Updates

And so the F1 weekend has come and gone. Zoomed by, to be exact.

Was down at the circuit on Friday. Wanted to take a bus to work because I could not imagine myself driving down to the circuit area without getting stuck in a jam or having a hard time finding a parking lot or worse still, both. My kind colleague suggested parking at XXX (Top secret. Interested parties please contact me separately to find out where I eventually parked. Haha.) but I had to be there early. And so I took her advice, arrived early at work, worked through lunch and drove down to XXX.

Of course, I had contingency plans in place just in case I could not find a lot at XXX, there were still YYY and ZZZ buildings I could try. I was in luck that day though, because I did manage to grab myself a lot at XXX. Sweet.

It was my first time at the Padang area. Last year I was wandering around the Bay Grandstand (ie floating platform) area and comparatively, there was soo much more going on at the Padang. Of course, besides watching the cars ( I mean, hearing them because they zoom by so fast that you can't really see them. Then again, you can see them on those giant screens placed strategically around the circuit, so yes, you can see them.), my other interest was the driver's merchandise! I walked around the booths in circles wondering what I should get because everything seemed so expensive. Interestingly, I saw many men walking around with the Ferrari plastic bags. I suspect they bought shirts and those definitely did not come cheap. (100 bucks and above) I saw a group of boys (they look like school-going kids to me) wearing the Ferrari drivers' shirts too. My conclusion was that they attend school at ACS.

We eventually walked to the Esplanade and realised that was a place where you can really see the cars because there were some stairs facing the circuit that provided good views. Silly me then whipped out my camera and TRIED to capture the cars on my camera but I failed time and again. My mum did not understand what was so diffcult trying to catch them on camera so I passed her the camera to try. She too gave up after a short while.

We then went back to the Padang (Hint: car was parked near the Padang) and I attempted to buy something again. After much deliberation, I settled for a Ferrari mug that costs a whooping $45 and we exited the circuit soon after (and before Practice Session 2 ended) because we did not want to get caught in traffic jams should we decide otherwise. While driving home I realised how LOUD those cars were because I could even hear them while on the Benjamin Sheares bridge. Makes me wonder how some people manage to survive the sessions without ear plugs.

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The "cannot-speak-good-English" saga was getting from bad to worse. I remember first hearing about it on a blog.tv advertisement on ChannelNewsAsia. Shortly after my colleague told me her children let her see the YouTube video and she thought it was so funny. I then went to watch the video myself and it cracked me up so badly. The 2 things that stood out were "horse-pee-telly-tee" and "you know, you know" (which got translated to Eunos, Eunos). One day I saw another colleague watching the YouTube video and her eyes almost popped out when she saw the part on "Leopard prings". I did not understand what "voomz" meant and my younger sister enlightened me that it means "loud".

Sigh. What's with our spoken English these days. I cannot imagine how Mrs Florence Tan would have reacted should we have spoken in this manner in school.

Mars

Ok I know people will want to start scolding me, but I need to admit that I watched Mars over the previous weekend (I've been wanting to watch this but kept procrastinating... was never a big fan of Zaizai or F4 although I did watch Meteor Garden... which I am sure a lot of us did. It started the TW idol drama craze!) and I turned into a MEGA HUGE FAN of Vic Chou. The drama is really wow. And Vic Chou acted super well in it. I cannot imagine myself telling my younger sister after Episode 1 that "Zaizai is very shuai!" but that was exactly what I did. Argh. It totally dosen't help now that I want to watch his other shows after Mars. His acting has improved trememdously!

For those who have yet to watch Mars, you are definitely missing out on something. It's not your typical idol drama (like those Rainie Yang *double argh* stuff) but has a lot deeper meanings about life etc. Highly recommended.

Ahhhh!

The season was really starting to get boring before Schumacher came into the picture. Then again, I wish Massa well. At least I will be able to see Schumacher zooming around! Whether I will be able to capture him on my camera is an entirely different story. I am still thinking about my Kimi cap, one year on. Heh.

Arashi's All the Best! compilation will be released on 19th Aug and I only got to know about it like 2 days ago. And guess what? The Japanese First Press Limited Edition is like sold out way before the release date. ?!!! I don't quite get what's with Japan quality cds. They cost a bomb (like 3 times the price of the Taiwan version) but yet sell like hotcakes. I need to get my hands on one before I can make my judgement.

