F1 In Singapore

This weekend I went to the F1 race in Singapore. I have been following the F1 ever since I came to Singapore and so it was pretty cool going. I have never been to a race before and so I had no idea what to expect.

Before we left, Simple Girl already had in mind what she wanted me to where. I having no fashion sense what so every obediently complied. They have warned not to carry too much stuff and so I grabbed my Nikon D80, strapped it around my neck and we set off. We got to the bottom and I look down. Wow. I looked really bad. I had a pink shirt, a huge Nikon camera around my neck, green camouflage shorts and black socks with black tennis shoes. I said to Simple Girl, hey, I look really bad. Guess she never really looked at me because she looked me over and quickly agreed and insisted that we go back up stairs and change. I really didn't like the black socks, black shoes and shorts look, later I found out why Simple Girl had insisted that I wear shoes instead of my slippers. There was an article in the paper that Singaporean dressed bad and we need to put on a good impression for the 40K foreigners that are here to Singapore to watch this race. Later we noted that most of the foreigners were also wearing slippers. I will add pictures tomorrow.

Simple Girl and I live only 5 minutes walk from the subway station and the F1 coarse was only 4 stations away and so it was pretty easy to get there. (I do love where I live, my sisters should really visit) There was a slight crowd when we got off the train but it was not that bad. It was around 4:00 and so we still had sometime to kill. We were able to go through the "no bag" line and get in really fast. It is great that Simple Girl is not one of those girls that needs to have a huge purse where ever she goes.

Entering the track, I got a bit of the amusement park feeling like entering Magic Mountain or Disneyland. We soon had our first look at the track. Wow, you can get really close to it. We took some pictures and kept on walking and came upon a stand selling F1 merchandise. Simple Girl had heard that it was really expensive but when she saw the prices, she said "can buy". I looked at her as if she was crazy. Huh, you are going to spend 120 dollar for a t-shirt. I guess she didn't see the 1 and thought it was only 20 dollars. We were both scared and quickly ran away.

After about a 20 minute walk, we get to the grand stand where our seats were. I got one of the cheapest seats and it was really far up. The stand looked huge. I was sure that it had a capacity of around 60K people but I later found out that it was only 32K. It was coming close to 6 and I told Simple Girl that I wanted to get some food. We went back to the food concession area and I told Simple Girl that I wanted a beer. I lined up and the beer was 12 bucks for a very small glass. Simple Girl and I decided to share one glass. It was pretty cool for Singapore standard but it was still damn hot to do some much walking and both Simple Girl and I agreed that the beer tasted great. I really wanted to get another one but Simple Girl just didn't believe in spending so much for a beer. We found some hot dogs and packed it to take back to our seats. We got back to our seats and it was still early, and so we ate the dogs, in the front row watching a minor race. Than we decided to head for our seats. We climbed and climbed. The seats were at row 67. The very top was row 70 and so these were definitely nose bleed seats. We never reached our seats and decided to wait at the top because there was a good view from the back of the stadium. We decided to sit for a while and around 7 go and try to claim our spot. At 7, all of the spots were taken along the rail, but I spotted a group of short Indian's that Simple Girl could look over. We stood behind them and had a pretty good view of a turn. Later more of their Indian friends came back and began to crowd us. We decided to move. Thank out of luck Simple Girl found a spot along the rail for 1 and so I was able to peer over her shoulder. We were there until about 15 laps within the race.

About 5 laps into the race, I told Simple Girl that I wanted to move at around 15 laps. All we can see is cars pass by. I had no idea what is going on. Don't know who's ahead, who has crashed, we could only see that small section of the track. Than I heard the crowd behind me scream. One of the cars had crashed in front of the grand stand. I turned around and walked off to look. I turned around and Simple Girl was right behind me and asked what happened. I said, to her, you left your spot. In that instant, another girl jumped into her spot. It's OK since I didn't want to stay there anyways but I thought it was pretty funny. So we walked to the front of the stands were we could see the big screen TV. At that time, I saw that Massa drove off will the fuel nozzle was still stuck in his car. I was rooting for Massa and now with this mistake, he went from first to last place. OK, I was done watching. I wanted to explore the track now. Simple Girl and I started to walk towards the pits. The pits was suppose to be a restricted area for people with expensive pit area tickets. I wanted to see how close we can get. As we walked, we can see that every spot along the track that has the slightest opening had a crowd of 10 people deep trying to get a glimpse of the track. Than we finally came to the pit area. I saw someone their that was checking badges but Simple Girl and I just kept on walking and nobody stopped us. We got to the end of the path and it was great. Nobody was in this area. There was so much space right next to the track. We were so close that Simple Girl and I could talk. The noise of the F1 cars were amazing. It really hurt your ears as they go by. At this point, we had to put on our ear plugs.

