Singapore F1...wow

Hi anyone,

Watched from home the inaugural Singtel Singapore F1 race on Sunday night, and from what I saw it looked to be a spectacular event. I would have loved to have gone, but as previously blogged just couldn't justify the expense.

As for the race, as most f1 races are nowadays, it was little processional. The safety car continues to be a wild card, who would have thought Nelsinho's accident would benefit his team mate Alonzo so well? Mark Webber's bad luck continues, he benefited from the SC but fell fowl of a mechanical failure, I doubt he would have finshed 2nd, but he would have had points. Poor Felippe, bad luck from bad design I guess. I would expect Ferrari will be trashing there automated green light system next race - it has let them down twice now.

I really like Singapore and I think the coverage was a great advert for the country. Maybe next year or the year after I'll get there... maybe :)

Our Dell XPS420 christened...and F1

Hi anyone,

Been a busy few weeks for us. Two weeks ago, our new Dell XPS420 arrived. I must say, I'm impressed with the Dell experience - much easier than building my own. The PC arrived 7 days after order, everything nicely packed up and in it's place. Installation was a breeze (well it should be hey :)) and it all fired up 1st go. The order, 100% correct!

I've since spent my nights since transferring data, setting up Flight Sim X (which runs very nicely on this beast) and coming to grips with Vista. Obviously, the whole UAC thing in Vista is a little painful, but reading up on it you can see it has it's purpose. The other prob I encountered was the Windows Easy Transfer thing - it don't work - so ended up mapping folders and transferring over the local network. Don't waste your time troubleshooting, no useful logs/errors - trust me.

Luca and Marco's christening was Sunday week ago, have uploaded some pics so check out the Album if interested. Another two Catholics in the world hey!

Uploaded this video of Aimee on a skateboard with her cousin Ryan taken at the start of March on our now broken :( Canon IXUS 75 , just a test really, it was an 88MB upload, not sure how big now as blogger did some post processing on it Don't play it if you don't have the bandwidth.

Watched the Melbourne F1 over the w/e. Only 7 cars of 22 finished. Hmmm. Plenty of carbon Fibre flying. Hopefully race 1 is not an indication of how the season will go for Webber. Good to see the Honda's back to midfield pace. Looks like the removal of driver aids like traction control and engine braking is a good move, might be interesting to watch this year to see how things pan out. As they say ... somewhere..."bring it on..."

Singapore F1 GP - highway robbery

Hi everyone,

Who's going to the Singapore F1 GP next September hey? I was until I tried booking accommodation. Can you believe that on top of the normal daily rate, service fee (10%), GST (7%) and the hotels jacking up the prices - that there is a further 20-30% levy imposed by the government. and guess who's paying the levy. Crikey, it's enough to make me whinge :)

An example, booking a normally $400 p/night hotel (4 star) has risen to $2100 p/night for the period of the GP.

I was looking forward to going to the first ever night GP as a stopover on the way home from Europe, even had Rose's by in. But now, guess we'll stopover elsewhere as I just can't justify spending $2500-$3000 SGD over the GP period quoted at another hotel for 3 nights (not including breakfast) .

anyway, end of whinge. I wonder how many others will be deterred by this blatant money grab?

F1 season end and Aimee

Hi again,

The 2007 F1 season completed at Interlagos on Sunday. I got up in the wee hours of Monday morning to watch it here - coverage started at 2.45am. It certainly was a thrilling end to the season with 3 drivers in contention for the championship. In the end, Kimi, who was third place before the race got the drivers championship - great result and congratulations to Kimi. Kimi actually had more wins this year - 6, while Lewis and Fernando shared 4. Great consistent season from Lewis, shame it fell apart in the last two races - but he does have time on his hands and will undoubtedly (provided the team follows) win championships.

As for Mark Webber, what can he do but to keep trying. The two red bull cars look very encouraging in terms of pace, just fail in the reliability mark - bleeding edge gearbox and hydraulics I guess. Hopefully, next season - the gremlins will have moved on to another team. Interesting how the customer Renault team did better than the factory team at Interlagos, though the engine is just one of many components I guess.

