Flower Market

Every weekend, the parking lot under one of the elevated freeways turns into a half mile long flower and jade market. A few hundred stalls fill up the parking lot with every type of jade you can imagine and every flower and herb under the sun.

Laura’s picking out some rosemary.

Last fall we planted an herb garden along the side of our house and didn’t maintain it well. We thought we’d give it another try this year and planted more herbs and a few vegetables (thyme, sage, bay leaf, basil, flat leaf parsley, hot peppers, cabbage and even some cat nip for you know who). We’ve already harvested some of the basil and enjoyed a very fresh pesto with roasted walnuts and garlic.

Sunday Morning

Just a quick hello to everyone back home. The weather is starting to change for the better now. Highs are now only reaching 80 and the evenings are much cooler.

Photos: Laura enjoying a Sunday morning coffee and a photo of our new ride.

Singapore Grand Prix Photo Gallery

Watching the F1 cars is the main attraction on any grand prix weekend, but there is a lot more going on to keep you entertained throughout the day.  The racing started around 3PM each day and went until late into the night.  Between races you had plenty of other activities to keep you busy.

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Our view of turn 16 from our grand stand seats.

My view from the Esplanade Waterfront Grand stand.  Good seats, but they were about to get better.

A Porsche GT3 making its way around corner 17 for a 2m22s lap.  For perspective the F1 cars were lapping in the 1m44s range.

One of the Astons making its way around turn 17.  These guys were lapping around 2m35s.

Another GT3.

Kangaroo TV.  I can’t say enough good about this little device.  You can rent them for the weekend at most F1 circuits.  This great little hand-held monitor gives you a completely interactive experience throughout the race weekend.  You can choose to watch the race from a number of different views, you can ride on-board with any driver, you can listen to pit-to-car transmissions, and watch replays at any time.  Just rent it and wear it around your neck to stay constantly in touch with the happenings on and around the track.  I will never go to another race without renting one of these.

We ended up giving away our good grandstand seats for these GREAT front row seats in the general admission area.  We were camped out here from 2:30PM until 11PM.

Our view from the general admission area.

Taking to the track after the race.

We headed out onto the track maybe a few minutes before we were supposed to, but how else can you get the whole track to yourself?

We decided to promote ourselves to course marshals and jumped into the back of the marshal’s truck.  Good Great times.

Good night Singapore.

See you next year in Singapore

*Notice – If you’re not a Formula One fan this post might be a little boring.

The 550ft high Singapore Flyer overlooks most of the Marina Bay Circuit.

This was an event like no other.  200 mph cars racing under the lights and through the streets of Singapore.  It was one of the best backdrops for any sporting even I’ve ever seen.  There were events preceding the race throughout Singapore, but we weren’t able to attend the track events until Saturday morning.  Saturday and Sunday were filled with activities on and off the track from 1PM until well past midnight.  Racing activities stopped around 11PM each night, but that is when the bands, restaurants and clubs just started going.

I love F1 racing thiiiiiiis much.  The Singapore skyline is in the background.

We made it to the track each day around 2PM and left ten hours later, sunburned, dehydrated and exhausted.  The days were filled with racing from Aston Martins, Porsche 911 GT3s and Formula BMWs and each day was capped off by the running of the F1 cars.  Formula One racing and anything associated with it can cost a fortune so we were quite restricted in grand stand seating.  Seating ranged from $100 general admission walk around tickets to more than $2500 for spots in the prime grand stands.  We chose the low end grand stands which offered a good view, access to a large television monitor and a view of a couple low speed corners.  They were good for the price we paid.

The track runs in front of some of Singapore’s most famous landmarks.

We sat in the stands for qualifying, but found a VERY, VERY good spot in the general admission area for the race so we gave our grand stand seats away to a family that needed the seats more than we did.  We moved some of the barriers around to get an even better seat and then we camped out there from 2:30 until 11PM.

Dan making the first pit stop.  Every good trip starts with a stop at Starbucks.

Lunch at The Prata Cafe before the race.

Dan loving our grandstand seats.