Singapore F1 Sucks

The roar of the engine, the exciting atmosphere were all there so I'm sure there'll be many people who disagree with the title of this post, but from a purely personal perspective I have to say that I was totally disappointed with the Singapore F1. Needless to say its not my taste anyway, but I decided to be there for this historic event, and quite quickly began to wish that I had stayed at home and watched paint dry. The problem with the whole thing was that ....


.... it was so poorly organized it was actually laughable. The entry gates should have had a sign above them that read Abandon all hope ye who enter here as once you got inside it was absolute bedlam. There was no signs so no-one knew where the hell to go, and piss poor crowd control to boot. People just stopped were they wanted to blocking stairs and passage ways leading to huge throngs of very unhappy people with lots of pushing and shoving.

The little police presence that was there was totally ineffective and just basically stood there as the crowd surged around them since there was bugger all else they could do, they even looked overwhelmed. The tickets advertised no outside food/drink there's plenty there, well that was a gross understatement as well.

On top of that the only view you got to see was of a fence. Forget about bringing a camera since it was of little use. Even if you had a high speed shutter you still only got to take a picture of fence, and thats assuming you could nudge your way in to take one since everyone was standing in front of it and blocking the view anyway.

Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh because my expectations were set so high after all the hype. But for me it seemed a totally laughable event, especially for something of such a high profile.

Lets see if they do better next year, but I won't be rushing out to buy tickets.

Singapore Brands Cigarette's

Here's an amusing artical from the Singapore Customs website. It had me chuckling for ages because its so totally stupid. In my opinion in ranks up there with bomb shelters in condominium's, and ash trays on motor bikes.


With effect from 1 January 2009, all duty-paid cigarettes sold in Singapore will be legally required to be marked with the letters “SDPC” (which stands for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarettes). The SDPC will be marked on every individual stick. From 1 January 2009, all cigarettes without the SDPC-marking in Singapore will be deemed illegal.Anyone caught selling, buying, or having in possession of duty unpaid cigarettes without the SDPC marking will be committing an offence under the Customs and GST Acts. For every packet of duty-unpaid cigarettes, buyers will be fined $500.

Can you imagine the police stopping you in the middle of mid-smoke and asking to see your cigarettes, its just so funny to think about. I wonder if they will apply the same rationale to everything that has duty paid on it.

Meanwhile, Ong Yong Kian, director-general, Singapore Customs, is reported as having said: "Our assessment is that it is unlikely that the SDPC markings will be counterfeited. This assessment is also shared by the industry. But nonetheless, we will be monitoring the situation very closely."

Which just made me laugh even more.