Formula One Night Race

Along with a mate from school, I headed along to the Formula One last night. Friday was the cheapest of the three nights so we grabbed tickets. At $38 for a walk-about ticket it was a bargain. For the same privilege, a walkabout ticket on race night is $128. A seat in a stand begins at $300 up to $1,200 per seat along pit lane.


The atmosphere was electric and the city spectacular under lights. The 5km night circuit loops around an area called Marina Bay which contains numerous attractions such as the Esplanade theaters, the Singapore Flyer and the grandiose Fullerton Hotel. We happily walked around during the first practise session and found plenty of good spots to watch the cars rush past. The bridge across the harbour was a good place to see the cars hit 300km/hour and then brake for a 90 degree corner. In between practise sessions everyone congregated in the central Padang cricket ground for live music and waited for the late session to begin.

The highlight of the late session was a crash by a Renault driver in the same spot as the now infamous accident when Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on team orders to help Fernando Alonso, another Renualt driver win the 2008 race. An unexpected part of the race for me was the live music running throughout the weekend. Friday night was headlined by Katy Perry, who incidentally didn't turn up to the stage. We could figure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps she was stuck in a bar kissing a girl or trying to find a F1 boyfriend. On Saturday night, Travis is playing.


I didn't have my camera, as Rachel took it back to NZ, so have borrowed a few pics from Flikr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimiraikkonen/

Reminiscing about summer holidays

We have been travelling heaps lately, think Rachel is on first name terms with the taxi drivers at the airport. Our summer holiday in Europe was still pretty amazing and a great break. Can't think of anything better than driving around, camping and eating far too much food. Here are some favourite pics of our June/July trip around France then the UK.

Exploring the walled city of St Malo on the northwestern coast of France. The city was destroyed by allied bombing in the Second World War but has been put back to its original form and style, piece by piece.The American war cemetery at Ohama Beach. A place that is famous for just one day in history, when the allies captured the beach on D Day and fought to break the German's hold on France.

Out walking in the French Alps with Mt Blanc forming a backdrop. Fairytale forest and majestic mountains.

The late evening summer sun playing on the buildings in central Edinburgh .

Rach at Euro Disney outside of Paris... who would have guessed?

Back to the coalface

Holidays seem like a long forgotten memory now. We have been back in Singapore for nearly two months, and are well back into the swing of teaching and living on the equator.

Our local MRT/Subway station, about 5min walk.

The school year runs from August to June in most international schools, so August represents a fresh start with a new group of student to remember. This year it took me about four weeks until I could confidently remember all of the students names. I still have trouble remembered the names such as Jong In, Sang Hoon, Sang Mo, Hye Jin, Hoang Duy. After a while, I can put a face to a name but my brain is still in a western mindset. Give me a list of Jessica, Emma, Jane and Emily and it would take a week. I am teaching Economics, Humanities and Business Management this year. Humanities is my first junior class overseas. They are about 5th form, the remainder of my classes are 6th or 7th form NZ equilvients.

Other than school we have caught up with lots of people. An orienteering mate Darren was in town running a competition called the Hillary Challenge for Singapore schools. Was great to catch up and see a bit of outdoors stuff. The Minstry of Education in Singapore contracts the NZ Outdoor Pursuits Centre and Darren to run the competion. It is limited to local schools, otherwise the international schools would have a large presence.

I also competing in my first race in Singapore. It was a 5km race around the Formula One circuit which was closed to traffic. I managed a cheeky win, from a field of 4000 people. Pity none of them could really run, as it was a great course andfully closed to all traffic. I ran 16.45 which is slow by NZ standards but somehow fast by Singapore standards. I am always looking for a few more races to enter. I keep missing the cut offs for the big races. The Standard and Chartered Marathon/Half Marathon has closed entries at their limit of 50,000 competiors. Need to plan ahead when the races are so popular and not scheduled until Dec ! guttered