My first Formula One

The F1 dust has settled and life is somewhat back to normal. I am not an F1 fan, nonetheless I followed the news now and then. Two days before the race kicked off, I had the opportunity to be a volunteer for one of the companies involved. In return for my service, I'll get to watch the Friday practice session for free with a grandstand ticket. Not a bad deal and I 'sent' my representative there :P Naturally, my 'representative' went for the Friday's session.

Some of my friends commented what's so good about paying so much to watch cars going in circles? I thought about it, hmm... that's quite true. But those who have seen it 'live' talked so much about the adrenalin pumping at the sound of the engines, the atmosphere etc. Even my 'representative' who is not an F1 fan was excited to show me his achievements, aka videos n photos, after Friday's practice session.

Come Saturday night, we got a call from a friend who has booked a room at Swissotel for watching F1 and invited us over. We decided to pop over on sunday night.

Sunday evening 7.30pm, Swissotel 28th floor hotel room. Standing at the balcony beholding the beautiful skyline and soaking in the sound and action of F1 race below, I now understand what people meant by good atmosphere, adrenalin pumping. I too, felt excited at the sound of roaring engines. At that height, I could not tell who's who and what car that is but it feels great to be able to see most parts of the track. From my view, I could see 3 bends. But these guys are so good, none of them crash at the visible bends *alas* :P Our friend said there were 3 crashes on Friday night. It must have been a sight from 28th floor.

The excitement that I felt when 20 engines went 'boom boom' didn't last long. After about half an hour or so, I started to feel sleepy :P Haha.... F1 fans are going to hammer me if they hear this. But I just felt tired and bored seeing cars going in circles. It was fortunate that I had the television behind me. I was busy turning my head between the television for close ups and watching the live action below. It does feel special or shiok to be able to watch live telecast on tv and have the 'live' audio transmitting from below.

We left about 15min before the race ended to beat the crowd at crazy City Hall. Well, it was a good experience. Ask me if I will get an F1 ticket next year? Well... err, let me know if you have booked a room for F1. I'll be there ;)