Rendezvous with Hamilton

i’ve never been close to being a groupie till now.

Meet the Drivers’ Autograph Session

last night, the geek and i attending an invite only meet the drivers’ autograph session. both of us were only actually interested in lewis hamilton, but got the autographs of the other drivers who were present too since we were already there.

fans were told not to bring memorabilia for the signing. autographs cards were provided. just as well.

the autograph session took place at the singapore gp paddock club. the grandstand at the paddock club is above the pit lane and has plenty of action and the who’s who. if not for winning the online contest i don’t think i’ll be anywhere near the paddock club.

the set up is really plush, similar to a night club cum hotel lobby. free flow of drinks is available from the bar. music plays in the background and glitzy lights oscillates via a projected beam.

the highlight of the evening however was the man himself.

lewis hamilton has the best pr skills among all the drivers. he smiled at everyone and indulged his fans with mega watt grins for point blank cameras. he shook hands and greeted everyone. the guys from brawn gp were also rather nice and friendly. most other drivers were sullen and made it obvious that they wanted to get over and done with their pr obligations, especially toyota who were not popular anyway.

tomorrow evening, i’ll be at turn 1 for the qualifier. i’ll have my eyes peeled for the yellow helmet.

more pics to come.

staycation

aka holiday after a holiday or there’s so much to do in singapore.

just a day after i checked out of the hotel in bali, i checked into the swissotel merchant court in singapore – just for a night though. my sis booked a room so that we didn’t have to put up with one more-all-through-the-night road works.

living in hotel rooms are always fun.  the decor is nice, the room is made for you, bright sparking clean toilets – ooh i love hotel toilets just as much as the niece – and aircon all the time. i never grew up with the luxury of airconditioning so having any aircon at all already makes me feel like i’m in a hotel.

after dinner at central we walked around clarke quay and caught a glimpse of acrobats at the river festival, which the 4 year old correctly identified as “trapeze”. perhaps i’ll pop by the festival again this weekend to catch more than a glimpse of it.

before checking out the morning after my mom came by with the nephew and took a dip at the swissotel pool.

check out mr manhunt 2029

on monday my favorite pss girls and i spent a day at the zoo foc because i  obtained a corporate zoo pass. we managed to catch all three animal shows and some feeding times at the enclosures. i didn’t visit the outback enclosure considering that i’ve been to werribee and healesville.

white tiger feeding

the mother baboon held on to the baby’s tail to keep it in check and even continued to restrict the baby’s radius while multi-tasking. today, i noticed my mom doing that to my nephew by holding on to one of his legs, and multi-tasking.

rainforest kidzworld – a totally transformed “children’s world at the zoo”

another new feature – educational and scenic boat ride across mandai reservoir

sizzling staycation

the retail industry is quick to bank on (no pun intended) any situation and to push sales. first there was recessionista – smart buys in the economic down turn – and then staycation – have a holiday right at home under the price of a plane ticket. just last weekend robinsons had a staycation grand lucky draw to draw in the crowds.

i didn’t have to resort to crass commercialism to make my own staycation happen.

the geek took me out on a bike ride along parts of the changi beach park connector leading up to east coast part. it was quite an experience riding along side planes taking off when we were riding parallel to the run way. the connector between changi beach and east coast park was also very seamless, unlike the ulu pandan park connector i usually jog at.

my rented bike and his foldie

it was my first time at changi beach and a long time since i last visited that end of east coast park. the tarmac routes have broadened and become smoother. the new thing i saw at our u-turn was the cable ski park next to the east coast hawker centre.

it was my first encounter with a cable ski park. i googled to find out more. initially i thought it was meant only for wake boarding, but apparently it can be used for a wide array of water sports.

the very very hot day was later wrapped up with a rather hot bbq at a friend’s place.

i’m loving my coat of tan from the bike ride. i hope it lasts.