getting a slightly cooler case from Bugis… hmm)

Ever wondered why when everyone says the world is not in good economic health, they’re still able to go about living like they’ve always been? Take a walk down Orchard and you’ll be left asking ‘bad times? what bad times?’ Friends are going places (holidaying in Japan, Bangkok, etc), people are buying stuff. Interesting huh.

By the by, I want to share some links with you. They’re my friends’. The e-commerce tsunami sure is big!:-
Steph’s – Little handmade treasures (Steph makes them all herself so check them out!)
Bello Cielo – Alotta Baju Kurung and Kebayas
My Sassy Tank – Fashion, accs…
Chilizky – Fashion, accs…
Just Shop Lah – Fashion, accs…
Sorry, nothing for the guys!

P/s. My friends and I were just watching one of MJ’s concert videos. Simply amazing! I think he will remain as one of the most inspiring characters of all time.

P/s2. Jason Mraz’s blog!

My lil baby girl cousin, who just turned a month old when I went to visit her two weeks ago!

I had an interesting flight back home two weeks ago. Behind my row were these two strangers, a not-bad looking Chinese girl and an angmoh who sat next to each other. The girl had a strong China-accent in her otherwise perfect English. And boy could she flirt. You can tell from the way she spoke. I fell asleep at one point only to be awakened by smooching noises. Howz that for a 40-minute flight. From the conversations that took place (I wasn’t eavesdropping, they were just behind me) I gathered that the guy seated next to them was the angmoh’s friend, so he didn’t care. Since it was a cheaper-than bus-ticket flight, I thought I shouldn’t care also lah. So I just sat through it.

Had lunch with my family. Dad loves Canton-i alot. Grandma came too. Met up with some old friends for supper and the next thing I knew, we spontaneously ended up in Neway. I love such spontaneity. We’ve come to realize that the response “Scared you ah?” can sometimes lead us to more than we bargain for. While at Neway I bumped into a number of schoolmates. It’s always nice to be home, isn’t it :) We stayed til the place closed, about 3 in the morning. I took the latest-possible flight back to Singapore that day, and was met with another unexpected experience. Someone had applied some kinda deep muscle rub or something. The smell was damn strong where I was seated (damn). Luckily it was a short flight.

My friends in Singapore treated me to a dinner too, which was nice. Not bad for a first birthday on this island republic. Anyway thanks for all the birthday wishes. These days with Facebook, everyone gets birthday reminders and it has kinda ‘revolutionized’ our life and the way we live, you know. You’ll know when it’s someone’s birthday, or when someone just got hitched (or ditched), went on a holiday, switched jobs, went clubbing, gave birth, or simply just how well a person knows his/her friends, which are completely none of your business but usually you don’t mind knowing anyway.

P/s. Remember SkyTrex Adventure? The new (bigger, better!) park is now open! Go check it out! I know I will.

Went down to Holland V for another round of live music. It’s becoming a weekly ritual now isn’t it. I don’t remember doing this often back in KL. Maybe because I didn’t actually live in KL itself. Traveling from Subang to KL was a chore. And Subang didn’t have places with weekly live band performances. Chilling out at Holland V was much better than the Beerfest I attended a couple of weeks ago. Music was much better, and the crowd was good too. Parking was a bitch, though that’s not really my problem. The band played, among others, Viva La Vida, Man Who Can’t Be Moved, I’m Yours, and some tracks from the 90’s like Save Tonight (Eagle Eye Cherry! Anybody remember them??), Wonderwall, You’re a God, One Week, etc. I thought they were pretty good.

My friend Chris has a brother who runs a bar in Clark Quay so we headed down there to celebrate our completion of phase one of our ground studies. Everyone did great. For the first time in my life, scoring 100% for a paper didn’t feel like a big deal anymore. But like the principal said, those 6 subjects should be a breeze. I had actually put in more engineering knowledge from university compared to the days when I was in my previous employment. Then again, you can’t really compare studying and working eye-to-eye can you. That exam aside, we had also completed our air grading, with everyone clearing solo by the 15th hour. The occasion itself is an important milestone for every aviator. I am hugely indebted to my instructor, who taught me more than just flying a plane. He became a friend.

We’re now well into second phase of our studies, where flying will no longer be required until we get our ATPL in four months’ time. It will be quite heavy because there’s so much to cover in so little time – which explains why we won’t be doing any flying at all. I also foresee that I won’t be able to return home as often because of the increased workload. Wait, that reminds me – I haven’t been returning home often anyway. Mom randomly called yesterday and asked if I’d like to go home. I thought she had forgotten that I’ve bought return flight tickets for next weekend. Sis suggested that Mom has been missing me quite a bit. I cannot imagine how things are gonna be when I go to Perth, later this year. We’re gonna be spending about 10 months there :-/

The trip home next week is supposed to be a birthday sort of thing, though it’s about a week early as far as I can tell from the calendar. Mom said something about the Chinese calendar. I will never understand how that works. A small in-house party was even suggested, much to my shock. I thought that would be weird. It’s not like I’m turning 21. I don’t know. Will see how that goes. Just now I was spending about an hour editing some recent studio portraits of Mom. I did not realize how much the creases and wrinkles have cropped up until I compared the photos to those I’d edited. It’s frightening how time passes without you even realizing it. I wish there was more that could be done about it.

P/s. I disposed of my old wallet with some money left in it. I faintly recall Mom once said that it’s considered good luck to have some money left inside. Another one of those Chinese thing, you know. Though not a staunch believer in these things, I follow sometimes. Anyway, anyone heard of anything like this before?