Because of the road closures, we gotta walk from City Hall to office...
There's bridging services but because of the jam, the frequency is like 25mins...
Some of my colleagues even worse, they gotta walk from Carlton Hotel!
Decals were given to those who drive to work and of course, they'll have to bear with the jam.
I think the people working near the area has got the most rights to complain about the inconvenience because of the F1.
But for some reason, there isn't much people complaining about it - I think we are just resigned to the fate that we are working in this area. Haha!
View from the window in my office.
Unfortunately, my workstation don't face the window :(
But.. I think this is just a small picture of the bad of F1?
Think and look beyond it and you'll probably understand why a small country like Singapore is willing to do everything to play host to such a big sporting event.
After all these years of nation building, i'll say our country have reached another 'stage in life'.
We are economically and politically stable.
Our port is good, our airport is one of the best and our airline is one of the most well-liked and the list goes on...
The next is really to make Singapore known to MORE people around the world, and i really mean MORE people.
There are really people out there who dunno what the hell Singapore is.
Some thinks Singapore is a strict country which bans even chewing gum.
Others know about us only because we caned an American.
And some worse, thinks we are part of China.
Managing a country is like managing a brand.
To be successful, you'll need to create positive awareness.
And to get the positive awareness, we need to change the idea of how people look at Singapore.
Sports is a universal language.
I don't think it's difficult to understand why our country is so keen to play host to events like F1 and Youth Olympics.
And frankly, I am happy that our country is progressing in an interesting way :)
- - -
So on Fri, the practice sessions starts at 3pm.
And basically, nobody in office got mood to work.
My colleague was saying that we can see and hear but cannot smell.
Another joked that we can burn rubberbands in office to get the smell. lol!
Formula BMW Pacific Practice Session
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Practice Session
So at around 5pm, with everyone not in the mood to work..
Someone suggested going for drinks.
So we went to Paulaner where we can smell and hear the F1 but no sight of it.
Seems like there's always one factor missing in the equation :p
And this is actually my first drinking session with my colleagues.
Yes, that OJ is mine.
Wanted to stay away from alcohol cos i can sense that i'm falling sick soon with the ulcers in my mouth and an impending sore-throat.
But i think i was really being quite a spoiler cos everyone was drinking.
And.... Some of my colleagues were drinking Riesling!!
I've never tried it before so i succumbed..
And in the end, it was about 3 to 4 glasses of wine for me :p
And we stayed at Paulaner till 10 plus and we caught a bit of the F1 practice session on the TV.
I'll say this F1-near-my-office thingy is quite a memorable experience :)