2012 Formula One Singapore - Concerts

Concerts were another big highlight this year, with Jay Chou and Maroon 5 performing on the days I could attend. I am trying hard not to think too much about how difficult it was to walk from Paddock to Padang, as well as from the Padang to City Hall after. Suffice to say it was pure hell with tons of sweaty smelly bodies packed closed together moving at a snails pace and bad traffic control almost resulting in a stampede and riots. Thankfully I have a short memory and only remember the good things!

For Jay Chou, we arrived late due to the massive crowd slowing our pace, and missed getting into the side entrance into the fan zone (ie front section of the Padang) by like 10 people (*sob*). Ended up at the much further section at the back and poor short people like me could barely see anything. Thank goodness for taller friends who can wield my camera for me!

Jay Chou was "ok". (Am I about to get stoned by the millions of his fans?) I didn't find his vocal performance particularly impressive, made worse by the fact that he mumbles a lot and didn't engage much with the audience. Still it was exciting to be there!

At first I thought Maroon 5 would be less popular, but I was terribly wrong. Not only was it just as packed walking there, the crowd this time was 90% caucasians who are not only taller than me, were disgusting enough to smoke despite us being packed like sardines!!! Even though we started walking earlier, we ended up getting there late again.

This time round however, we managed to get into the fanzone right in front! I was so glad that I brought my 70-200mm lens (well *Shinta was the one lugging it around the whole day). The shots are amazing. I barely had to crop it. Sadly we were quite at the side so you will only see the left side of his face.

More importantly, the music, sound and performance were brilliant. His guitar work and vocals were exciting and he engaged really well with the audience. He didn't need to rely on fancy props or dances, it was just him, his guitar and the band.

Sadly I didn't have tickets for the last day with Katy Perry. That would have been a treat! Well that's the last of my posts on Formula 1 this year. Who knows whether I will be lucky enough to get tickets again next year, and whether the programme will be as great! 

2012 Formula One Singapore - Como & Culina

Johnny Walker only had a bar this time. Whereas previous years they had a suite with Masa from New York catering. Missed them this year, but luckily there was Como who tied up with Culina, and they had the second best food after Jean Georges.

Extra points for ham off the leg!!!!

I had like 7 plates of this... in one night! Super shiok!

Also, extra points because they had oysters! These ran out super fast and in order to get some we had to ask nicely at the counter for them to start bringing out additional batches.

Caviar with tuna wasn't as good as Jean Georges, but hey, caviar is still caviar!

*Shinta loved the wagyu beef rendang. I almost felt it was a waste of wagyu, but the rendang was actually quite good and worthy of the good meat.

Beef tatare pie with truffles in it. As you can probably guess, quite a few of these went down me!

Can't remember what these mushrooms were but they were pretty good!

The menu was much more extensive than what I showed here, there were lots of smaller bites and the dessert was really well received. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of it, but their panna cotta version of the chendol with green jelly chokful of pandan flavor was a really big hit too.

This year's F1 had so much caviar, truffles and ham for me that I wonder what they have to do next year to match the same standard for me!

Food Bytes @ 2012 Formula One Singapore - The (wonderful) World of Jean Georges!

Although this was my third time there, it was *Shinta's first. Much of our time therefore, was spent checking out the food. Similar to last year's set up, Jean George's had their own restaurant in the main lobby area, while individual suites had separate catering arrangements.

The queue was a lengthy one, and last year a lot of items had run out because we went too late. Not going to make that mistake again this year!

Way too many good dishes on the list, so I'll just highlight my favorite ones. #1 is the Osetra Caviar and Creme Fraiche Beignets. Loved this so much, with the salty balls of roe on crispy beignets that burst open with fresh cream at the lightest bite. I unashamedly sent *Shinta back a few times to get me more servings of this.

Next to the cavair is the Crispy Sesame Calamari with Yuzu Dipping Sauce. It was good but not enough for me to allocate valuable eating capacity to it, but *Shinta liked it enough for thirds (or was it fourths?). No prizes for guessing what my #2 favorite was; Sauteed Foie Gras with Lychee and Black Olive. The lychee was.. interesting. It was so soft and mushy that we thought it was lard at first!

#3 on my list was the Black Truffle Fontina Pizza. Its difficult for anything with truffles to go wrong with me, and this pizza was just chockful of them.

#4 was the Wagyu Beef Tenderlion with Mushrooms and Grainy Mustard Butter. I guess ultimately I like classics done well.