After watching the race there for about 20 laps, Simple Girl wanted for us to go somewhere with a big screen so that I can find out what is going on with the race. She wanted to go back to the grand stand but I thought she was crazy. It was the last 10 laps and 60K people will be trying to leave at the same time. I being from LA, is one of those people who likes to beat the crowd. So I lead her to a spot near the gate that still had a big screen. We watch the rest of the race their and was able to see the last crash of the race. The race was over and we started the mad dash home. Since we were pretty close to the gate, we beat the main crowd. We were able to go home in less than 30 minutes. Which had amazed me because I had heard people taking 2 hours to get home.

Overall, I thought it was pretty cool other than Massa not winning. Everyone should go to a race at least once to experience the noise level. Next year would I go again? I don't know. If you want to follow the race, it is better on TV but you can' beat the atmosphere.

Things You Should and Should Not Do While In the Bathroom

There are some unwritten rules when going to the bathroom.

For guys, this is an unwritten rule. When using the urinal, look straight ahead. Never look down to your left or right. In the US, this would be a good way for your ass to be kicked.

If at all possible try to pick a uninal that does not have someone adjacent. I call this the one uninal cushion rule.

Always wash your hands after use.

If you are doing the number one, and output is good, try to give a courtesy flush.

So all of the above, I believe most people has been following for quite some time, but I just came back from the bathroom and I would like to add to this list.

Don't text while at the uninal.

Sling Box Sling Catcher

I have been a fan of the Sling Box since it first came in in 2004. It is of a particular interest to me since now I am in Singapore and can't see a lot of American television. Most importantly my beloved 49ers.

What's cool about the sling box is that it allows you to time shift and place shift. You can connect the sling box to a cable set top box in the US and you can stream that video over the internet to your computer anywhere around the world. In my case Singapore. This is the place shift portion. How it does time shift is if your cable set top box is also a DVR and so you can have your DVR record the shows that you want to see and than watch it at your own leisure. So this is the play shift portion. This is particularly important to me because I really don't want to watch TV at 3AM in the morning Singapore time. The sling box comes with a IF transmitter so that you can from your computer control the cable box which allow you to in live time change the channel. This is all really cool, but here's the down side. I don't want to watch TV on my computer, even my Imac. So I have not hit up my sisters to install one at their house.

Now Slingbox has come up with a "Killer Ap". They now have another box called a Sling Catcher. This device is connected to your TV and it is meant to catch everything that your Slingbox sends to your computer but now you can watch on your TV. One thing I would like is a hard drive on it so that it can stream shows that you want to watch and have it on the hard drive so that you don't have to deal with bandwidth and lag issues. I am pretty excited. Once it comes out my sister's may get an e-mail from me.

Clay Aiken Too?

I am shocked! Clay Aiken is gay? I thought he was the straightest guy alive. I almost fell out of my seat. How can someone that sings 80's ballads and such a big fan of Jesus Christ Superstar be gay?

Big Mac Attack

There is a story going around the Internet lately about a man who is obsessed with Big Macs. He claims to have eaten 23,000 Big Macs from 1972.

I would like to publicly state that I am not that person.

My First Facial

Yeah, yeah. I know. My brother will be making fun of me for this one.

It wasn't my idea, it was Simple Girls idea. She been asking me to go with her a long time now and so I finally agreed.

So I am not sure about the facial culture in the US but I can tell you that it is a big thing in Singapore. I have been to a few shops with Simple Girl to book appointments, and they are always fully booked, which leads me to belief that there is still pent up demand.

Anyways, for those guys that never had a facial this was the experience.

When you go there, they tell you to pee first. This is a message saying that you will be immobile for a long time. I didn't have the urge but tried to squeeze out what I can. Next they lead you to a small room with a bed, a counter and a sink and tell you to lie down. They do offer a blanket which was nice because they blasted the air conditioner. I was lieing there just waiting for ten minutes and I think a mosquito bit me in the face.

The girl finally comes in unbutton the top button of my shirt and but a towel around. Than they wrap a towel around my head. So after this, I can only explain what I hear and feel because I kept my eyes closed the entire time. They first start off with a light massage of the shoulders neck and head. This was OK. Than they go into what I best describe as "Wax On, Wax off" They put something on my face and wash it off. Put something on my face and wash it off, put something on my face and wash it off. No, the record is not broken since they did this 3 times. I thought that this was all they will be doing all night.

So she told me that I will be having a Diamond Peel facial and she wills start the Diamond Peel. She said that this will remove the dead skin. I said OK and I heard a machine turn on. Like, I said, I kept my eyes closed and so the best that I can describe this is that it like a small vacuum cleaner that sucks my face. I am not quite sure how a vacuum cleaner can remove dead skin but I am pretty sure that I can get the same effect from my vacuum cleaner at home.

