Truth be told, I wasn’t too interested in this whole F1 thing till I had to cover it for work.

But all that time spent reading up about it and talking to people did help get me excited about the race—Singapore’s first Formula 1 race, and the first night F1 race ever…wahoo!—so I was fairly pumped to attend it today.

And I wish this was the part where I could say “and boy was it everything I thought it’d be”, but…alas, a motor sport fan it did not make me.

I think the first thing that did it in for the event was the weather. As beautiful as the nighttime cityscape was, the evening after a sweltering afternoon was unbelievably humid.

And, like many televised sports, it’s often better on TV because you’ve got commentary and the benefit of rapidly-changing angles. Live, all you’ve got is one sideways view of the track with cars zipping by every now and then. There was commentary over the PA system, but we had earplugs in because of the cars. You win some, you lose some.

But the peripheral entertainment was great. As they say, when the sideshow’s better than the main tent, your circus is on its last wheels. Okay, people don’t say that; I made it up. But you get the idea.

Behind the grandstands, the event organisers laid out a spread of tents selling team merchandise and local hawker food. And they had a local group, the Dim Sum Dollies come and put up a good half hour show we managed to catch.

Consumerism + eating + singlish jokes = honest-to-goodness great Singaporean entertainment.

Anyway, here are some photos of the night, where you’ll be able to see the empty grandstand seats which people abandoned for the side entertainment. And some photos of the pit and track in the day, from a tour I went on last week.

Where the crowd really was: watching the Dim Sum Dollies.

I think the spa saleslady who just called didn’t know she was speaking in the Sacred Language of the Intarwebs.

Woman: HALLO MEES HERE GOT VEEKEE?
me: !??! Uh, yes?
Woman: VEEKEE LAST TUM YOU COME OUR SPA MASSA.
me: Was that a long time ago?
Woman: YAH THIS WEEKEND I MAKE APPOINTMENT FOR YOU COME OUR SPA.
me: Uh no…
Woman: NO? NO MASSA?
me: No…no free.
Woman: kthxbai. *click*

I thought the point of owning a blog was not to be harassed by pressure to write. Much like I am, at work, where I write in an online space…much like this.

[11:42] vickiho: i promise to blog today
[11:46] jody: REALLY.

some time later…

[13:33] jody: how about talk about me
[13:33] jody: and how everyday you don’t blog
[13:33] jody: one of my leaves wilts and dies
[13:34] vickiho: umm. are you a plant?
[13:34] jody: metaphorically

[11:16:15 AM] Victoria Ho says: my blog is in a dismal state of unupdatedness
[11:17:21 AM] Angeline Yeo says: YEAH WASSUP WITH THAT
[11:17:28 AM] Angeline Yeo says: can u pls not blog abt ur rubiks
[11:17:34 AM] Victoria Ho says: *frown*

So! An update.

I’ve been attempting to draw. This is a difficult thing for me, having fairly poor hand-eye control, and almost no patience for most things—let alone sitting in one spot shooting hate glares at my right hand as it fumbles through drawing something really basic, you stupid hand.

But I’m coming along, somewhat. I started this whole drawing thing as a way to kickstart vague aspirations of having a web comic, so I hope in the coming months something preliminary will surface.

Also, I finally got my first freebie/perk from blogging. Having been a blogger since 2003, this is both nice yet acutely depressing. But I did get a big hot dog sign, t-shirt and Flight of the Conchords CD sent through from the HBO Asia launch of the show. Hurrah!

I remember checking out the band’s Wiki page about a little under a year ago, and it was rather spartan. It isn’t now, so you know you’ve arrived when you’ve got a full Wiki entry.

Speaking of bands, my own cover band did a mini performance for a group of friends recently.

We have some videos of it, but I’ve put that on Facebook instead of this space, for the slightly friendlier eyes of friends and, more importantly, the lack of anonymity preventing people trash-talking and stomping on our fragile egos.

But with some luck, we won’t be a cover band forever. There’s been a mad torrent of lyrical production flowing from some of our members, and I’ve (less productively) written the tune to the first half of the song “I’m in Love With a Ninja”.

And finally, I’ve squeezed out the remaining elements of focus I have and learnt F2L. If you’ve been looking to learn it instinctively and without memorizing a whole bunch of algorithms, this is the best introduction I’ve found so far.