The Roasted Black Cod, Asparagus and Miso Butter is worth a mention. Also a classic done well.

The second day had slightly different dishes, which is strange because the printed menu was exactly the same. Maybe they ran out of ingredients or something?! Anyway there was lobster done with noodles and lobster done on some bread base. Unfortunately neither could match up to the lobster dish of the year before.

Dessert wise, I loved the Chocolate Pudding with Crystallized Violets and Whipped Cream. The crystallized violets were amazing and added a nice crunch to the creamy chocolate.

I'm not a fan of citrus fruits in my dessert, so its not really fair for me to comment on the cute little lemon cupcakes. But I suspect the lemon taste would be a little too overpowering for most.

Eating here was one of the priorities this year. *Shinta and I had actually eaten at the New York restaurant itself earlier this year, and really enjoyed that. So yes a review of that will be coming up in due course...

2012 Formula One Singapore

Its the annual end of September post on Formula One! Was lucky enough to score tickets for 2 nights this year which meant that I could take my time to enjoy everything.

Food and Concerts were a big part of the programme this year, so I'll probably do separate posts on that.

Probably the most special thing about the tickets is the access to the pitlane. It was super crowded as usual. It's actually pretty cool being able to do the walk, but this being my third year attending, I didn't see the need to go twice. Hid upstairs gorging myself on food one of the nights instead.

The ladies from Ms Universe lead the pitlane walk every year. In the meantime they can be found at Jean Georges hanging out at a special reserved table, surrounded by just as good looking guys.

Simulator has been downsized from the full scale one. Still it makes an exciting drive and a humbling one especially for those who think race car driving is easy!

Oh did I forget to mention that there are actual fast cars? No panning shots this year because I decided to head over to the flyer to see if it was possible to watch the laps from there.

Yes, this year we went on the flyer at night instead. It was my first night ride, and I must say I was very impressed. It provides a really gorgeous view of the entire race. One of the capsules was booked by an alcohol beverage company (I forget which) and equipped with a bar inside, they went round and round the entire time without disembarking!

The night view of Singapore is really gorgeous. Do Singaporeans realise how beautiful it is? Something to be proud of.

The Travel Bug: Snowboarding in Ishiuchi Maruyama

After breaking my leg a year ago , was feeling pretty nervous about skiing again. So decided to pick up where we left off 2 years ago and try boarding once more. This time we headed to Ishiuchi Maruyama, just a 15min drive away from Echigo Yuzawa , the place we went to 2 years ago.

We had totally forgotten how to even start, and had to begin from scratch again. After half a day it more or less came back to us though! This is me taking a rest before I head downhill...

...and that's *Shinta waiting for a friend of ours to catch up.

Had a brilliant time!

2011 Formula One Singapore: (Part 2)

(continued...)

Food this year was catered slightly differently. Nobu had a suite open to everyone at Paddock club, while Jean Georges had their own restaurant at the lobby area, but not in the individual suites. It was super packed all the time and half the dishes we wanted had run out by the time we managed to get in.

The lobster is always good...

Not sure what these guys were doing, but I guess they are quite entertaining in their own way...

Decided to try catch the Big Bang guys at the Padang after the preliminary runs were over.


The walk was super far and the place was super crowded with tons of screaming fan girls waving placards and even an ipad!

At first we were stuck behind some barriers at the back, while the hoards of people who had probably waited for hours were in front. Luckily for us, the security guards decided to open up the front area and we managed to get a really good close up view of them.

Have to admit I'm not as familiar with Korean music as I am with J-pop, and even worse when it comes to Korean rap. Seungri I think is really good looking though!

Crossing my fingers that I'll get to go again next year!

2011 Formula One Singapore: (Part 1)

This year's tickets didn't come in a fancy box, but were no less exciting to receive...

Only had tickets for the Friday practice run this time, but the excitement was still in the air. We went early as usual to check out the events and take a ride on the flyer.

Cityscape of Singapore just before the sun starts setting looks pretty good although slightly hazy.

The Singapore flyer is probably one of the fewtourist attractions I would probably bring out of town friends to.

Highlight of the F1 is not so much the race but the Pit Walk. This time I made sure I took photos of the soon to be crowned champion Vettel's garage.

View from the drivers' seat?

Managed to snap a shot of Vettel as he waits to exit the Pit Lane.

One of the key reasons I enjoy going to the F1, is to try practice my panning shots. Managed to get a nice one of Webber...

Overhead shot of Hamilton...

to be continued...