After about 10 minutes of face sucking, she told me that it is time for the "EXTRACTION". So for you guys, extraction is just a facing term for squeezing the pimples and pores on your face. She also used a sharp tool and poked also. Than this was followed by another round of Wax On Wax Off. Than she said next is the face massage. She proceeded to massage my face. I swear that it felt like this lady had 10 fingers on each hand. However, this is strange to me as my face is not sore and so don't really see the benefit.

After the facial massage, she applied a cream on my face and turned on another machine. She said it will be cold. Man she was right. The machine was indeed cold. It was so cold, I thought she just took it out of the freezer, but surprisingly it stayed cold the entire time. I never knew that they had such technology with a miniature freezer unit. The surface was smooth and if felt like some kind of rolling shiatsu ball.

Than came the worst part. She told me it is time for the mask. I think by this time, my face was already raw with all the rubbing. My face has never been touched so much in my life. She put on a cream, which really stung. I was not sure if the cream causes this effect or was the the result of 1 hour of rubbing. Than put some kind of clothe over this cream than left. She came back 5 minutes later and said that she was going to apply something that was going to be cold. She put this paste on over the clothe. This cream was heavy. She layered it on thick. It was cold and it smelled like bean paste. Than she left and I was just lying there for 40 minutes with nothing to do. My eyes were covered and I could only just lie there. After what seemed like an hour, she finally came back and rescued me. I was about to jump out of my skin at that moment.

She removed the mask did another round of wax on wax off and told me that I was finished.

So what did I think? Really not for me. It is expensive and I don't really enjoy the process. I know Simple Girl means well, but I am really scared of the feeling of being trapped for 1 hour without being able to move or open your eyes. It like being buried alive in a coffin. Besides, just last week a bunch of the guys that I play football with told me that they thought I was 28 years old, haha.

Eating In Singapore

I have been in Singapore for 4 years now and I have been settling and getting use to eating in Singapore but recently a fresh wound was opened. Overall, I feel that I have it pretty good here being a Chinese American. My assimulation to Singaporean Cuisine was rather simple compared to other westerns.

Anyways, I ran out of Ranch and Italian dressing lately. I know that it is hard to find Ranch except for a few grocery stores, but at least most stores carried Italian. I went to the local grocery store(NTUC) and they had 3 types of salad dressing. Two were called "Salad Dressing" and the other was Thousand Island. Good greif, Thousand Island is like Salad Dressing 101. I haven't used Thousand Island since I first went to the US. Thousand Island is a dressing that my dad would order.

I proceeded to a store that I thought would have Ranch and Italian for sure. I call this store a moderate store because they do cater to a lot of foriegners, the Cold Storage at Great World. To my horror, not only do they not have Ranch or Italian, too only carried the famous "Salad Dressing" and Thousand Island. My last option was Jason's Market Place. This place is like Obi Wan Kenobi, my last hope. I did find both Ranch and Italian but it was not Wishbone, Kraft of Hidden Valley, it was Paul Newmans Own, which is always slightly differant. Anyways, beggers can't be choosers, I bought both.

I thought I put togather a Top Ten List of things that other Expats needs to be aware of.

1. Singapore Food Seems Cheap - But beware. I thought the same thing when I came to Singapore, but after every meal, I was still hungry. I have a Chinese Body but an American stomach. Singapore portions are small. I have to either order an upsize or get two orders.

2. When you go to a resteraunt and order Salad, expect that the only dressing available is Thousand Island

3. When you go to a resteraunt and order the Soup of The Day, expect the only soup will be Cream of Mushroom

4. When you got to a bar/resteraunt and order a beer, expect the only beer to be Heiniken, Tiger, Carlsberg, or Guiness and expect to pay USD10 for 1 glass.

5. Western Food is Expensive!!!! $$$$$

6. Want a steak? Beef is expensive. It is 3 to 4 times more expensive and the cuts are always so thin. You will never get a thick juicy steak

7. Hawker Centers or Food Courts - They are everywhere, but they all serve the same thing.

8. Buy vegetables at a Grocery Store - You have to weigh it at a weigh station before you go to the register.

9. Don't try Mexican Food! I have never met a Mexican in Singapore.

10. Lastly - BYON - Bring Your Own Napkins. A lot of resteraunts don't supply and so you will have to supply your own tissue. Most Singaporeans carry it where ever they go.(Strange that Simple Girl is not one of these). I have not taken up this habit either and so every time I eat, I end up buying a new packet for .30 Cents. So at home, I have a draw full of tissue packets.

Will My Sister Take Her Own Advise?

Last week I lamented over Nikon releasing a new D90 model shortly after I had purchased their D80.

My sister than promptly told me to sell my D80 and buy the D90.

Today, I heard that Canon has just released the 50D which is a replacement for the 40D which she just purchased not too long ago. So will she sell her 40D and buy the 50D? ;)