Here's a pic of Aimee and her "sunny glasses" I took on my N80 the other day - I like it cause it's cute. :) Click for a close up.

time for an update...

Been a quiet few weeks now we've found a place, actually had time to catch up with family and friends.

Had lunch with the radac's , back from the UK for a week or two to sort visa's. Boy, the hassles they've had - obviously very determined to re-locate. Sounds like bureaucracy rules in the UK.

Visited Jeff & Kitty on Sunday, poor Kitty broke her foot 2 weeks ago, so is getting around on crutches. Reminds me of my times on crutches and the hassles of getting out and about, small things like showering etc. become a real effort.

Mum & Dad did a drive by of the new house, told us the side fence has collapsed with all the bad weather Sydney has been having. Bummer, just a small hassle to deal with prior to settling in July. We can't wait to get in, a little crowded in our bedroom at the moment.

F1 news...Webber finished 7th, miracles do happen. Well done Red Bull, hopefully things a looking up for the remainder of the season. Not catching Lewis Hamilton though, definitely looks to me like he has lucked out with the car this year, bet he is the envy of most other F1 drivers, including Alonzo. "Them's the brakes" I guess.

Bahrain F1 GP - Qualifying, Result.. and F1 site

Update 19/4: Here's the result. Another good race, not too boring - great overtaking move by Heidfeld on Alonzo - probably the highlight. DC had a great race...well, until lap 36 - think he was up to 7th from 21st. Webber had a good race until 1st pit, and then until lap 41 when his car failed. Hopefully in the 4 week gap, the red-bull guys will get some reliability.

---

Just "watched" F1 qualifying via the live timing feed on the official F1 site, Mark Webber qualified 8th, best effort this year. Click here for the detail - but here's how it went:

1. Massa
2. Hamilton (1st time front row - nice)
   
3. Raikkonen (yawn)
4. Alonso
5. Heidfeld
6. Kubica
7. Fisi
8. Webber
9. Trulli
10. Rosberg

If you get a chance, register and "watch" the GP Sunday night (1130GMT, 1430 Bahrain). The live timing is full of good info like lap and sector times, track conditions etc.

The F1 site has a handy time converter - so load it up, then click "Convert to My Local Time" and voila, you'll know when to watch. :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter anyone :)

Thursday was very exciting, apart from selling the house, we had some great news from Mariana and Renato, that they are expecting twins. Wow - what do you say...amazing.

We've had a busy 4 day w/e so far. Friday was spent completing a build of a PC and laptop (Umart), then delivering to our brother and sister in-law. Had to setup the internet, network, desktop, wireless Laptop and a printer as well. Good fun for a geek like me :)

Saturday we visited our friends for dinner a some Wii action on a 50inch plasma. Very addictive and the graphics were impressive on the HD TV. Unfortunately - I was tired and fell asleep with Aimee....not good company I'm afraid.

Today, we went to a family easter get together with my aunt/uncle and cousins. Lots of kids, and Aimee seemed to enjoy herself running around, though she managed to get a small cut over her eye. Way too much chocolate was consumed by all. ;)

Just watched the Malaysian F1 GP, mostly boring but nice to see McLaren one-two finish. Mark Webber had a "consistent" race, placed 1oth and not lapped.

Have been experimenting with blog layouts, Rose prefers this layout, and I don't mind it, so we will stay with it for now.

Melbourne F1 Grand Prix

I had a great w/e (15-18/Mar) in Melbourne at the GP. Flew down with Jetstar, actually enjoyed the experience - no delays for a change :) Flying to Avalon proved to be hassle free and far less crowded than Tullermarine.

The GP was well organised as usual - I've been a few times before - this year there were no v8 supercars, so it seemed to be missing something. On the flipside, the 2 x 90min practice sessions on the Friday meant more airtime for the F1 cars. Seating was good, directly opposite pit lane exit and a superscreen - handy to watch the action.

Thanks to my friends Wendy & Martin who hosted my stay....

Australian International Airshow is on this week, so plenty of plane action at Avalon when I was leaving on Sunday evening. Heres a C17A and some F16/18's taken from the departure lounge.