Racing and Ranting

29th September 2008, Monday

So the F1 euphoria and hype can now be officially over!
The buzz that had been going on for weeks ended up in a dramatic high last evening when Renault's Fernando Alonso beats the odds to come from 15th position to grab the checkered flag.
Joining him on the podium was William's Nico "Sexy Boy" Rosberg and hot favorite Linda..I mean Lewis Hamilton from McClarens.
Felipe Massa ended in pole position on Saturday's time trial but a miscommunication from his pit stop team cost him dearly and it was the very moment I switched on the TV to catch a glimpse of the race.

Overall the combination of the inaugural night race as well as it being a street race, most drivers got hard to acclimatise to the condition; maybe our humid weather plays a factor as well.
The familiar landscape of the Esplande, Parliament Building, Suntec City, Singapore Flyer etc surely look distant when a race track is running around them, but they surely compliment the race and we duly deserves the accolades from all over the world for a job well done.
I would be tempted to watch it ive next year but somehow it's still better to catch in on the tube especially all the little crucial events and overtaking as well as commentary.

While the nation was marveled by the racing extraordinares over the weekend, there were some other important sporting event elsewhere on the island if anyone gives a damn.
After Super Reds could only drew with the African Utd..I mean Gombak Utd meaning their precarious lead on top of the S League standings is increased by one point.
At 2 points adrift, SAFFC had the chance to get to the summit once again if they had won at arch nemesis Tampines Rovers.
The game had so much significance to it when Daniel Bennett squares against the guy that totally mutilated him in the Singapore Cup final last yeat, Noh Alam Shah.
Foo and I made a pretty last minute decision to catch this epic at the cauldron known as Tampines Stadium and decided to sit under the open skies at the make-shift stands across the pitch for once.

The tense first half saw neither side wanting to commit too much in attack... With Duric well shackled and Murakami having an off day, SAF lacks potency up front while the Tampines attacking trivumate of Noh Alam, Khairul and Qiu Li find the Warriors' defense in their usual sturdy form.
We were more fascinated by the vociferous yet vulgar jeering of the Tampines fans towards the referee and the opposition, and moan at little schoolboy mistakes made by their own players.
We then drew reference with our passive fans in Hougang which is world's apart.

2nd half truly spell the most entertaining half of all the live S League games we had experience so far this season.
After sustained pressure from Tampines in front of SAF's goal mouth, Shadan Sulaiman finally put the home side one up by popping an unlikely goal from 20 yards out to wild jubliation of the home crowd.
SAF responded by taking out poor Murakami with winger Mustaquim and pretty soon they level things up with a nice pass from Duric and Ahmad Latiff thumped it past Hassan Sunny in the Stags goal.
The former bad boy of local football had a great shot earlier in the game which narrowly miss the target but made no mistake when Duric gave it this chance, all wrapped up in a platter.
Tampines worked hard to carve out chances and had at least 3 likely goals cleared off the line and their 2nd and supposedly winner came from an in-swinging corner from Santi and Mustafic headed pass hapless Sharil Jantan but seems to be cleared off the line but the linesman had a better view and awarded the goal, much to the incense of the Warriors.
SAF's gaffer, Richard Bok tried put in some attacking option in the form of striker Ashrin Shariff but to no avail and Tampines wrapped up the game with a sublime finish from Qiu Li with a solo effort and a goal even I had to stand up and applaud.
There had been enough runt on the poor recently-nationalized Chinese lad but he surely possess a great right foot with accurate stinging shots...just that he can't perform consistent enough.

For the past week, I had been coining a chill-up session with TW who seems to reflect the same enthusiasim.
While a dinner was planned for Sunday, a last minute date with his lass' family means it had to push back to perhaps just a drinking (we are talking abt milk shake or root beer float here) session.
He did arrived at 10 in the evening but the bad timing didn't stopped us for having a hearty chat including he proudly showcase his rewards from the recent San Diego Comic Con where he met his idol, Jim Lee.
We then graced through the collection of "Men on Films" videos from "In Living Color" on the youtube, a real nostalgic remnants of our youth but also gave an insight to the missus why our parents were suspicious about our sexual orientation back in the days.
We then shifted the chatting to the living room so that she could retire for the night but at 12 plus it was still too young for us. (We actually finished by 2 plus which is pretty ludicrous with a full work week staring at our faces in mere hours)
We had some rollin' good times about our days of bewilderment, surely much like good wine, to be relish upon as we aged.
We also talked about the present predicament in life and our outlook of it as well as people we met at this juncture.
Finally about the future especially his which seems to tilt towards an overseas working stint which I had likely once his bond to the government concluded.
There are factors tying him down to Singapore presently but it sure is written in the wind if he would go globe-trotting again soon.
It would be quite depressing to not see him on regular basis as of years back but even when we are living in the same country these days, we hardly meet up as well... But the strong friendship and great memories that bind us will brave the tidal waves of time.

Japanese word of the day: モータースポーツ (Motor Sports) LTA will surely grumble at the way the high speed cars had discolor the directional arrows on the tar roads.