I'm shifting my blog to Posterous and will no longer be updating this LiveJournal. My silly adventures will henceforth be chronicled at my new location: http://abbles.posterous.com. See ya there!

Harbouring hopes of running into some famous F1 personalities, we decided to go on a quick recce around the F1 circuit on Sunday morning.

Was a wee bit disappointed that all the structures look the same as last year. The bleachers were placed at the same places, the signboards were identical, even the decor of the outdoor paddock club looked the same! Also didn't manage to sneak into the paddock areas either! :( Security was pretty tight even though most of the teams haven't arrived yet. (It's only on Sunday night that I found out that Ferrari had delivered their cars just after lunch on the day of our recce. Bummer!!)

Also had some difficulty navigating around certain parts of the track as the walkways were partially blocked off. Everything kinda looks like a mess right now, but i'm pretty sure everything will be sorted out in time for the race.




( More Pics )

Braved the blazing hawt sun this afternoon to catch Mika Häkkinen in action at the Changi Exhibition Centre (aka Utter Boondock Land - a place in which one should not attempt to visit unless you possess a set of wheels).

We got there around 11am, and the crowd was rather pathetic (understandable, given the remote location). There was a big tent for the VIP and media guests, which of course, members of the public were unceremoniously not invited into. We could only stand by the side and watch the privileged folks swig beer and eat hotdogs while we sweated our asses off in the sun. Just great. Why open the show to the public when you had no intention of hosting us there, Johnnie Walker peeps??

Anyway, weather gripes aside, it was still rather entertaining watching the ex-F1 champ in action. Mika drove a couple of laps in a Mercedes road car, then swapped it for a Johnnie Walker Supercar, a high performance two-seater. Mika graciously played taxi driver for the day and took contest winners and media folks for a ride around the circuit.  Lucky bastards.

And what did the rest of us get? A sunburn, that's what!






( More pics under the cut )

I was just leaving the office for the day, and when I was in the lift, this lady, whom i have never seen in my life, told me what a lovely bag I had.

We proceeded to have a 20 second conversation about where I bought the bag and when we reached the lobby, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

I have no idea who you are, but I'd like to say to this stranger: you really made my day today. So thanks! :) 

I was at the supermarket checkout line this morning, and after a long wait, it's finally my turn at the cashier.

Then this woman comes along, waves a box of candles at the cashier and asks if she could jump ahead and pay for her purchase first.

Her rationale? Well, she only has one item.

The cashier smiled apologetically and asked her to get back in the queue. I gave the woman a "go fug off" look.

The woman pleaded again.

Then someone behind me in the queue said "Sure, let her go ahead", and the cashier relented.

Now, I'm not entirely sure that what went down was the right thing to do.

One, I did not agree to let her jump the queue.

Two, there were tons of other people in the queue. If this is indeed a democratic society, then shouldn't everybody in the queue have a say in deciding whether this woman gets to jump ahead of all of us?

And third, what gives this woman the right to jump the queue anyway? So what if you only have one item? You're in a hurry, but what about us? We have places to go, things to do too. Is her time more important than the rest of our's?

Who knows how differently our lives would have turned out if we saved that ten seconds at the checkout line.

We could have managed to catch that bus we were meant to catch, we could have run into a random stranger who would change your life, we could have caught the last 15 minutes of Battlestar Galactica on tv etc. And for each one of these different outcomes, it could trigger off another chain of events that may have significant impact on your life.

The possibilities are endless. Think about it. Infinite outcomes. All thwarted. Just because you let some lady cut in front of you.

I was at IMM yesterday for lunch with the folks (we're trying to make it a weekly tradition), and all of a sudden, i felt a strange urge to walk into a sports shoe shop. Which is kinda weird, since I have zero interest in athletic footwear of any kind (don't get me started on those fugly sneakers with heels).

Anyway, I'm real glad I walked into the shop because i realised that it stocked Keds! And best of all, all the shoes from the Eleanor Grosch series were on sale! Oh yeah! If that isn't a sign to buy something, I don't know what is.

After much tough deliberation I decided on the Peacock design, which would probably look pretty cool with a denim mini. I know, i know, the design is from Spring 2008, but hey who cares. Cute never goes out of style.

The Hubble Space Telescope got back to business this summer after an intensive repair and upgrade mission in May by a crew aboard the space shuttle. This week, an exultant NASA praised the work done by the astronauts--"Bottom line, these professionals left Hubble as a new state-of-the-art telescope," said Ed Weiler, the agency's associate administrator for space science--and released a series of photos that offer fresh and spectacular glimpses of the interstellar realm.

This image, taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3, shows the Butterfly Nebula (or Bug Nebula, cataloged as NGC 6302), at the center of which is a dying star that once had five times the mass of Earth's sun. The wings of this butterfly are actually gas heated to 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and traveling faster than 600,000 miles per hour, NASA says. The nebula is some 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, within the Milky Way galaxy. The outer edges of the butterfly wings arise from light emitted by nitrogen, while the white areas show light emitted by sulfur.

(via CNET)

What can i say. Wow. What a beauty. This is really mind blowing, man. It reminds us how small we truly are.

Absolutely digging Surviving the World, a daily web comic which dispenses chalkboard lessons in Science, Literature, Love and Life.  Here's one of my faves. Heh.

As part of the Baybeats music fest, Scottish crooner Ally Kerr performed a half hour acoustic set at the Esplanade Concourse, backed by his lead guitarist Ryan (who kinda overshadowed Kerr with his blue blue eyes).

Wasn't really paying attention to the songs as I was merrily snapping away, but I think Kerr mentioned that he wrote one of the songs while he was lying on a beach in Malaysia and another one was about a toothbrush. WTF?

Anyway, the whole set was a bit too laid back and sleepy and wasn't all that memorable, which was a bit of a disappointment and i was gutted Kerr didn't play any of my favourite songs either. Boo.

Here are some pics from the set:

Date: 28 Aug
Esplanade Concourse