Another confession time - these are almost coming weekly - I am a massive, massive sports fan. Back at home, I'd be watching at least one live game of something every week, followed by hours and hours of sport of the course of the week. Football, rugby, athletics, cricket - you name it, I watch it.
I've always had a big love for Formula 1. My Dad brought all of us up on it - to the point where if I heard the Italian national anthem in any other context, I'd ask why they were playing the "Ferrari song". Living far from Silverstone, I've never got the chance to watch F1 live, but since moving to Singapore, that dream has become a reality.
We were lucky enough to be able to get Bay Grandstand tickets over the whole weekend (we went with a friend's dad who preferred to have a seat). The Bay Grandstand is situated pretty much inside the track and faces out onto amazing views of the Art & Science Museum and Marina Bay Sands hotel.
Included in our ticket price was access to both Zones 3 & 4, where the majority of the entertainment was taking place. It also meant we could walk right up to the barriers to see and hear the cars going past at such close range. If you do ever go to an F1 event - one word of warning - take earplugs. The noise is incredibly deafening. One member of our party was adamant he wouldn't wear earplugs, but the noise managed to persuade him otherwise. Avoid trying to have any form of conversation too while the races are taking place!
The Singapore GP takes place over a 3 day weekend in September and is F1's only night-time street circuit - making it such an incredible event. There are several different races held over the weekend, from practice and qualifying to the Porsche Carrera Cup and GP2. There was pretty much a race on every couple of hours or so, giving us enough time to explore the circuit without missing out.
We were also in a pretty good spot for the drivers' parade before the main race. Managed to snap some decent photos of Hamilton and Schumacher - but I was too busy girly-screaming for Webber and Button to get a picture.
The entertainment was also fantastic and pretty cheap for the price of a normal gig in Singapore. On Saturday night, we managed to get pretty near the front for Maroon 5 and Sunday night was Katy Perry. James was pretty disappointed that he didn't manage to catch Bananarama - for some reason, he developed a weird obsession with them over the weekend.
Overall, an exhaustingly fast-paced and eventful weekend! Over the weekend, it was announced that Singapore has been awarded the race until 2017 - so definitely looking forward to seeing more years. Next year, we're already talking about booking out a hotel room to watch it in style.
In other news, I've managed to get myself a job, so I'm really looking forward to starting that & doing something productive. We also have tentative plans to head to Bali this weekend - aiming to become a surfer extraordinaire in 3 days.
Nade x
I have a confession to make. I'm a secret lover of the Daily Mail column of shame. You know, the column down the right hand side of the website that is completely full of unnecessary stories about TOWIE's Lauren Goodger and baby Harper Beckham. It is shamefully addictive and fuels my love for the Duchess of Cambridge aka Kate Middleton.
Click on the Daily Mail's website at any given time and it is full of pictures of her - cheering on Olympians at the Velodrome, walking her dog in Kensington Gardens and, most recently, on her Royal Visit to Singapore.
I knew I couldn't pass up this opportunity to sneak a peek of her (mainly to see what she was wearing and to see if she actually was that skinny in real life) so bright and early, we headed down to Gardens by the Bay, along with a few thousand other fans.
The Gardens by the Bay is a fascinating concept - it's a park built on reclaimed land right next to Marina Bay, created to turn Singapore into a "city in a garden". Recently opened, it consists of 3 gardens and conservatories which you can walk in, with further plans for shops, galleries and restaurants to open in the future.
The giant Avatar-esque structures that you can see above are known as Supertrees. They range from 25-50 ft in height and are used to mimic the key functions of real trees - they collect solar energy and rainfall to use as irrigation. There is also an incredible walkway with a restaurant planned at the top of the tallest.
As expected, the Duchess looked absolutely stunning and not as crazy-skinny as people claim (well, as the Daily Mail claims). Judging by the thousands that turned out, the amount of photographers and the screams/cheers that went up, the younger Royals are pretty popular over here. It brought a little bit of the UK into Singapore and I'm glad that I was a part of it.
Nade x
In between all the job hunting this week, I've actually found the time to do something a little bit more cultural. The weather this week has been bizarre - it started raining on Monday morning and pretty much didn't stop until Friday afternoon & I was getting a little bit of cabin fever. A friend let me know about The Wedding Dress exhibition being held at the National Museum of Singapore, so after confusing James a bit ("you're off to look at other people's wedding dresses...ok, THAT'S normal") Lisa and I headed off, accompanied by massive golf umbrellas.
The Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion (to give it it's official title) is a travelling exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition has various dresses from different periods of time and has a detailed history for each. We were lucky enough to get there just as a guided tour was starting & the guide was hilarious - she totally knew her stuff and made the group feel comfortable.
The dresses ranged from Victorian-era to modern day and gave a detailed history of the economic and social conditions at the time. My absolute favourite was either the Vera Wang (absolute dream dress) or Gwen Stefani's, which included a velcro train that she could rip off for dancing!
Totally worth the S$11 entrance fee and it was nice to get out of the rain and do something cultural. I believe once the exhibition finishes in Singapore at the end of October, it's moving onto Perth, so I may get a chance to catch up with it again.
The rest of the week has been a blur of rain, broken umbrellas, interviews and endless job hunting. We've managed to fit in a couple of nights out with some great people - don't think I will ever get bored of sitting with a glass of wine by Clarke Quay! Luckily the weather has been gorgeous this afternoon, so I've managed to catch up on some reading by the pool.
Hoping to head to some more exhibitions and events next week - we have a work's party on the beach tomorrow. It's a really hard life at the moment.
Nade x