And David Tao's new album in 3 years will be released on 20th Aug! I am definitely going to get my hands on it! Taiwanese version, no less!

Hokkaido Pics

I know this is so overdue....

This is the Takoyaki that is currently being sold in Ion Orchard. I stood in the silly queue to get them because they tasted heavenly in Japan and I thought the Singapore version would taste the same too. But I could hardly see the green specs (seaweed) in the Singapore version. Blah.

Hokkaido, Japan part 3

Some of the other notable places I visited included Furano Tomita farm, where I tasted the best grape juice I ever had in my entire life. It is not the floral season as of yet (Lavendar season is in July and Sunflowers season is in August) so there wasn't much flowers around except for those in the greenhouse. I am not a big fan of lavendar and so although there was a chance to try lavendar ice cream, I did not.

Otaru is a nice little picturesque town with great tasting cheesecake and this coffee shop where a cup of coffee costs SGD10. However, you will be able to keep the porcelain cups and saucers as souvenirs and there are Hello Kitty cups for keepsake too. (Hello Kitty is BIGGG in Hokkaido, and I believe in other parts of Japan too. There is even a limited edition Hokkaido Hello Kitty that is purple in colour and has a big fat tail. Everywhere we went, we saw Hello Kitty.)

Sapporo is the main city of Hokkaido with the large shopping malls where you can grab (and I mean, literally grabbing) your Burberry Blue Label bags and the Ishiya chocolate factory! I did not go into the factory itself but was just standing in the rose garden and managed to catch a 10 minute disneyland-like show. And of course, who will ever forget to buy the famous Shiroi Kobito white chocolate biscuit. YUMMM. I did not get mine in the main store itself as there were cheaper places to purchase them. Heh. Actually the chocolates are sold EVERYWHERE in Hokkaido, it's hard to miss them. Haha. I do not know how but I just simply cartered them back home. I bought so much of the Shiroi Kobito that I got scolded. Haha. But they are now almost all gone. I should have bought more!

Tidbits to buy in Hokkaido (YUM factor to the max)

1. Shiroi Kobito

2. Calbee Jaga Pokkuru (We only managed to buy 1 packet of this because there was simply NOOOO place left anywhere else anymore for packets and packets of this. Remember I bought so much of the Shiroi Kubito! When this tidbit first came out in Hokkaido, it was so immensely popular that every person was only allowed 2 packets of this. When my sister bought it at the airport, every person was allowed 5 packets. Arggghhhh but seriously we just could not squeeze them anywhere else already. It's a Hokkaido limited edition product and it tastes so good.)

3. Grape juice from Furano (Skip the wine because they don't taste good. We only bought 1 big glass bottle of this grape juice! We definitely had to check the bottle in and I was so afraid somehow it will break in the suitcase. Argh. Should have bought more. Enough said.)

Tidbits that can be bought in Hokkaido (provided you have anymore space left after buying the first 3 items mentioned above)

1. Honeydew flavoured Pocky

2. Honeydew-Brandy flavoured chocholates

3. Scallops snacks

Must-try food in Hokkaido

1. Crab, definitely

2. Milk (Full cream. Seriously do not know what the Hokkaido cows feed on.)

3. Beef (dosen't have to be Kobe beef. The ordinary beef tastes goooddd too. Like I asked, what do the cows feed on?)

4. Ishiya's new chocolate snack that apparently melts easily and so needs to be consumed on the spot. Can only be purchased in Hokkaido. I did not see the product in Narita although I saw the normal Shiroi Kobito.

5. Cheesecake in Otaru

6. Hokkaido ramen!

7. Sapporo curry!

8. Big, juicy, fresh, yummy scallops!

9. Food in Hokkaido in general is very very yummy. Remember even the onions taste sweet?

I have to admit, I made sure every single meal I had was Japanese. This meant that I stayed away from the angmoh breakfast of sunny-side up eggs (not that I eat them in the first place) etc and had porridge, noodles, tamago instead with miso soup. However, I got so sick of Japanese food at the end of 6 days! Haha.

Will try to post some pictures up at a later time. =)