Formula One Straight From the Pit Grandstand
8-10 April, 2011
I was so exhausted and i still can feel bodyaches all over when i woke up this morning. Plus i haven't got back my usual chirpy voice. But that's OK coz am still enjoying the deep mature voice I acquired from cheering for Vettel on Quali and race day.
Since I've started lamenting on bodyaches and lost voice already, I might as well share our misfortunes over the weekend.
Day One:
This shortness of luck started during our departure from Singapore, Changi Budget Terminal. Our flight was retimed from 6:20AM to 6:45AM. Its awful that Tiger did not notify its passengers. During these wee hours of morning, time is precious because sleep is wonderful. One of my colleagues slept only for two hours just to catch this flight. Then much to our dismay McDo cash registers were not working so waited for sometime to be able to buy bfast. The worst part is when we lost track of time and when we looked for our checkin counter, it was already closed and we were almost not allowed to board. Whew! While others are sleeping, we are running. Thats how er started our day.
After that early morning mishap in Singapore, adventure awaits in Malaysia. After depositing our luggages in LCCT, we looked for a shuttle that will get us to Sepang without needing to go to KLIA which we found in an instant. But much to our surprise, the shuttle bus alighted us opposite Sepang circuit where we have to cross an eight-lane super highway with waist-high barriers that serves as hurdles in our sprint. Then we have to walk by foot for what seemed like 3kms to get to SIC main entrance. However, this unluckiness seems to halt once we were inside the grandstands. Eventhough, Friday is free sitting, diamond grandstand was almost empty during FP1, to my delight I was able to take photos without other cameras or arms or backs blocking my view.
Then later on day one, we had the much awaited public pit lane walk and as a bonus Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez are still there giving autographs.
All is well until we reached KL. We were able to rent a taxi that would drive us from Sepang to LCCT for us to pick our luggages then drive us all the way to KL Sentral for 110RM. Another mishap happened when were on a different cab and can't find the address where we will be staying. The hot-tempered driver dropped us at a wrong condo and even shouted at us when we are hesitant to alight. Sigh! Whattaday! That sums up our day one.
Day Two:
Day two started out well with a nice breakfast prepared by my colleagues friend where we are staying. We are able to go to Batu Caves and have a one-hout cab tour in putrajaya without any hassle. We are some minutes late on Qualifying-Q1 but thats fine. I even thought day two was perfect when Vettel out-drived Hamilton to get pole position. I was shrieking with delight because early on, i was a bit nervous if Vettel will be able to secure pole position. His recorded lap times during practice sessions weren't great. He was only rank 5 on his best lap time during practice. But again my doubts were put to an ease when he gained his 2nd pole position of the season. This would give me some assurance that even if it will rain on Sunday, he'll have advantage being the race leader.
Day two however will not end without our share of unhappiness. We had to queue for more than an hour to be able to board the SIC shuttle busses that would take us to KLIA where we will be catching our train back to KL Central. With this, we are not able to buy chocolates and other "pasalubong" stuff from Mydin. We weren't able to eat decent dinner as well. But our day did end well when we are able to watch up close the Earth, Wind and Fire concert in KLCC.
DayThree:
If vettel did not win the Malaysian Grand prix, our day three would e a pure misfortune.
We started our day getting fried under the sun queueing for the Driver's autograph signing but which ended in vain. Then we ended our day getting baked on a sauna-bus and gettin refrigerated on the plane back to singapore. Malaysia hosting F1 for quite some time now should have controlled the transportation and traffic flow better. On saturday, there are few buses. On sunday, sure they doubled or trippled the number of buses but should have not used buses with broken airconditioning units. There was heavy traffic jam so it took us almost two hours just to get to kLIA from sepang. Normally, it would only be a 20-minute ride. Worst part is, for more than an hour we almost died of suffocation inside the double-deck bus. And then once again, we almost miss our flight back.
