Singapore Grand Prix

There is a lot of buzz in Singapore these days with the F1 coming later this month. The newspapers have reports, Mediacorp has this dumb show called Singtel Grid Girls - full of bimbos, the bars have concocted all sorts of boozy drinks - all to make people spend money on a whole lot of hype.

OK, I went to the Singapore Grand Prix years ago!! Huh? What Grand Prix in Singapore?? OK, this post will show my vintage somewhat. Years ago in the 1970's, I went to the Grand Prix races in Singapore - YES, SINGAPORE!!!

So this one coming DOES NOT get me excited - this is part of my droll "been there, seen that and done it, so what's new" attitude.

The race track was up at Upper Thomson Road near Casuarina Road where the roti prata shop is located. The track was some long winding road with lots of twists and turns. There was this turn called the hair pin turn. The race track still exists today beside the jungle or bush of Seletar Reservoir. It is a favourite haunt amongst lovers looking for a quiet spot to have some nookie. The

HH and I have driven along this road a couple of times just for the fun of a car ride with our doggies and we have spotted cars at quiet spots with newspapers covering all their windows.

My godfather was a journalist with Nanyang Siang Pau and he had these tickets to the GrandPrix. I don't even remember if these were grandstand tickets, but we were seated at some stand with lots of seats and had a good view of the race track and the finish line.

I don't really remember much - Loong had been to one the previous year, so he was seasoned. He told me to get my notebook and to write down all the car numbers that zoomed passed us. Loong also told me to try to count how many times we spotted a particular car going around where we were seated. What would you expect from kids? We had absolutely no idea how many laps the cars would go around the circuit. We had no idea who these drivers were. We were just so excited to watch all these cars zooming past our seats. We jumped up and down and cheered lustily and loudly everytime some car we identified as ours came by. It was excitement when the chequered flag went down.

There was the smell of burning rubber and petrol fumes and the dust swirling in the wake of these cars that kept the excitement going for us.

I remember we spent the whole day at the races and had great fun as we could eat and drink all the junk food galore around. There was soda pop and yummy chicken sandwiches and cocktail sausages and all sorts of things to munch on.

This Singapore Grand Prix does not hold much excitement for me - the tickets are overpriced and the whole event is over-rated with hype.

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