With these series of unfortunate events, i lost 3kilos in just 3 days.
Going to sepang and seeing Sebastian win and having my own photo of him on the podium is however worth all the bad things that happened to us.
Since I've started lamenting on bodyaches and lost voice already, I might as well share our misfortunes over the weekend.
Day One:
This shortness of luck started during our departure from Singapore, Changi Budget Terminal. Our flight was retimed from 6:20AM to 6:45AM. Its awful that Tiger did not notify its passengers. During these wee hours of morning, time is precious because sleep is wonderful. One of my colleagues slept only for two hours just to catch this flight. Then much to our dismay McDo cash registers were not working so waited for sometime to be able to buy bfast. The worst part is when we lost track of time and when we looked for our checkin counter, it was already closed and we were almost not allowed to board. Whew! While others are sleeping, we are running. Thats how er started our day.
After that early morning mishap in Singapore, adventure awaits in Malaysia. After depositing our luggages in LCCT, we looked for a shuttle that will get us to Sepang without needing to go to KLIA which we found in an instant. But much to our surprise, the shuttle bus alighted us opposite Sepang circuit where we have to cross an eight-lane super highway with waist-high barriers that serves as hurdles in our sprint. Then we have to walk by foot for what seemed like 3kms to get to SIC main entrance. However, this unluckiness seems to halt once we were inside the grandstands. Eventhough, Friday is free sitting, diamond grandstand was almost empty during FP1, to my delight I was able to take photos without other cameras or arms or backs blocking my view.
Then later on day one, we had the much awaited public pit lane walk and as a bonus Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez are still there giving autographs.
All is well until we reached KL. We were able to rent a taxi that would drive us from Sepang to LCCT for us to pick our luggages then drive us all the way to KL Sentral for 110RM. Another mishap happened when were on a different cab and can't find the address where we will be staying. The hot-tempered driver dropped us at a wrong condo and even shouted at us when we are hesitant to alight. Sigh! Whattaday! That sums up our day one.
Day Two:
Day two started out well with a nice breakfast prepared by my colleagues friend where we are staying. We are able to go to Batu Caves and have a one-hout cab tour in putrajaya without any hassle. We are some minutes late on Qualifying-Q1 but thats fine. I even thought day two was perfect when Vettel out-drived Hamilton to get pole position. I was shrieking with delight because early on, i was a bit nervous if Vettel will be able to secure pole position. His recorded lap times during practice sessions weren't great. He was only rank 5 on his best lap time during practice. But again my doubts were put to an ease when he gained his 2nd pole position of the season. This would give me some assurance that even if it will rain on Sunday, he'll have advantage being the race leader.
Day two however will not end without our share of unhappiness. We had to queue for more than an hour to be able to board the SIC shuttle busses that would take us to KLIA where we will be catching our train back to KL Central. With this, we are not able to buy chocolates and other "pasalubong" stuff from Mydin. We weren't able to eat decent dinner as well. But our day did end well when we are able to watch up close the Earth, Wind and Fire concert in KLCC.
DayThree:
If vettel did not win the Malaysian Grand prix, our day three would e a pure misfortune.
We started our day getting fried under the sun queueing for the Driver's autograph signing but which ended in vain. Then we ended our day getting baked on a sauna-bus and gettin refrigerated on the plane back to singapore. Malaysia hosting F1 for quite some time now should have controlled the transportation and traffic flow better. On saturday, there are few buses. On sunday, sure they doubled or trippled the number of buses but should have not used buses with broken airconditioning units. There was heavy traffic jam so it took us almost two hours just to get to kLIA from sepang. Normally, it would only be a 20-minute ride. Worst part is, for more than an hour we almost died of suffocation inside the double-deck bus. And then once again, we almost miss our flight back.
With these series of unfortunate events, i lost 3kilos in just 3 days.
Going to sepang and seeing Sebastian win and having my own photo of him on the podium is however worth all the bad things that happened to us.
